Rose Hudson-Wilkin was just a baby in Montego Bay, Jamaica, when her mother left for the UK as part of the Windrush generation of Caribbean migrants seeking work. She didn’t see her again until she was nine years old.
“So many of my generation’s parents left their little ones behind. I didn’t know anything different,” says Hudson-Wilkin. “As I got older, I learned that I had a mother in the UK, and then I eventually met her. It was a big moment. I remember standing beside her thinking, ‘Oh, this is my mother, she’s so pretty’.”
Last Tuesday, Hudson-Wilkin’s mother, now in her 80s, was among hundreds at St Paul’s Cathedral to see her daughter smash a glass ceiling when she was consecrated as the Church of England’s first black woman bishop. Next weekend, Hudson-Wilkin, 58, will be installed as the new bishop of Dover.
After years of ministering in urban parishes in the West Midlands and east London, she will have oversight of the Canterbury diocese, stretching from the east Kent coast up to London’s commuter belt. There are pockets of affluence, but also places of “real poverty – particularly in some seaside towns”, she says. Brexit would have a big impact on the area, with predictions of road gridlock; and the movement of migrants is a major challenge.
“People are trying to get to Britain. First and foremost, we need to respond with compassion, and work out the logistics afterwards.” Her first act as bishop will be to launch an Advent appeal to help pay for refugee support workers in Dover and Calais.
Hudson-Wilkin is conscious of demographic differences between ultra-diverse London, her home and place of work for more than 20 years, and the area she will now serve. “I’ve always felt it’s important that the majority ethnic population has experience from outside their comfort zone. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, as I minister among them, if any pre-judged thoughts people have were just to fall away?”
Referring to her appointment, she “longs for the day when we stop having firsts. When we stop having firsts, then we will know it’s normal. So I long for that normality”.
“I wouldn’t want to set myself up as a role model, but undoubtedly people need to see it to know that it’s possible. And I was lucky to have been born and brought up in Montego Bay, because there I had all those wonderful, amazing images of people like myself in all walks of life. So it was very natural for me.”
Hudson-Wilkin has been outspoken about the poor representation of black and minority ethnic people in leadership positions in the church, accusing it of institutional racism. She is one of four minority ethnic bishops out of more than 120. The most senior, John Sentamu, archbishop of York, is retiring next year.
However, she says: “The church is engaging [with the issue], and wants to change, and that’s a good thing. It’s always too slow, and those of us who are in a minority will always want to see change happening much faster.” Institutional racism still exists in the C of E, she says, “but it’s not just a church thing. When you look across society, at any big organisation, you have to ask where are the minority ethnic people in leadership roles. I want little children to see images of themselves in leadership across society.”
Alongside her parish work, Hudson-Wilkin has spent the past nine years as chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and the past 11 years as a chaplain to the Queen. In her time in parliament, she had been shocked – “like many others” – at the tone of political discourse.
“I was always saying to people, lots of different people, you’ve got to rein this back. As their pastor, I would not criticise [MPs] in an open forum, in a public space. I’d get alongside them and say what I needed to say. But did I have difficult conversations? Oh yes.”
Asked if she is relieved to have left the parliamentary bear-pit, she says: “I would not use the word ‘relief’. I’ve always loved the people that I’ve been called to serve. In parliament, it wasn’t just members of both houses but also the staff – the security team, cleaners, the people who work in the canteen, the workmen. You do not just abruptly stop loving people. So though I’m no longer in that role, I still carry them all in my heart and will continue to pray for them.”
She enjoyed the pomp of grand parliamentary and royal occasions, but “I’ve been lucky to see people as human beings. So they’re human beings first, and then they’re prime ministers or leaders of the opposition second. And that keeps me grounded. Even though I may enjoy the state opening of parliament, it’s no more or less of an enjoyment when I’m standing with someone in the canteen, or a cleaner, or someone from security.”
Her last weeks at Westminster were marred by the publication of internal emails in which she raised concerns about homeless people in a subway near parliament, referring to the “ongoing stench due to it being used as a urinal”. She says: “I was very disappointed in the way the story was presented. Anyone who regularly used [the underpass] would know what I was saying. And anyone who knows me knows that I am particularly empathetic when it comes to those that are most vulnerable in society.”
“No homeless person should have to live in those conditions in modern society. In the fifth-richest nation, we have to ask ourselves why are we allowing people live in that condition. I think the focus should be on holding those in authority to account.”
In her new role she wants to encourage the Christian faith to be more outward-facing. “It should not be something we do occasionally or on Sundays; it’s a way of life, it’s part and parcel of who we are. And I want to encourage people of faith to ensure their faith is alive.”
That comes, she says, from her Jamaican childhood. “Mine was more than a churchgoing family. People didn’t just go to church, it was part of our language, part of our behaviour, it connected with everything.
“I learned my theology in the home and in the community. There, I heard ordinary people speaking about God doing wonderful things. Even though they had difficulties and challenges to face, they were not letting go of God. That spoke volumes to me.”
Her life story
1961 Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
1982 Trained at the Church Army college in the UK. Met her husband, Ken. The couple have three children.
1994 Ordained in the C of E, the first year it allowed women priests.
1998 Became vicar in east London.
2008 Made a chaplain to the Queen.
2019 Consecrated as the C of E’s first black female bishop.
