The church leader making history

Keep The Faith publisher/editor Marcia Dixon MBE speaks to the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover – a church leader who has made and continues to make history.

Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin is a woman, whose ministry as a Christian leader has been both impactful and historical.

Her landmark appointments include being appointed as Chaplain to the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2007; becoming the first woman to be appointed as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons in 2010; and being the first Black woman to be appointed as a Bishop in the Church of England – and first woman as Bishop of Dover in 2019.

Her ministry continues to make waves. Earlier this year, her book The Girl from Montego Bay: The Autobiography of Britain’s First Black Woman Bishop was published. Bishop Rose says the response to it has been “overwhelmingly positive” – so much so, that the book won the award for Autobiography of the Year at the Christian Resources Together (CRT) Awards 2025. “I went to America this August, travelling to different cities in both Florida and in New York, and the number of people who would come up to me after book signing or during the book signing to tell me that my story resonated with them was moving.”

She continued:

I think people have resonated with my upbringing. Although it happened in Jamaica, it’s the story, it’s the life experiences, the things that you did as children, and sadly also, some of the abuse.

The book also chronicles her life in Britain, her ministerial appointments, and her role in some of the pivotal spiritual moments in the history of the nation.

Born in Jamaica and raised in Montego Bay, Bishop Rose was called to ministry at a young age. She recalled: “I just knew I was being called to serve the Church, but, at the time, women were not allowed to be priests in church. I remember one of my bishops in Jamaica saying: “Rose, we’re Anglicans. We don’t do that.” In my heart, I thought: ‘You may not do that, and the Church might not do that, but I know that God does that.’ So, for me, it was making a promise to God that I would remain faithful until the Church heard the Spirit and moved with the Spirit. It took a long time. I was 33 when I was ordained as a priest.”

Since answering the call, Bishop Rose has slowly risen up the ranks. She came to the UK as a young woman to do her ministerial training. Ordained as a deacon in 1991, and as a priest in 1994, serving at St Matthew’s Church, she was later ordained as an associate priest at the Church of the Good Shepherd in the Diocese of Lichfield. She then became the vicar of two churches in the London Borough of Hackney (Holy Trinity with St Philip’s Dalston and All Saints Haggerston) for 16 years. It was during this time that she was appointed as a Chaplain to Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll, before her major appointment as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

Bishop Rose’s early years growing up in Jamaica have deeply influenced her approach to her faith and ministry. She explained: “The motto of Jamaica is ‘Out of many one people’, so I had the sense that, although we might be different, have different upbringings, cultures or ethnicities, as I was accustomed to seeing in Jamaica, we are all one people, made in God’s image. I also saw trust and dependence on God, particularly in the older generation. God was not some faraway being; He was right there in their midst, and I saw that being lived. It definitely made an impression on me and is something that I have patterned.”

As a trailblazer, Bishop Rose fully recognises that she is a role model to many. “There is a weight of responsibility that comes with being the first. You can’t let the side down and you’ve got to do 100% your best all the time. There’s no resting on the job, because others must come after me.

“I feel quite honoured by the number of people who have said to me: ‘Because you are there, we know that we could do that.’ I hear that repeatedly. That gives me joy, because that is precisely what I want people to be able to say: ‘If she can do it, I can do it too.’”

The Church of England (CofE) is currently discerning a new Archbishop of Canterbury, following Justin Welby’s resignation last year amidst an outcry about his failure – and those of other church leaders – to report a prolific child abuser to the police. Bishop Rose admits leading the CoE is a tough position. “I think it was Rowan Williams, a previous Archbishop, who is quoted as having said: ‘You need the skin of a rhinoceros to be in this role.’ It is a challenging role in many ways. You’re trying to hold together people who don’t always want to be held together.

“People say the good thing about the Church of England is that we’re a broad church. We have people whose actions reflect that of the Pentecostals, and then right at the other end there are those who try to pattern Roman Catholicism, and then there’s much more diversity in the middle. The person appointed to the role of Archbishop of Canterbury has to hold together a church that has all these various views and practices, and it has become more difficult now, because I think, sadly, we have spent so much time nurturing labels, and being identified with certain camps and groups within the Church, and that’s been a disadvantage.”

Bishop Rose believes Welby’s resignation was not just about his perceived failure to report an abuser.

I think the cry for his resignation was really about other things in addition to safeguarding, because more than 80% of the positive safeguarding changes that we’ve had, happened under his watch. A lot of the cry for his resignation had to do with people who were upset that the churches were closed during COVID-19; people who are upset about the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process that we’ve been going through now for so many years; the many who are upset with churches having no vicars; and there are those who thought he was no longer on their side, whatever that side is.

Personally, I don’t think he should have resigned on behalf of the Church, but he did, and we are where we are now. I continue to pray and hope that, through the Holy Spirit, we will appoint the right person. It will be a challenging job going forward. The Church is full of so many factions at the moment, which has nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Looking to the future, whilst Bishop Rose thinks there are challenges to overcome, she also sees good things ahead for the Church. “I think that a key challenge for the Church is to positively ensure that Black children and pink children and blue children and green children can see reflections of themselves in all walks of life, so that they know that they too can achieve and live out their desire, their calling, their vocation in those areas.”

Like many, Bishop Rose has been buoyed by recent research that highlights there is a quiet Christian revival amongst young people, but she has her reservations. She believes people often leave smaller churches to go to the bigger ones and would like to see more courageous Christians.

“When I’m asked what’s the greatest challenge to the Church, I always respond by saying the greatest challenge is a lack of confident Christians – people who are not afraid to engage with others about matters of faith, especially where it connects to daily life.

“There is a prayer we say at the end of Holy Communion: ‘Send us out in the power of Your Spirit to live and work to Your praise and glory.’ When we say this, we must take it seriously. What does it mean in relation to the protests that we have seen happening? How can we enable people of faith to stand up and challenge the rhetoric in those communities?

“Those people who are protesting, they have family members, they have friends. Where are the Christians in those communities who are saying: ‘We’re all God’s people, created in the image of God’? We need to be compassionate. We need to be courageous advocates. For me, it has been quite disappointing to see political leaders encouraging protest, knowing full well that this is going to impact those who are most vulnerable.”

When asked what legacy she would like to leave, Bishop Rose responded: “I would hope it would be one in which people will be able to say: ‘This woman was courageous. Her faith was deep. She was not afraid to speak truth to power, and she loved the Lord and the people that she was called to serve.’

“My faith is not a head thing. It is a lived faith. I would want it to be the legacy of the love of God, to be seen in my actions and in the way I relate to all of God’s people, young and old, Black and white, gay, straight, pink, blue, you know. Whatever we are, we are all God’s people, all made in the image of God.”