Justin Welby said her appointment is one of the church’s most exciting prospects in some time

Chaplain to the speaker of the House of Commons, Rev. Dr. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, has been appointed as the new Bishop of Dover.

Rev Dr. Rose Hudson-Wilkin was born in Jamaica. She was introduced by the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, at St. George’s C of E school in Broadstairs, Kent. Dr. Hudson-Wilkin has said that she wanted to ensure that “hope, love and justice remain at the heart of our changed lives together.”

Justin Welby called her appointment a historic, ground breaking and one of the church’s most exciting prospects in some time. Welby said she’s an effective and influential minister through her service.”

An interesting fact about Dr. Hudson-Wilkin is that she led prayers at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Hudson-Wilkin doesn’t see herself as anything special or a black priest. Instead, she feels like a priest who has the “good fortune to be black.” She described her appointment as nothing short of a miracle. She’s had an “overwhelming sense of being called to ministry” since the age of 14. It was made even more special because, at the time, women weren’t allowed to enter the priesthood.

Hudson-Wilkin has been vocal about the C of E assigning minority and black ethnic clergy and officials. “The church had to wake up” Hudson-Wilkin said in 2015. “In the same way it has agonized over women, and has eventually seen that it’s right for women to be in leadership within the church, it needs to put the same amount of work when it comes to minority ethnic people…It has got to right this wrong.”

Many congrats to Dr. Rose Hudson-Wilkin, who becomes Bishop of Dover… On. the same day as #StormzyAtGlasto culture defining set with @BalletBlack, Bishop Hudson-Wilkin will be the Church of England's first black female bishop.https://t.co/0YM1Lx0S2w — Pauline Mayers (@emergentp) June 29, 2019

In response to questions of racial abuse, she told a C of E conference that she had been subject to racial abuse on the street since the Brexit referendum. She said that she has lived in Britain for 30 years and in 2018 was the first time someone shouted at her to go back to Africa.

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