New Bishop of Dover reveals barriers she's faced as a black woman (2024)

The Bishop of Dover has spoken about the challenges she has faced through her career after becoming the first black woman in the role.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin, who was ordained spoke of her wish for achievements like hers to become the 'new normal'.

In a wide ranging piece for Vogue magazine, the 58-year-old retraced her path to her current role from her beginnings in Jamaica to working as the Queen's chaplain.

The trailblazing bishop recalls she wasted no time in rising up the episcopal ladder.

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'Why are black priests only allowed to minister black people?'

Bishop Hudson-Wilkin was ordained as a priest in 1994 as soon as women were able to.

She's aware that her ability to do so put her in a somewhat privileged position as she writes: "It was a bittersweet day."

"I can still see the image of the other women in attendance, those who had given a lifetime of ministry, but, because of their age, had now missed their own opportunity to join the priesthood."

Over the course of her 30 year career, the Bishop has had to rise above numerous barriers to her progression, many of which only existed because they had never been challenged.

She recalls: "I remember saying to a group of lay and ordained people while working as a diocesan officer, “If you had a vacancy and I applied for it, would you consider me?”

"One woman popped her hand up, and said, “But why would we? We don’t have any black people here…” I laughed.

"Oh, my goodness,” I said. “Isn’t it interesting that white priests can go to Africa, Asia, to our inner cities, they can minister to everybody, but somehow black priests are only allowed to minister to black people?'"

'Rose, you do a damn good funeral'

Breaking glass ceilings is not for the faint of heart, and Bishop Hudson-Wilkin admits that there have been times in her career where people's attitudes have made her feel down.

She said: "I would be lying if I said there isn’t a sense of sadness when you recognise that people don’t want to accept your ministry, but I step back and think, “You know what? That is their problem.”

"When people rejected me from doing their funerals because I was black, or because I was a woman – more so because I was black – I would allow myself to feel the pain of that rejection, because that pain is real and there’s no point in pretending it’s not.

"But I would pull myself together and say, “Rose, you do a damn good funeral, so it’s their loss.”

'Faith takes us to greater heights'

Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, mum-of-three Bishop Rose attended secondary school there. Although, in her own words, she came from a “poor background”, she received a religious calling at a very young age.

The Bishop now hopes that her journey from being one of the first women to be ordained to the first black female bishop will have removed the barriers from the path of those who follow in her footsteps.

She said: "The Church has come a long way in the past 30 years, but if there’s one thing I would like to see change in my lifetime, it would be that all these “firsts” stop, that they become normal."

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