page_title: Rose Hudson-Wilkin
section_title: Public attention
hierarchical_section_title: Rose Hudson-Wilkin / Public attention
caption_attribution_description: English: The Speaker and the Serjeant-at-Arms walk together into the chamber of the House of Commons.
context_page_description: Rose Josephine Hudson-Wilkin, MBE, QHC is a British Anglican bishop, who has been suffragan Bishop of Dover since 2019: she is the first black woman to become a Church of England bishop. She had served as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons from 2010 to 2019, and previously in the Church Army and then parish ministry.
context_section_description: After taking up her parish role in Hackney, Hudson-Wilkin staged a rooftop protest on the church with her curate to highlight the need for funds to repair the fabric of the building. Speaking on Desert Island Discs in January 2014, she said that with so much development going on in Hackney, she was trying to draw attention to the plight of the church, which had a leaking roof, adding that she wished she could have stayed a little longer on the roof as the protest attracted donations for its repair.
  Hudson-Wilkin came to wider attention as the first black female to hold the role of Queen's Chaplain. When she was appointed to the Commons some people alleged that this was an act of political correctness on the part of the Speaker John Bercow. Ultimately, the traditional role was split in two with Hudson-Wilkin remaining in her Hackney parish and attending to the Commons via daily prayers and services in St Mary Undercroft, while Andrew Tremlett took up the post of Canon of Westminster and Rector of St Margaret's, Westminster.
  In an interview in The Observer a year after her appointment to the Commons, Hudson-Wilkin commented that she would like to see a more civil attitude among MPs: "That's my secret prayer actually: the world is looking on and I just believe that I would like to see a change there in the way they handle listening to each other and the way they speak to each other." Hudson-Wilkin has updated the traditional 17th-century prayers before parliamentary debates by introducing mention of topical events, also saying a prayer on behalf of International Women's Day in 2010 that reportedly attracted complaints to the Speaker by some MPs.
  A critic of what she has described as institutional racism in the church, she has also spoken on the subject of gay marriage, telling The Times that the church is "obsessed with sex" and there are many more important issues.
  During her interview on Desert Island Discs, Hudson-Wilkin was asked about the proposed ordination of women as bishops and said: "I believe that we hold certain prejudices about certain things and we believe them to be true ... What I want is for people to be open to the possibilities that their minds might be changed." She added: "I think the church has been the poorer actually for not having the gifts of women – men and women – in its leadership."
  In an episode of the BBC programme The Big Questions aired January 2015, discussing the lack of legal recognition for humanist marriages, Hudson-Wilkin repeatedly characterised humanists as "anti-religion" and expressed bewilderment that humanists would want to get married, saying "Marriage is a sacred act. We see it as a gift from God, so it is not something we think anybody just gets up and, stands in front, and says I’m marrying you. If humanists are anti-religion I don’t understand why you want to keep and do all of the things that religion does."
caption: Hudson-Wilkin processing in Parliament behind the Speaker
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