Rose Hudson Wilkin, 58, the new Bishop of Dover, recently left her post as chaplain to the Speaker of the British Parliament’s elected main house, the Commons, after nine years.
The Church of England has ordained its first black female bishop at a ceremony in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral on Tuesday.
Rose Hudson Wilkin, 58, the new Bishop of Dover, recently left her post as chaplain to the Speaker of the British Parliament’s elected main house, the Commons, after nine years.
Wilkin is of Jamaican descent.
“Rose has not just done the job, she has excelled beyond anything that we could reasonably have imagined or contemplated," former Commons Speaker, John Bercow, said.
A formal ceremony to install her as Bishop of Dover in the diocese of Canterbury, is scheduled to be held at Canterbury Cathedral on November 30.
Wilkin and her husband, a prison chaplain, have three adult children, according to an official biography.
Educated in Montego Bay, Jamaica, she attended Birmingham University in England and trained with the Church Army.
She served as a priest in East London’s Hackney area for 16 years and was made a royal chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II in 2007.