By Steve Stockman
From poverty in Montego Bay, Jamaica to being Chaplain for Queen Elizabeth II, the first black Bishop in the Church of England, Rose Hudson-Wilkin is perfect for a 4 Corners Festival called Journey…
Perhaps in a year when the 4 Corners Festival’s theme is Journey, no one on the programme has travelled further than our first speaker of there week Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin.
Bishop Rose’s journey is not just geographical, from the blue Caribbean seas of Montego Bay in Jamaica to the white cliffs of Dover. No, this woman has traveled spiritually, politically, racially.
There are few journeys that young Rose didn’t set out on and find her destinations, though you would imagine her journey still continues. All those journeys were met with adversity.
Young Rose as a teenager told her Bishop that she felt called to priesthood in the Anglican Church. Her Bishop replied, “Well we don’t do that”. Rose just carried on believing that God would make it happen.
I wonder what her old Bishop thought when Rose became the first black Bishop in the Church pop England after stints as Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II and the Speaker of the House of Commons. Quite a journey.
Within this extraordinary vocational journey lay other journeys. Abused as a young woman by family members and Church members she found ways to heal, to not allow her trauma to get in the way of her sense of calling.
Journeys too in poverty, racism and being left back in Jamaica when her mother moved to England, Bishop Rose has lived the life, compassionately committed to following Jesus and experiencing transformation against all the odds.
How can a Jamaican born and raised Church of England Bishop speak into our own unique foibles and quirks. Well with 27 women and young girls murdered in Northern Ireland since 2020, she will have much to say about gender issues and with the attacks on newcomers she will have a voice into the racism too close to the surface of our society here.
This is a very exciting name on our 2026 Festival bill. She’ll be charismatic, warm and we believe prophetic.
Music on the evening will be by the Pro Bono Choir. A non-profit choir made up of lawyers and judges they make a powerful and beautiful sound.
What a night!
Bishop Rose will speak and Pro Bono Choir will sing on Sunday, February 1st, 2026 in St. Brigid’s Church, Belfast (BT9 6FP). It is free.