God girls: who'll be the first female bishop?

 
1/3
Rosamund Urwin9 November 2012

One of the first problems facing the new Archbishop of Canterbury is how to end the battle in the Church over women bishops. In the ultimate boys’ club, feminists of faith long to see a woman wearing a mitre. Here are four of our top contenders:

Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin
The first black woman to be Chaplain to the House of Commons, Hudson-Wilkin is as tough as she is charming: she used to have a cricket bat ready at the door to deal with threatening late-night visitors to her vicarage in Hackney. Originally from Montego Bay in Jamaica, she is married with three children. She has confessed to a “secret prayer” that the “boys’ games of yelling and shouting” at Prime Minister’s Questions will stop and civility reign.

Rev Lucy Winkett
After a stint working at St Paul’s, Winkett — a former professional singer — was named Rector of St James’s in Piccadilly two years ago. The Cambridge-educated priest regularly contributes to Radio 4’s Thought For the Day, although she admits she still finds it ‘terrifying”. Winkett was described by the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, as “among the most talented priests in her generation”.

Rev Jane Hedges
Hedges is Canon Steward of Westminster Abbey, where she is in charge of welcoming the one million visitors and pilgrims who descend on the Abbey each year. The 57-year-old, who also oversees the Abbey gardeners, is one of the most outspoken campaigners for women bishops. She met Pope Benedict on his visit to Britain two years ago, the first time the leader of the Catholic Church shook hands with a clergywoman.

Canon Rosie Harper, vicar of Great Missenden and Chaplain to the Bishop of Buckingham, opera-lover
Harper is media-savvy, writing for the Guardian and tweeting regularly. On the issue of female bishops, she has said that women are “spoken about as the problem and not really valued for what they contribute”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in