#BTColumn – Lightning appears to be striking twice

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by Guy Hewitt

I am pleased that the Diocese of Southwark (London south) has defied the odds of an unusual event not likely happening to the same person or in the same place, with the appointment of the new Bishop of Croydon. But as we know, nothing is impossible with God.

Oh happy day to have been awoken by the news of the appointment of the Venerable Dr Rosemarie Mallett, Archdeacon of Croydon, to the Suffragan See of Croydon.

After I congratulated the bishop-designate, I made contact with retired Bishop Wilfred Wood to offer congratulations to him for being the trailblazer that he was in the Church of England. He was elated by the news of her appointment.

Many may not remember that the Rt Rev Wilfred Wood KA, who was the Bishop of Croydon from 1985 to 2003, was the first black bishop in the Church of England.

It was an honour and privilege to have him attend my ordination and preach at my first Mass at Christ Church Parish Church.

While he contemplated a career in politics, God had other plans for the young Wood, and he responded to the call to ordained ministry, training at Codrington College.

The young Wilfred set a new path for mission by leaving Barbados then a British colony to travel to London to minister there, specifically to the West Indian migrant population.

In Britain, Rev. Wood became a champion for racial justice, launching several initiatives and serving on many committees. He was ranked second on the 2004 list of “100 Great Black Britons.”

In 2000, he was made a Knight of St Andrew “for his contribution to race relations in the United Kingdom and general contribution to the welfare of Barbadians living here.”

Bishop Wood’s passed his cope (ceremonial cloak) to the second black bishop in the Church of England, the Rt Rev John Sentamu, who was appointed as Bishop of Stepney in 1996 and subsequently became the Archbishop of York.

It would be another twenty years before this special cope would be passed on again to the third black bishop in the Church, Rt Rev Dr Karowei Dorgu, who was appointed Bishop of Woolwich in 2016.

It was Nigerian-born Bishop Dorgu’s sermon at the service to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr., that would inspire my advocacy on the Windrush Scandal.

In 2019, Jamaica-born Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the suffragan Bishop of Dover, became the first black female bishop in the Church of England.

A former member of St Barnabas Church, Dr Mallett’s initial prominence was as an academic and a medical research sociologist, with one of her specialisms being in ethno-cultural mental health issues.

A former Research Fellow at The UWI Cave Hill Campus, she previously worked with the Institute of Psychiatry and Network of Black Mental Health Organisations in the UK. In 2016, the Barbados High Commission honoured Rev Mallett as a recipient of a Barbados Jubilee Award.

She stated on her appointed: “I am thankful to God for the honour and privilege of serving as the next Bishop of Croydon. I love the diversity of this area geographically, ethnically and culturally.

“I will serve the Episcopal Area of Croydon and East Surrey and the people with great pride and do my very best to make God’s word and His love be known, while championing social justice causes across the area for people of all ages.”

It is a reflection on Barbadians as a people of faith that, yet another child of our soil has been chosen to serve as a bishop in the Anglican Church. She joins Peter Fenty, the Bishop of Toronto, and Deon Kevin Johnson, the Bishop of Missouri as a Bajan beacon of faith across the Anglican Communion.

Guy Hewitt, a Florida-based Anglican priest, trained with the Bishop-designate Mallett at the London-based South East Institute of Theological Education.