The Reverend Prebendary Rose Hudson-Wilkin, chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons and Chaplain to Her Majesty The Queen, will deliver the Distinguished UTech, Jamaica Public Lecture on the theme ‘Rebuilding Trust — Integrating and Restoring our Nation’ on Wednesday, November 1, 2017.

The lecture is scheduled for 6:00 pm at Lecture Theatre 50, Shared Facilities Complex, UTech, Jamaica, Papine campus.

A news release from UTech reported Rev Hudson-Wilkin as saying that her lecture will “explore what I see as the contributing factors to the disintegration of our various communities: the breakdown of family life, crime, poverty, inequality and perceived injustices; to ask what role faith should be playing in rebuilding trust and the healing of the nation”.

Born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1961, Rev Hudson-Wilkin travelled to the UK in 1982 to train at the Church Army College in the West Midlands, following which she was ordained deacon in 1991 and ordained to the priesthood in 1994.

In 2007 she was appointed Chaplain to The Queen and in 2010 became the first female to be appointed to the position of Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons. In this role she leads the prayers in the House of Commons daily when the House is sitting, and carries the responsibility for the pastoral care of both members and staff of the Palace of Westminster.

In March 2013, she was made a Prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral in recognition of her service to the Church, community and as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons. In November 2014, she became the Priest in Charge of the city Church, St Mary-at-Hill near Monument.

Rev Hudson-Wilkin previously served as a member of the General Synod of the Church of England and also as one of the Panel of Chairs of the Synod. She has twice represented the Church of England at the World Council of Churches (in Zimbabwe and Brazil) and is one of its representatives on the Anglican Consultative Council. She is often called on to preach in the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge and does numerous speaking engagements.

On Saturday, November 4, UTech will confer on her the Honorary Doctor of Laws (Hon LLD) degree at its graduation ceremony at the National Arena where she is being recognised for her signal achievement as a woman of colour.

The Distinguished Lecture is free of cost and is open to the public.