Rachel Treweek

Early life and career

Treweek was born Rachel Montgomery on 4 February 1963. She was educated at Broxbourne School, a state school in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. She studied at the University of Reading and graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in linguistics and language pathology.

Treweek's first career was as a speech and language therapist. After six years as a paediatric speech therapist in the National Health Service, she left her job to begin training for ordination in the Church of England.

Ordained ministry

Treweek studied for ordained ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, an Anglican theological college, and graduated with a Bachelor of Theology (BTh) degree in 1994. She was made a deacon at Petertide 1994 (3 July), by David Hope, Bishop of London, at St Paul's Cathedral, and ordained a priest the following Petertide (27 June 1995), by Martin Wharton, Bishop of Kingston, at her title church. From 1994 to 1997, she served a curacy at St George and All Saints Church, Tufnell Park, London. From 1997 to 1999, she remained at St George and All Saints Church as the associate vicar. In 1999, she was appointed vicar of St James-the-Less, Bethnal Green, London. In addition to the incumbency, she was appointed the continuing ministerial education officer for the Diocese of London.

In 2006, Treweek left parish ministry on her appointment as the Archdeacon of Northolt; this made her one of six archdeacons in the Diocese of London. She held the position for five years before becoming the Archdeacon of Hackney on 14 May 2011. She relinquished this appointment on confirmation of her appointment as Bishop of Gloucester on 15 June 2015.

In September 2013, Treweek was elected as one of eight "participant observers" of the House of Bishops as the observer representing the South East of England. The observers are senior priests who are women and who will attend and participate in meetings of the House of Bishops until six women sit in the House by right as bishops. She attended her first meeting of the House of Bishops of the General Synod of the Church of England on 9 December 2013.

Episcopal ministry

On 26 March 2015, it was announced that Treweek was to become the next Bishop of Gloucester, the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Gloucester. Though there have been two women appointed bishops previously, she is the first woman to be appointed a diocesan bishop, rather than as a suffragan bishop. She was the first woman to become a bishop in the Province of Canterbury, jointly with Sarah Mullally, Bishop of Crediton. On 15 June 2015, her election was confirmed during a sitting of the Arches Court of Canterbury at St Mary-le-Bow, City of London. At this point, she legally became the Bishop of Gloucester. On 22 July 2015, she was consecrated a bishop by Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, during a ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral. She and Sarah Mullally were the first women to be ordained as bishops at Canterbury Cathedral. On 19 September, she was installed at Gloucester Cathedral as the 41st Bishop of Gloucester.

Following the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015, she was to become the first woman to enter the House of Lords as a bishop and Lord Spiritual as soon as a Lord Spiritual seat was emptied. She became eligible to take her seat when parliament reconvened in September 2015 after its summer recess and took the seat vacated by Tim Stevens (former Bishop of Leicester and Convenor of the Bishops in the Lords). She sent back the first version of her writ of summons because it referred to her as a “right reverend father in God”. On 26 October 2015, she was introduced to the House by Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Richard Chartres, Bishop of London.

Theology

Treweek believes that God should be considered to be neither male nor female and tries to avoid using gender-specific pronouns when referring to God. Explaining this view, "she said she personally prefers to say neither "he" nor "she", but "God". "Sometimes I lapse, but I try not to," the bishop told the Observer." The Diocese of Gloucester announced that, in January 2017, Treweek would preside at an LGBTI Eucharist with Inclusive Church.

Personal life

In 2006, Rachel married Guy Treweek; he is a Church of England priest and was priest-in-charge of two parishes in the City of London at the time of her appointment to the episcopate.

Honours

On 8 July 2016, Treweek was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) degree by the University of Reading, her alma mater.

Styles