Voices of Change Episode 7: Bishop Stephen Wright

Voices of Change Episode 7: Bishop Stephen Wright on Lent, Prayer and becoming a Bishop

Join host Celeste Iyinbo in a riveting conversation with Bishop Stephen Wright. Explore the significance of Lent, Bishop Stephen's journey to becoming the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, and the responsibilities of chairing CAFOD's trustees. Gain insights into maintaining a spiritual practice with Bishop Stephen's tips for on-the-go prayer. Listen now for a deep dive into faith, leadership, and Lenten reflections.

You can listen to the episode below, or wherever you get your podcasts, or read the transcript.

This is a transcript of the Voices of Change episode with Bishop Stephen Wright.

Celeste Iyinbo: Hey there, lovely listeners. Welcome back to another episode of Voices of Change. I'm your host Celeste Iyinbo and today we're in for a treat with a truly special guest, the incredible Bishop Stephen Wright. He wears many hats. First of all, from being Chair of the trustees at CAFOD to his recent appointment as the 15th, Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle by Pope Francis in June 2023. Welcome, Bishop Stephen. How are you?

Bishop Stephen Wright: I'm very well thank you very much. Yes. Welcome to a sunny northeast, the sun is shining, it's quite warm. So a beautiful day up here in the northeast.

Celeste Iyinbo: Oh, fantastic. We really like to hear that. So Bishop Stephen, we really appreciate you being with us today. Before we dive into our chat to get to know you a little bit more. We wanted to have like a quick fire round of fast questions, if that's okay. So first question. Could you tell us about a saint that inspires you and why?

Bishop Stephen Wright: I have lots to choose from, lots. I'm going to choose a Bishop Saint, and it's actually St. Augustine of Hippo, who we often forget is an African Saint. He was in North Africa. My home parish in Stafford, where I grew up, was named after him, so I've sort of grown up with him. It's fair to say he was a bit of a naughty lad growing up really, and he rebelled, and he was quite the playboy in earlier life, and I'm not choosing him because of that. But in fact he went through a huge conversion experience, really motivated by the prayers of his mother, Saint Monica actually. And he went through a huge, huge conversion and he began to realise actually that in all the pleasure that he was seeking, nothing was satisfying. Well, the lovely images about him, when you see a statue of Saint Augustine, he's always holding a heart in one of his hands. And it's because of his famous phrase that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. And I love that phrase. And a great teacher in the church but a great pastoral man and a great pastoral Bishop so I asked for his prayers. So he's one but I could talk about probably 30 or 40 saints. I'll spare you that.

Celeste Iyinbo: Okay, we'll save that for the sequel to this podcast. It's like Bishop Stephen's favourite saints. If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Bishop Stephen Wright: Oh dear me, it would be vegetables actually. I was blessed to do my training for the Priesthood in Rome and I fell in love with the way the Italians do vegetable antipasti and I could eat it forever. I could eat it forever. So it's not one particular food although we'd have to have aubergines and courgettes on it and peppers but it would be vegetable antipasti. Honestly I could eat that to the ground.

Celeste Iyinbo: Fantastic. So our next question, also food related, perhaps with your antipasti, if you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?

Bishop Stephen Wright: Well, as a Bishop, you're going to, I have to say obviously with the good Lord Himself, and of course that's what we're doing at every Mass, we are having a meal. I've been asked this question many, many times and in fact my answer is a very, very personal one. It would actually be with my dad and my dad died actually when I was young. So that for me would be a great moment of heaven to be reunited with a meal with my dad and that's one of the draws, I think, and those have gone before us, do draw us to Heaven I think with that. So a bit of an emotional answer and not a particularly famous person but it would be my dad.

Celeste Iyinbo: I think that's a beautiful answer Bishop Stephen. I think that's just so lovely, lovely to hear as well. So to wrap up our quick fire round, if our listeners didn't already know, CAFOD's Big Lent Walk kicks off soon. And Bishop Stephen, could you share with us your favourite walk and why it holds significance for you?

Bishop Stephen Wright: Oh wow, well I did the CAFOD Big Lent walk a couple of years ago when I was an assistant Bishop in Birmingham, so I enjoyed that. I did a walk which is called the St. Chad's Pilgrimage, another Saint, but back in Birmingham he's the patron Saint of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, and he's also the patron Saint of the Anglican Diocese of Lichfield. We did an ecumenical pilgrimage from Repton to Lichfield and St Chad has associations with both those places. And it was in the summer, but it absolutely tipped it down all the way. It was about 24 miles and we did it in a day. And I actually did it, I was then, I wasn't a Bishop then, and I did it with an Anglican priest who actually then became the Bishop of Stafford. So there were two of us doing the walk and at the end of it, both of us ended up being appointed Bishop. So I think there was something profound about that. I actually had the privilege of carrying one of the relics of St Chad's which we have. And then he's definitely following me because St Chad is not from the Midlands, he's actually from up here, he's a Saint of Hexham and Newcastle originally. So I've kind of followed him up here. So it would be that walk, soaked to the skin we were, it was an appalling rainy day, but it was a joyful, joyful day in the rain and clearly quite a profound day for some of us as well. So God bless St. Chad.

Celeste Iyinbo: Oh, God bless St. Chad indeed, amazing. Fantastic. So we also wanted to ask you, Bishop Stephen, as chair of trustees at CAFOD, what are your key priorities in steering the mission and vision of CAFOD?

Bishop Stephen Wright: I've been asked this before, as trustees we obviously have responsibilities to make sure that the charity is functioning in the way that the charity should, that it's faithful to its mission. Personally, I'm going to personalise the question a little bit more. How, CAFOD is a family that's made up with so many gifted and talented people, so many gifted and talented people. We're working for the love of the Lord, working for the love of our sisters and brothers. And simply this, my role in chair is to allow all of that talent to come to the fore and be used in that way. I take a similar vision with my role here as Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle as well. It really is allowing the God-given talents and gifts to come to the fore so that we truly can serve our sisters and brothers, so that we can care for our common home and we can give all glory to God. That's it. I love sport. I suppose my managerial style is sport orientated in the sense that that's what you do as a leader of a sporting team. You let the gifts and the talents flourish to achieve the ends, to achieve the goals. So that's my priority as Chair.

Celeste Iyinbo: I like how you kind of compared it to like being a sporting manager. And I'm just trying to imagine that actually, when I think of the meetings you attend as well, who's in which position.

Bishop Stephen Wright: Yeah, there's a little bit of that. That wouldn't directly be my role as a trustee. It is about allowing those gifts and talents to flourish. It really is.

Celeste Iyinbo: Could we go back then? It would be really interesting if you could tell us about your story and your journey of how you then became chair of trustees at CAFOD. What motivated you to take on this role? We're gonna speak later about your total background and how you got, how you started and everything, but how did you end up being a chair of trustees?

Bishop Stephen Wright: I was appointed, I've got to cross over a little bit with a question that may be coming a bit further, I was appointed as a Bishop in March 2020, in fact it was just as we went into lockdown, if you remember that week, it was that week I was told that Pope Francis had appointed me, and I was an assistant Bishop in Birmingham then, and I was ordained, I finally became a Bishop, if you like, in October 2020. And it was the spring after that, so it was spring 2021, and one of the Bishop John Arnold and Bishop Patrick McKinney were the two Bishop trustees then. And Bishop Patrick McKinney had stepped back, I think, because of other work commitments, so there was a vacancy. And it originated, it was Bishop John Arnold who phoned me up initially and said, would I consider it becoming a trustee? And I said, yes, I mean, you know. We bishops, we all have a national job, and what better than to work for CAFOD, really? So I jumped at it, so I said yes. So now I can't demand to be it. In fact, my brother bishops who appointed me to it, but they did, and I've been a Bishop trustee since then. The next stage in becoming chair is actually then Bishop John Arnold announced that he was stepping back, and my fellow trustees actually voted me to become the next chair. So it's not a kind of process that it is, forgive me, I mean this in the nicest possible way, it's not something I ever sought or desired. I'm very happy being a trustee but it's right and proper. I think the trustees, if you like, are calling me to that position. I'm happy to accept. So it works that way around if that makes any sense.

Celeste Iyinbo: Yeah, no, it does. It does. And then I'm just I'm wondering now that you've been doing this for a while now. How has it been? I mean, so much has changed for you, you know, as you know, being appointed Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle as well. So what's been the most rewarding aspect, I would say, of your new role?

Bishop Stephen Wright: Yeah, it's a big change. So Pope Francis appointed me to be Bishop here in Hexham and Newcastle and that was back in the summer. My first appointment as a Bishop came as a complete shock, a total shock. And then that was 2020 and then 2023 I had a complete second shock. So I'm in a new part of the world. I don't really know the North East. I mean, I've been up here just over six months now, so I'm beginning to learn it. It's a beautiful part of the world if people want to come up and stay. It has an absolutely stunning coastline, I have to say, and the countryside is just fantastic up here. It really, really is. The people are great, cities are great as well. It's a lovely, lovely part of the world, but I'm learning about it more and more. And it has a very, very rich Christian tradition. So I mentioned St Chad as one of the saints from up here, St Aidan, St Cuthbert, St Wilfred, St Hilda. A female Saint and obviously we've got Holy Island up here, Lindisfarne, which is just absolutely stunning and just such an important part of Christianity in England and Scotland and dare I say Wales and Ireland too. So it's a fabulous place to be. The most satisfying bit, I always loved being a parish priest, I adored being a parish priest, it's the best job in the world. The best bits of being a Bishop are those bits that I like being a parish priest. So when I'm in the parishes, when I'm in the schools, and that's the bulk of my time. So I've got 150 odd churches to get around. So it's going to take me a couple of years to get around all of them. But that's my priority at the moment. And it's an absolute joy to go and meet the communities, learn about their traditions, learn about how they're being Christ for their community at the moment. That's the best bit and always will be.

Celeste Iyinbo: Do you notice really a lot of differences between the different communities where you are based? So being based when you're down south and then going up to Hexham and Newcastle, are there really big differences?

Bishop Stephen Wright: I'm going to tease you by saying the Midlands and the South. I'm from the Midlands. Ha ha ha. I'm only teasing you. There are quite some similarities actually. So my patch of the Archdiocese of Birmingham was the northern part actually. So it was Staffordshire and that part of the West Midlands which is known as the Black Country and it's known as the Black Country because of the coal industry that's there and also the industrial history of it. There's a lot of that here, so a lot of my Northumberland, County Durham, its former mining communities, the mines have gone. That's the same as where I was serving before in Staffordshire in the Black Country. There's quite a bit of heavy industry up here in this part of the world as well. Some of that has gone. I think one of the similarities actually with people of Staffordshire in the Black Country, what you see is what you get. That's true here as well, very true here. People are very chatty up here far more chatty than dare I say, I lived in London myself, so I know what it's like down there. As they have sayings up here, you know each day that you go out you're about to meet your best new friend and it's true in the sense that everybody's very talkative and chatty and friendly. But it's great. Accents, there are some strong accents up here I'm having to learn some of them. Most of them I could cope with, there's a few places where I think, oh I'm not quite sure what they just said. But it's absolutely fantastic. So those will be the similarities. It's not as big a population area here. Where I'm living, Newcastle is a big city, but it's nowhere near the size of Birmingham. So things are a little bit smaller I suppose in that sense. But yeah, fantastic part of the world. Here endeth the tourist advert for the North East. Come to the North East. I would honestly say everybody should go to Holy Island once. It's just fantastic.

Celeste Iyinbo: Well yes, I've heard of it, I've actually never been, but I heard is it only accessible at a certain time? Okay, could you tell us a bit more about that?

Bishop Stephen Wright: Yep, yeah. Well it is its tidal, so there is a community of about 400 people who live on the island. And it is the origin of St Aidan and St Cuthbert, they based themselves there, and that's where the religious communities are, not dissimilar to Iona up in Scotland. So it's one of the birthplaces of Christianity, it really is. So yeah, you can drive across, but only when the tide allows you to. But in fact CAFOD has an annual pilgrimage, it organises it, and it's in the summer, it's in July I think this year. I'll have to check the diary. But anyway I'm down for it. And actually you can walk across the mud flats from the mainland, across there we'll have Mass, we've got our Catholic Church there called St Aidan's, we'll have Mass either there or outside and then we'll walk back. But you do have to respect nature. If you attempt to walk, well, it would be suicidal to walk across when the tides are coming in. And sadly some people who attempt to drive their cars when they shouldn't drive their cars across, lose their cars. So you do have to be, you have to respect nature. The sea's not going to give way to anybody or anything. But it is just a stunning, stunning location. It really is.

Celeste Iyinbo: Oh, yes, it looks beautiful from what I've seen online. It's definitely on the list of places to visit. So I guess you would recommend it then for all Catholics to get to see Lindisfarne at least once.

Bishop Stephen Wright: It is, and all people, all Christians and people of no faith, it's just a beautiful, unspoiled place. It really is stunning.

Celeste Iyinbo: Bishop Stephen, could you tell us then a little bit more about, you were kind of saying how you've got into your current sort of role, but your origin story, how you became a Bishop? Because I found out that you've had quite a really interesting life and I believe you qualified as a barrister as well in a former life as well. How did it all start?

Bishop Stephen Wright: Yeah, as a child, I suppose I was a bit of a strange child really, once I realised I was never going to be good enough to play football for my living. I was fascinated by lawyers and people of a certain age, you're far too young, but people of a certain age would remember a programme called Crown Court, it used to be on television and it was a kind of, well it was a little drama and it was a little trial each day and then the jury would decide whether the person was guilty or innocent. I was fascinated by that as a child, but I was fascinated by the work of the barristers. I was quite a young age really and I decided that's what I wanted to do, so I did a law degree and then I became a barrister and qualified as a barrister. It was around that time that my dad died actually, just after I finished my A Levels and just before I went to university. It was really going through that where I think my vocation to do the priesthood came really. I suppose it was a way of thinking that the Lord's death and resurrection wasn't something that was out there. It was actually something that affected my heart and my mind in a much deeper way. And it was actually through that. And it wasn't instantaneous, it took a few years. But then anyway, I applied to see if they would accept me to train for the priesthood, and the Archdiocese of Birmingham did. I honestly thought I'd leave seminary. I thought I'd get it out my system and go back to the law. But I never did. And the more I stayed, the more I felt that was the Lord was calling me to. And then I was ordained in the year 2000. I worked in the inner city of Birmingham. I worked in Banbury in Oxfordshire. And then I was parish priest in Burton upon Trent for 12 years. And then in 2019, Archbishop Bernard, the Archbishop of Birmingham, he pulled me out of parish ministry and appointed me to be what's called a vicar general. Archdiocese of Birmingham, which is such a big job you can't have a parish with it. So I thought I'd be doing that for the next eight, ten years, whatever. But then March 2020 I had the shock of my life and Pope Francis appointed me as Assistant Bishop. So that was a big change and I was beginning to learn that and then I got the shock to come up here and as it were start all over again as the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle. That's where I am and that's where I'm learning at the moment. So that's a kind of brief resume of where it was, of my history, if you like. And people often ask, well, why did you cite the priesthood? And it was just in prayer to offer yourself, because you can never demand to become a priest. It's up to the Bishop to decide whether to ordain you or not. It just felt that was what was going to make me joyful and fulfilled. And I've never regretted it.

Celeste Iyinbo: That's just so amazing to hear that story because, you know, it's quite rare sometimes to have that conversation and hear a person's journey to become to this position. And as you said, so many things happened, like out of surprise. You didn't know, you know, that you'd be appointed Bishop and it just all flowed.

Bishop Stephen Wright: Yeah, very often in vocation for all of us actually sometimes we're invited to say yes to things we've done. You don't know quite what you're saying yes to. The Lord does sometimes call you into an unknown and for example, becoming a CAFOD trustee, I said yes, I haven't got a clue what being a CAFOD trustee was all about. But you learn, but you put your trust in the Lord and also you put your trust in those around.

Celeste Iyinbo: So obviously now it's this time of year, we are gearing up for the Lenten season. So for anyone who's new to the church, would you mind Bishop Stephen, explain a little bit more about why Lent is so important and why we do practice prayer, fasting and giving during the 40 days of Lent.

Bishop Stephen Wright: I suppose the way of thinking about Lent is it's a season of preparation. So it's 40 days of preparation for the biggest celebration in the Church's year, which is Easter. And it's a good deal, it's 40 days of preparation and Easter's 50 days long, so you get more back. And it is about the church quietening down a little, I suppose. In a way kind of reducing its joy so that it can come back up to full volume when we celebrate the Lord's resurrection. And the three traditional ways of prayer and fasting and almsgiving, very simply are three ways of expressing what lies at the heart of Christianity living it out, which is loving God and loving your neighbours yourself. So we invite you to spend a little bit more time in prayer, which is a bit more of an expression of our love of God, our relationship. and prayer, it's more listening really to the will of the Lord than speaking, but prayer has both those aspects. And then almsgiving is about love of our neighbour, about putting their needs above ours. That's a good thing for us to be doing at all times, but particularly in Lent. And finally, the fasting bit. The fasting is really an expression of love of oneself. We're always invited if we're going to fast from anything, I suppose fast from sinfulness and anything that's harmful to us. But it's also a recognition that I am not, I'm not controlled by the things that I either eat, drink or whatever it might be. It's an expression that I am called to higher joys of heaven and we set aside those things. So comically I could have said crisps was my favourite food that I could live off for the rest of my life. I eat far too many of those things so they go by the wayside in Lent. Sometimes that can be a challenge. But I mean it's a pathetic little thing. It's not a pathetic little thing. The idea is that whatever money I was going to go and waste on a bag of crisps should be given in almsgiving. So it's love of neighbour, it's love of self, it's love of God. That's really what we're being called to do in a time of preparation. To realise that I'm called to greater things, that the Lord is calling me to a heavenly home. That, for me, is a quick insight, I suppose, into the spirituality of Lent. I could say a lot more.

Celeste Iyinbo: I'm sure we'd be very happy to hear more. And I was just wondering in terms of, for our listeners, do you have any helpful tips on observing Lent, such as perhaps any prayers to refer to, or how we can make time to reflect, you know, so many of us have such busy lives, but we want to step back and have a little bit of time to reflect.

Bishop Stephen Wright: Well of course I must say that CAFOD has fantastic prayer resources on its website. In fact I was delighted to say that I understand it's one of, if not the most visited part of our website. And I says that's something fantastic about our Christianity as an organisation. There are plenty of resources out there, I'll give my own diocese a plug, but I'm sure all dioceses will have materials that can assist us in our Lenten journey. The other is in terms of the prayer bits, I may not be the only one, but probably first thing in the morning if we're able to get a bit of prayer time in. We're not all called to be contemplative monks and nuns by the way, we have to be realistic about prayer and sometimes prayer can be on the move. So I have to say when I lived in London when I was training to be a barrister, I used to pray on the tube a lot. I just used to close my eyes, very often I'd pray the rosary using my fingers. There's not much else to do on the tube. I used to find going in and out to Holborn when I used to travel, I used to live in Clapham and move up to commute into Holborn, I found that bizarrely quite prayerful at times. But we pray as we can. The other thing is to begin to enjoy it. To begin to enjoy the prayer, to begin to enjoy the fasting, particularly to enjoy the almsgiving too. There have been secular studies done about enjoyment and in fact serving other people always comes out best. If we wish to be joyful people, to find the joy in serving and helping others, always tops anything that I might get, you know, be it food or drink or you know, go to the cinema or whatever it might be. Stephen Wright (25:24.77) It always comes out top and there's a truth in that. And I hope that people find the joy of prayer, the joy of almsgiving, and yeah, even the joy of fasting too.

Celeste Iyinbo: It is such a wonderful time and I think I totally agree with everything that you're saying and when you're saying about, you know, sometimes you might say, oh, we're going to give up some buying crisps or, you know, or having chocolates and stuff like that. But then also, as you said, it's about how can I help people? How can I give back in this time?

Bishop Stephen Wright: I once had it explained, I remember a priest giving a homily and I've nicked this so many times as well. The fasting is not about a diet, it might be a diet, but Lent is not about a diet in that sense. Lent is about giving something up to show the love of self so that you can serve other people. And it's why the three go together, because if you just do the fasting, it's a diet basically, but if we do the fasting together with the prayer, together with the almsgiving, it holds together as the great commandments of loving God, loving our neighbour as ourself. That's why the three go together.

Celeste Iyinbo: It's a very special time, I think around Easter, is when a lot of new Catholics are received. How, what do you feel about that? Is that like another really special time for you?

Bishop Stephen Wright: It is and in fact today I've just been arranging on the first Sunday of Lent and this will happen in all dioceses I'm sure. We have what's called the right of election and those who are to be received into full communion with the church at Easter, they gather in the cathedral and we have a little prayer service and in fact they all come up and say hello and I'm really looking forward to that. So I've done it a few times in Birmingham alongside the other bishops there but this will be my first time here in Hexham and Newcastle and I'm really, really looking forward to that. And again, obviously I'll be celebrating the Easter Vigil at the Cathedral. You'll have to forgive me, I'm not sure if there are any candidates being received then. I will be informed in due course and I'll discover that on the first Sunday of Lent, but it's such a joy, again such a joy. And it's a particular point you want for me because I've spoken about my dad, God rest his soul, but he actually went through that process. He wasn't born a Catholic, he became... In fact, he kind of journeyed, I suppose, from being a respectful agnostic, I suppose, when I was younger, to becoming in full communion. And he did so a few years before he died. So it has that additional element to me.

Celeste Iyinbo: Yeah, that connection. That's such a personal connection as well.

Bishop Stephen Wright: I think it's a sign that the Church is alive, you know, when we're attracting adults and families, that they're seeing something of the Lord in other people and invariably they come into contact with the Catholic faith through other people, through the practice and the example, not a clergy, but of lay people, and that is profound and it's very humbling. I look forward to hearing their stories of, why are you here? Why are you here? How has the Lord spoken to you? And that's our vocation and we all have it and we should all share it.

Celeste Iyinbo: I think there's something interesting about people that get received into the church rather than say like cradle Catholics, because I feel like they've got such fire in them and they're so alive for it.

Bishop Stephen Wright: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. And we've just been, I mean, just a few days ago, we celebrated the conversion of St Paul. And a lot of people will go through conversion experiences later in life, and they come to the faith. But you're quite right. But the communities in which that happened, it says something powerful about the godliness of that community. And that is a great joy.

Celeste Iyinbo: So that's wonderful. Thank you so much. So Bishop Stephen, we just wanted to say, if you had maybe a message for followers and supporters of CAFOD and to everybody who's listening to our podcast.

Bishop Stephen Wright: I just want to say an enormous thank you. I just want to say an enormous thank you for your generosity, for your commitment, for your advocacy, above all for your prayers. We know here at home there's a cost of living crisis which frankly is getting worse. Times are difficult here. But we also recognise the needs of our sisters and brothers in other parts of the world is similarly difficult. We also recognise that it's a troubled world at the moment, for those of us who have been around on it for a while. The news can very often be more dispiriting that it has been in the past and there have been growing conflicts here, there and everywhere. And we pray for peace. And we pray for those who can seriously bring about the cessation of violence, bring about the genuine respect that every human person is due because they're made in the image and likeness of God, that they bring that peace and that respect about. And we do that through our prayer, we do that through our advocacy, we do that through our example. And I'd just like to say an enormous thank you to everyone involved in CAFOD for their example. It is a great example for our society, worldwide society, and we need it more and more. So just a huge, huge thank you.

Celeste Iyinbo: That wraps up another insightful episode of Voices of Change, a heartfelt thank you to Bishop Stephen Wright for sharing his journey and perspectives with us today. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to follow and share with your friends and family and stay tuned for more stories of change. Thank you, Bishop Stephen.