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Raised in Surrey, Bishop Rob Wickham studied geography at Durham University, specialising in urban regeneration. Bishop Rob has also completed an MA in Theology, politics and faith-based organisations.
Before training for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, he witnessed high unemployment while working in a Tyneside council estate in the declining years of the nearby the Swan Hunter Shipyard, where decades earlier his grandfather had worked.
As rector of St John’s, Hackney, in east London, then-Fr Rob oversaw a re-ordering of the 2,000-seater church to allow for greater community use. The church hosted concerts, job fairs, a food bank, a night shelter, debt advice, the local branch of the credit union, and what became the most-used knife bin in London.
In 2015 was made Bishop of Edmonton in north London, becoming the country’s youngest bishop at only 43.