Guy Hewitt

Politics in Barbados

Pastoring in Florida

Diplomat in London

Guy Arlington Kenneth Hewitt (born November 1967), a Barbardian Anglican priest and social development specialist. He held the ambassadorial appointment of High Commissioner of Barbados in London from 2014-2018.^[1][2] He previously worked with the University of the West Indies,^[3] Caribbean Policy Development Centre, Commonwealth of Nations, Caribbean Community, and the City and Guilds of London Institute.^[4]

Hewitt has been a strong advocate for the Commonwealth of Nations and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) particularly for a change in the OECD Development Assistance Committee rules to allow Caribbean and other SIDS to access development financing when devastated by catastrophic storm systems.^[5][6] In 2016, to celebrate Barbados' Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence he published Fathering A Nation on the life and legacy of Errol Barrow, the first Prime Minister of Barbados and one of the Barbadian National Heroes.^[7] He previous wrote extensively on gender-responsive national budgets.^[8]

In 2018, he was one of the leading advocates on the Windrush scandal, in which he criticised the outcomes of the immigration policies of the British government on undocumented, elderly, West Indian-born, long-term UK residents which included the denial of the right to work, denial of benefits, denial of healthcare and also for some detention and deportation.^{[9][10][11][12]} He published articles with Chatham House and the University of the West Indies on the Windrush scandal in which he outlines the strategy adopted to make the Windrush scandal a national concern and global issue and bring about a major policy u-turn.^[13][14][15] Hewitt's agitation was included in the podcast series "100 Campaigns that Changed the World".^[16]

In addition to his assignment to the Court of St James, Hewitt was the Permanent Representative to the UN International Maritime Organization, and a Governor on the Board of the Commonwealth Secretariat. He has also published a number of books and as an Anglican priest has ministered in Barbados and the wider Caribbean, North America and Europe.^[1][4] He is currently based in Southeast Florida.^[17]

As with the Windrush scandal, Hewitt has been active in the US on racial justice issues. His article No Justice, No Peace: A Christian Sociological Reflection on Race in the USA was a featured article in the Episcopal Journal.^[18] He prepared a liturgy on Black Lives Matter for Lent and collaborated on a liturgy for Juneteenth.^[19]

Hewitt supported the Barbadian government's decision to separate itself from the British monarchy and transform the nation into a republic noting that the decision to have a local head of state had long been planned, but the Windrush scandal altered perceptions of the ‘mother country’.^[20] His position strengthened in response to the Oprah Winfrey's interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. According to Hewitt, “I would say [the interview] underscores and affirms that Barbados did make the right decision to have a native born citizen as head of state”.^[21] However, he has been critical of how the current administration in Barbados is handling the process of constitutional change to a republic.^[22]

On 11 June 2021, Hewitt sought the presidency of the Democratic Labour Party, the organisation co-founded by Errol Barrow that led Barbados into Independence and enacted many of its social and economic reforms.^[23][24][25] Although unsuccessful, he remains committed to Barbados and the DLP. He continues to live and work between Florida and Barbados. Since 2019 Hewitt has been priest at St. James-in-the-Hills Episcopal Church, Hollywood, Florida.^[26][27]

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