Jo Bailey Wells, 1995

The Rt Rev'd Dr Jo Bailey Wells became Chaplain at Clare in 1995 and then the Dean in 1998 and the first female Dean of a Cambridge College. She has recently begun a new role as the Bishop for Episcopal Ministry in the Anglican Communion.

Who was your greatest Clare influence and why?

It was probably Prof Kurt Lipstein who left the biggest mark. Our friendship grew through countless kerbside conversations in Newnham or along the Avenue where our cycle paths crossed, as well as after chapel services. Renowned as a specialist in international and comparative law, I was entrusted rather with his personal story as a pre-war German Jewish immigrant, whose parents died in concentration camps and was himself imprisoned in an internment camp. How such a gracious, self-effacing soul could be denoted an ‘enemy alien’ continues to baffle me – yet even more the way in which the experience of suffering had served to deepen his generosity, thus turning his life to face outwards and to share every blessing he’d ever found.

Jo's Story

When people would ask what a Dean does, I used to quip it was about ‘making the workings of the college human and its worship divine’. When I think back – indeed even when I visited Clare recently – it’s the living in community that feels most distinctive as well as most rare. There are many contexts where one can find intellectual rigour, or musical excellence, or competitive sport, or social inclusion, but it is hard to think of any single circumstance where these come together so closely and effectively around the four sides of a few small squares. How and where else in this world do we get the experience of living and belonging together like that, not just as Facebook friends or Twitter followers but in real-time safe space where the whole of life can be explored and expanded, negotiated and shared, risked and supported. I’ve worked at building community ever since – from an outer urban estate in Norwich, to a student campus in North Carolina, to a religious community in Lambeth Palace, and now to Anglican bishops in 165 countries around the globe… following a similar model yet lacking and longing for the glorious infrastructure bequeathed by Lady de Clare!