Bishop June’s Highlights

Warm Hubs for a Tight Winter

Hope in Justice for School and Church

Schools and Churches are invited to follow the Hope in Justice 4-week course for Advent. The course has been compiled by the collaboration of the Diocesan Head of Education, Beccie Morteo, and Senior Outreach and Social Justice Officer, Chris Auckland. Resources for this course will include activity ideas, readings, liturgy, prayers, and collective worship slideshows. The four weeks look at helping each other in different areas in our lives and how the goodness of justice is demonstrated in the Advent story and the life of Jesus.

Week 1 - Hope in Action

Advent is a time of waiting – waiting for Jesus’ birth, waiting for Christmas. But more than that, it is a time when we reflect on the long wait for the Messiah and the justice to a damaged world that he brought. Starting with the prophet Habakkuk’s sorrowful plea to God of ‘how long must we wait?’ week one of Hope in Justice explores what justice is and how we can show it. What are we waiting for?

Week 2 - Hope in Community

Who is my neighbour? When Jesus is asked that question in the parable of the Good Samaritan it’s not out of nowhere – people had been pondering that question since the Old Testament. It can be easy to think of your neighbour as someone next door, or across the road, someone a lot like you, but Jesus’ challenge is to re-think that, to see our neighbours as everyone in the community. Week two of Hope in Justice asks “who is my neighbour” and encourages us to see ways to show love to them.

Week 3 - Hope in the World

The Bible talks a lot about welcoming strangers, but how often do we stop and remember that Jesus was himself a refugee, fleeing Bethlehem for safety in Egypt? Building on the incredible work of our Schools of Sanctuary, and the fantastic Taith Advent project, week three of Hope in Justice challenges us to think about those seeking sanctuary and reminds us of the words of the ancient Celtic poem – “often goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.”

Week 4 - Hope in Jesus

Joy to the world, the wait is over! The birth of Jesus ends the long wait for justice as an inextinguishable light joins us in the darkness. In week four, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we explore how the incarnation of Jesus amongst us in the mess of our everyday lives also challenges us to participate in his mission of justice. What are you waiting for?

Find all our Advent Hope in Justice resources on our website llandaff.churchinwales.org.uk/hope-in-justice/ Multiple churches across the diocese are setting up as Warm Hubs with the help of grants which will be open at least one day a week to the community as a comfortable space with free food and drink, games and places to natter. Rhondda Ministry Area already provide this for the Dementia Support Group and are now partnering with other denominations and primary schools to open up in a similar way for everyone. Bishop June herself is providing some financial support for the initiative.

She said, We know that there are very many people in our communities who are in trouble in their own homes of being able to, to heat send the simple comfort of being able to stay warm. And so, the initiative to create warmth hubs, community places, which are safe which where people feel that they can gain bodily comfort, but also social encouragement is a wonderful initiative. And churches will be joining with other community groups to make that happen. We wish it were not so we wish that people could be able to finance and afford their own heating. But on the other hand, the spin off from it is that we will be able to meet with people and to care for them. And to make sure they know that there is this safety on offer in the community.

Christians Against Poverty Around the Dicoese

Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who are kind to the needy

honour him. – Proverbs 14.31

As the Cost-of-Living crisis escalates this winter, CAP projects offer useful tools to offer practical and emotional support to help people get more from the money they have, whether that’s reducing debt, changing jobs, or better budget management. In the past 12 years CAP have helped over 20,000 people in the UK to become debt free, and in the last year alone over 13,000 people have been supported through a journey out of debt. This is done in the firm conviction that God calls all of us to support the marginalised and care for those struggling with poverty.

At St Donnats Church in the Cynon Valley South MA, the church is working hard to establish a CAP Job Club for this November to which the diocese is proud to be giving financial support. The Mother’s Union are donating devices to the Job Club for the attendants to use in the sessions to begin applying the skills they have learnt. This is a brilliant example of diocese, CAP, church and community collaboration that can bring these valuable local services to South Wales.

Almost a quarter of people in Wales live in poverty, and the Diocese of Llandaff includes 6 of the 10 most deprived areas of Wales. The diocese is dedicated to supporting our churches and Ministry Areas to deliver CAP projects, such as Life Skills, Debt Centres, Job Clubs and Money Courses, to help these communities during the cost-ofliving crisis and beyond. Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’

Bishop June’s Highlights

An interview with Bishop June about some of her highlights as Bishop of Llandaff Knowing the Flock

For the first year of her time as Bishop of Llandaff, The Rt Rev’d June Osborne travelled around parishes and congregations as part of her induction. She was given biographical summaries of the life of each parish and still holds them dear.

“You know, the ordination service for a bishop talks about being known, knowing your people and knowing the flock. I still have the biographical summaries of the life of each parish that were given to me in my office and I still look at them, I still go back to them. Certainly in the first couple of years, they were invaluable to me because, of course, I was learning about the diocese. I was a bit of an unknown quantity to the diocese and so what I count as very precious really is the generosity of the welcome that I had from people right across the diocese as they got to know me as the new bishop.”

Ordinations

During her five years of service, Bishop June ordained over 50 deacons through to priesthood. “It rests very firmly on a bishop’s shoulders that you replenish and renew the ministry of the church. You’ve travelled with the candidates for quite a long time, and you’ve seen them through their discernment processes. But at the same time there’s no point in me ordaining somebody unless the community of the church, and the congregation that’s gathered as a representative of the wider church, recognises the calling and legitimacy of this person. The ordination prayer has a number of different elements to it, but at the actual point of laying my hands on the heads, I ask the congregation to sing the Taisei Chant, which is “Come Holy Spirit”. It’s on top of the prayers of the people that I then lay my hands on the candidate. It’s a goose bump moment which the candidates will remember forever. It’s an extraordinary privilege and honour to be ordaining people.”

Resilience in Lockdown

March 2020 to 2021 saw the closure of hundreds of church buildings. For Bishop June, this time displayed the true heart and resilience of the Church she serves.

“Right at the core of my time as bishop was two years of lockdown. I am so proud of the way that the whole diocese and especially the clergy, just simply hung in there. Who could have believed as a bishop, that they would be asking the communities to close their churches? Yet they adapted. We discovered digital church, new ways of pastoral care, and clergy adapted to the horrendous nature of funerals. We will in years to come, look back and remember how horrible lockdown was, but there was lots of resilience and determination to stay true to who we are.”

Not a rounding off… An opening up.

“I am a great believer that a lot of what you do, you do for your successor. Sometimes you make some hard decisions. But you know, in every job I’ve done, I have right from the first day thought to myself, “What will my successor bless me for?” It’s like a relay race. I’m a great fan of Reinhold Niebuhr who said, ‘Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope.’ “I was blessed by all the faithfulness of my predecessors, and all the labour they put into this diocese. It’s a relatively short time, five years, though people tell me that I’ve done quite a lot. I knew when I would retire, I would look back not just on what I have done, but what baton I am handing on.”

Photo: Huw Ryden At the end of her final presidential address at Diocesan Conference, Bishop June said, “Thank you for allowing me to be a part of shaping Llandaff. It has been such a privilege. You have done me the greatest honour in supporting me in this calling. I thank you for your prayers. You have been such a mighty blessing to me.”

In response, Archdeacon Mike Komor has written this letter of thanks to The Right Rev’d June Osborne:

Dear Bishop June, On behalf of the diocese, it’s my privilege to thank you for your ministry to us and among us since 2017. You came to us as someone unknown to the great majority of people in the diocese, but you worked incredibly hard in your first months to familiarise yourself with Llandaff’s people and places. Very quickly you immersed yourself in our culture and customs, and swiftly began the serious work of constructing a new vision for the Church in this corner of God’s vineyard. During your oversight of the diocese, you have invested heavily, time and resources in enabling both lay and clergy to develop their leadership potential, while simultaneously driving the diocese forward along its path of reform. So many people in Llandaff have benefitted so much from the compassion, wisdom, and boldness that you have brought to bear on your episcopacy. Never one to duck the hard decisions or avoid the difficult conversations, your desire at all times has been the good of the diocese and its people. Your energy and enthusiasm for ministry has been awe-inspiring, and now that the time has come for you to take some well-earned rest our hope and prayer for you is that you will have a long, happy, and fulfilling retirement.

May God bless you, as you have blessed us.

The Ven. Mike Komor