New Bishop of Llandaff appointed
One of the most senior and experienced church leaders in the UK will be the next Bishop of Llandaff.
June Osborne, who has served as Dean of Salisbury for the past 13 years, has been chosen as the 72nd Bishop of Llandaff, a diocese which serves most of Cardiff, the South Wales Valleys and the Vale of Glamorgan.
A ground-breaking figure in the Church of England, Dean June was the first female Dean to be appointed to a medieval cathedral, having served as Salisbury Cathedral’s Canon Treasurer for nearly 10 years. She has been active in the national life of the Church of England, serving for many years on General Synod’s Standing Committee, including sitting on the Panel of Chairs.
The announcement was made today (April 27) by the Church in Wales Bishops who became responsible for the Bishop of Llandaff appointment when no candidate nominated at the Electoral College in February secured enough votes for election.
The appointment will be confirmed on July 14 at a meeting of the Sacred Synod of Church in Wales Bishops in Brecon Cathedral where Dean June will be consecrated as Bishop the following day (July 15). She will be enthroned at Llandaff Cathedral on July 22.
Welcoming her appointment, the Church’s Senior Bishop, the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, John Davies, said, “In June Osborne, both the Church in Wales and the Diocese of Llandaff will find themselves to be richly blessed. June’s track record admirably demonstrates her passion for Christian ministry modelled on the Gospel imperatives of love, justice, inclusivity and openness. All of these are qualities which I and my fellow bishops warmly support and welcome. She is known as a leader with clear vision, a pastoral heart and a strategic mind, all of which commend the Church to the wider community. In this way and through her teaching, her preaching and her leadership, she reveals herself to be someone who I am confident will provide for the Diocese of Llandaff excellence in leadership and oversight. I look forward, with keen anticipation, to her arrival amongst us and to her contributions to the work of the Bench of Bishops.”
Dean June, said, “It is a very great privilege to be nominated as Bishop of Llandaff, an ancient post with many noble predecessors. It will be something of a homecoming for the family, particularly because my husband is from Cardiff and it is a place we know and love.
“Leading a diocese that is so diverse, in an area that is both historic and beautiful, will be challenging but I have an enormous appetite for the task and am deeply honoured to have the opportunity to join a diocesan team which is strong and imaginative. These are turbulent times across the world and the need for faith, and for the confident, distinctive leadership of the Church has never been more important.
“I will, of course, be sad to say goodbye to Salisbury. It has been my home, both spiritually and as a family, for over two decades. I have been surrounded by wonderful colleagues, staff and volunteers, who have made my job a joyful undertaking. It has been a great pleasure to witness how the Cathedral has developed and flourished over the years and to have shared our wonderful Magna Carta 800 celebrations. I am immensely proud of what has been achieved here and wish all at the Cathedral and its diocese well in the years to come.”
The Bishop of Salisbury, Nicholas Holtam, described June as an “outstanding Dean”. He said, “June Osborne is one of the Church of England’s leading clerics. For the last 13 years she has been an outstanding Dean of Salisbury. She has made significant contributions to the wider Church of England including helping to organise the Leading Women group which has been massively influential in growing women into positions of leadership in the Church. I am delighted she has been appointed Bishop of Llandaff. The whole of the Diocese of Salisbury will join me in giving thanks for the enormous contribution she has made to this Diocese where she has served for 22 years. We wish her well as Bishop of Llandaff and pray for her and her family as they prepare for all that lies ahead.”
One of the first women to be ordained as a priest in England in 1994, having been a Deaconess since 1980, Dean June’s ministry has been characterised by her passion for equality and diversity and she was a founder of the Church’s Leading Women programme.
She is also deeply concerned about global poverty and has worked with the Episcopal Church of the Sudan on health, theological education and advocacy. She continues to play a key role in the Anglican Communion’s commitment to implementing the Millennium Development Goals, and is a member of the Government’s Advisory Panel for the Commemoration of WW1.
Dean June will celebrate her final Sunday at Salisbury Cathedral on July 9.
BACKGROUND
A graduate in Social Sciences from Manchester University, Dean June trained for ministry at St John’s College, Nottingham and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. She was made a Deaconess in 1980 and served at St Martin-in-the-Bullring in Birmingham before moving to the Old Ford parishes in East London in 1984. Following her ordination as a priest she served as Canon Treasurer at Salisbury Cathedral and was Acting Dean of Salisbury for two years before being appointed Dean in 2004.
In her time at Salisbury, Dean June has overseen the majority of the Cathedral’s 30-year Major Repair Programme of essential work to restore the fabric of the Cathedral and safeguard it for the future. As Canon Treasurer and Dean she was instrumental in the commissioning of Salisbury Cathedral’s much-loved and admired William Pye font. In a Cathedral that has often been pioneering and had already establish the first girls’ choir in an English cathedral, she championed the installation of the girl Chorister Bishop in 2015, another historic first for the Cathedral. She played a significant role in the Magna Carta 800 celebrations two years ago, enjoying the huge range of events delivered by the Cathedral during that year. She has also been a deputy lieutenant of Wiltshire.
Dean June is married to barrister Paul Goulding QC and they have two children, Megan and Tom. Her interests include the arts and football. A lifelong supporter of Manchester City, she is looking forward to adding rugby to her portfolio of interests.
It is bewildering (and, I think, disturbing) that the CofE never appointed her. Our loss. Huge experience and competence surely by-passed while younger male candidates (including a traditionalist of course) have been found places …. ? I am very glad her gifts have been recognised and honoured and am in no doubt how much she will give to the Church of Wales.
No mention of the Welsh language which is strange.
What a joy! The news makes my heart rejoice at such a fine appointment of a wonderful lady to the diocese of Cardiff.
The sad loss to Salisbury, and the church of England. But joy to the Church in Wales, and continued Blessing to the Anglican Communion.
God Bless her, her family, and the Diocese of Cardiff.
Fr John Emlyn.
Good heavens, do we actually say “deaconess”? Why then not “priestess” and – God forbid – “bishopess”? (Although actually “shepherdess” has a certain bucolic charm, I must admit). Surely we don’t say “waitress” or “stewardess” or “Dungeness” anymore? Why then are deaconesses so special? Please, please – regardless of your sex or gender identity, you’re just a plain old deacon.
“Deaconesses” are different from “deacons”, whether the latter are male or female. Deaconesses were (re-)introduced into the CofE in the 19th century as a first step towards allowing women to do things. Deaconesses weren’t and aren’t ordained — they were a lay order of women. Many women became deaconesses because it gave them a recognised and licensed position in the church. Once the order of deacons was opened to women then most deaconesses were ordained as deacons, though I think a few chose not to be. Nor, I think, has the CofE admitted any deaconesses since then but it is… Read more »
I doubt that the Welsh Bishops could have hoped for such a coup. Apparently this appointment has expunged the injustice done to Dr John from our collective memory
My apologies, in my excitement I know that I should have referred to the diocese of Llandaff, with its beautiful cathedral. Forgive an 80 plus year-old.
Fr John Emlyn
As has been pointed out already, the word ‘deaconess’ refers to a non-ordained ministry for women, mentioned in the New Testament.
To add a little to what Simon Kershaw has written, Deaconesses are covered in a special section of the Canons of the Church of England – Section D “The Order of Deaconesses”. Canon D1.5 says “Deaconesses may accept membership of any lay assembly of the Church of England.” It is an order specified as only open to women in Canon D1.1, and is therefore a part of church legislation which still embodies discrimination. For further detail see section D of the Canons.
This is such good news. It is a crying shame that the Church of England has not recognised her talents more. This is a class act indeed: a big personality who can fill a big space,a confident and competent administrator who would be distinguished in any walk of life, an energetic and visionary leader, but most of all a thoughtful and caring priest. She is a real grown up, and you don’t meet many of those!
‘As has been pointed out already, the word ‘deaconess’ refers to a non-ordained ministry for women, mentioned in the New Testament.’ My Greek is pretty rusty, but I’m not aware the New Testament makes a distinction between male and female deacons. Or between ordained and lay, for that matter. In the C of E women were first ordained deacon in 1987. Most dioceses ordained the deaconesses (those who wanted to be deacons) first, then ordained new female deacons alongside the men. My first and only meeting with June was when she was still a deaconess; she visited Wycliffe and met… Read more »
Stanley — I myself, and perhaps a few others, may have simply been waiting a decent while for Osborne to be justly praised before raising John’s disgusting abuse during the process. Certainly it hasn’t been forgotten. We have been mentioning this on the facebook, but it is important that we support each other inter-sectionally — while Osborne’s appointment is a deep, very overdue, joy for WATCH (and, since she is very much pro-LGBTI, also for 1B1F), John’s homophobic treatment still smarts for 1B1F. As allies to one-another (and many members of each being members of the other), we must rejoice… Read more »
She sounds awesome! Just a note that the Millennium Development Goals expired in December 2015 and have been replace by the “2030 Agenda,” or Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs are worth a look and I know that some Anglicans in CoE are on it.
It looks like a great appointment to celebrate, while also keeping in mind the discrimination that JJ has suffered.
Glad to see that I can agree with rjb on something. In music, we despise the term concertmistress for female concertmasters (you would call us leaders)and “conductress” is out of the question, and yet…
I see that the Presiding Bishop in Wales says that Christian ministry based on openness is a gospel imperative. And that they have found someone with “clear vision, a pastoral heart and a strategic mind.” With respect for June Osborne, I nevertheless want to point out they had already had at least one such candidate.
The Church of England’s Order of Deaconesses will in effect come to an end with the passage of time, as “No woman shall be admitted to the order of deaconesses unless she was accepted for training for admission to that order before the commencement of the Deacons (Ordination of Women) Measure 1986” (ie 16 February 1987). [Canon D2, para 2A]
Just for clarification – deaconesses were ordained by the episcopal laying-on of hands but were still considered to be lay! Certainly Salisbury Diocese now simply lists the date of ordination to the diaconate as being the women’s date of ordination as deaconess.
But some Reform women deacons act like deaconesses…..some not even preaching to mixed congregations.
Nonetheless, Deaconesses received the laying on of hands with prayer.
In Southwark diocese under Mervyn Stockwood deaconesses were ordained along with male deacons in the 1970s.
What does ‘1B1F’ ?– used above and means nothing to me, unfortunaely.
‘No mention of the Welsh language which is strange.’
Strangely accepted as normal in the UK where Welsh is greatly and shamefully neglected, in the barrage of English, monoglot self-centred arrogance.
Even in Wales, this cultural influence is strong -especially in parts of the South.
June Osborne chaired abd edited the Osborne Report on same-sex relationships, and it was so good, that the leadership of the C of E suppressed it, famously replacing it with something that was bad at the time, and now dire.
Laurie, the reference is to this
http://onebodyonefaith.org.uk/
Re-reading and considering my comment above of 22.18 I did not intend a blanket criticism of all English people ! Who are mixed like us all. I had in mind the powerful effect of the mass English language culture, which has an over-whelming and undermining effect on, in this instance, the cultural life of Wales at every level. Bear in mind that while the Welsh language is now a minority language in its own land, in the C17th George Fox had to take an interpreter with him to translate as he went round Wales preaching ! So there has been… Read more »
This appointment to Llandaff brings the number of female bishops in the Church in Wales to one third of the total episcopal population. Wales must now hold the record within the Anglican Communion of the highest percentage of women bishops. I wonder how long it will take for neighbouring England to reach that particular fraction?
A sure sign as to how secular Wales has become is that the name David, the national Patron Saint, isn’t even in the top 100 of names given to male babies born nowadays.
June has her work cut out in converting the Ancient Britons back to the Faith of our Fathers.
Whilst this appointment is excellent in many ways (and I am sure it will be a great success), I have several misgivings: 1. It was long argued that one of the reasons why Anglicanism collapsed in Wales during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was that the four bishops were almost always English and were not capable of speaking Welsh. Inevitably, this compromised their pastorates to a significant extent (though in several regrettable instances absenteeism compounded this problem – and Llandaff was notorious for its absenteeism since the see was so poorly endowed that it was frequently held in commendam with… Read more »
Just wanted to clarify, as someone whose Greek is only slightly rusty, the New Testament categorically does not make a gender distinction that can reasonably be translated as ‘deaconess’. Phoebe, specifically named as a deacon in Romans 16, is referred to with the masculine form διάκονος/diakonos. A case can be made for translating diakonos as ‘servant’ rather than ‘deacon’- it’s used in the sense of ‘servant’ elsewhere in Romans- but if you’re going to translate it as ‘deacon’ there is absolutely no reason to distinguish the description of Phoebe from that of male deacons elsewhere in the NT epistles, unless… Read more »
“…there is insufficient talent within the Welsh province, which I hope (and am sure) is not true” says @Froghole. I am afraid it is all-too-true. As a long-standing parishioner in the Diocese of Llandaff, living within spitting distance of June Osborne’s new abode, I have witnessed the talent drain over which our previous Archbishop has presided. Too many gifted Welsh clergy have gone to the Church of England because there was no place for them amid the predictable ecclesiastical functionaries who would toe the archiepiscopal line. When a gifted woman from England became Dean of Llandaff several years ago, she… Read more »
Well, that’s Sexism dealt to in the Church of Wales. Now; what about homophobia?