THE BISHOP of Reading is stepping down after more than two decades of service, the Diocese of Oxford has announced.
The Rt Revd Olivia Graham gave a farewell service on Sunday, September 30, during which she laid down her crozier, mitre, and cope, leaving the role she has performed for five years.
Hundreds gathered at the service to bid farewell to the Bishop and celebrate her further 22 years of ordained service in the diocese.
The event saw readings from two teenagers who had joined Bishop Olivia on a retreat to Taizé in France, as well as farewell wishes from Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, Andrew Try, and John Sykes, Chairman of the House of Laity, Oxford Diocesan Synod.
It also saw musical accompaniment from Reading Gospel Choir, the Choir of St Paul’s Wokingham, and the Choir of Reading Minster.
During the service Bishop Olivia was also presented with the gift of a rose, named Gabriel, as she paid tribute to the staff who supported her, including the “remarkable and committed” clergy and lay leaders who served alongside her.
She also noted that she had been astonished and humbled by the volunteers whose work she had witnessed during her time.
Revd Graham said during the service: “In a few minutes I will lay down the pastoral staff of the Bishop of Reading.
“It is a weighty thing, designed and made by Victorian craftsmen for the first Bishop of Reading in 1890 with the general assumption that bishops come with large biceps.”
She added: “The ministry I have held has felt weighty at times, there have been difficult conversations, finely balanced decisions, situations without any clear answers.
“There has been a constant need for vigilance, and constant prayer for wisdom– but there hasn’t been a day which I have not felt the joy of it, the privilege of being trusted with it, and the curiosity of wondering what God will do next.
“If I have a parting message it is perhaps a plea, that we, the flawed, sometimes irritable, sometimes argumentative, always deeply loved, body of Christ continue to share bread and to make the road by travelling together with Jesus.”
Bishop Olivia began her career in teaching and international development in Africa, including seven years working for Oxfam.
Ordained in 1997, Rvd Graham then served in the Diocese of Oxford, in Garsington, Princes Risborough, and Burnham, before becoming a Parish Development Advisor and then the Archdeacon of Berkshire in 2013.
She was appointed Bishop of Reading in July 2019.
She is also trained as an Ignatian spiritual director and leads retreats, and in her family life is married to partner Keith, with whom she has had three children.
The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd Steven Croft, said: “Your courage in accepting that call, and in the way you have exercised your ministry, in your advocacy for the environment, in your as it seemed fearless challenges to many different people, always delivered with love and kindness, in the way you have stepped into your civic role so courageously in the work you have done in the national church, and in so many other ways.
“Each of us by the grace of God brings many gifts to the life of God’s church but we will remember you, I will remember you, especially for the courage you have brought to this ministry and I speak, I think, on behalf of everyone gathered here when I say we will miss you deeply.”
The next Bishop of Reading is due to be announced later in the year.
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