Bishop of Reading Olivia Graham announces retirement date

The Right Reverend Olivia Graham used her work to tackle issues like knife crime and climate change

The Bishop of Reading has announced she will retire later this year.

The Right Reverend Olivia Graham was the first woman to be made a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Oxford.

It is a position she has held for five years, during which she championed young people and led the Church of England's response to climate change.

She has spent 27 years in ministry and will lay down her crosier on 30 September. Her successor is expected to be named in the coming months.

Bishop Graham said it had been an "absolute honour and privilege" to be a part of so many milestone moments in people's lives.

"I have shared in ministry over the years with outstanding colleagues, and their commitment, wisdom and friendship has been a constant inspiration to me," she said.

"As I prepare to step back from this role, I do so with unshakable confidence in the goodness of God, who is always doing a 'new thing', worked out through God's wonderful people in the diocese."

She was announced as Bishop of Reading in July 2019 and used her work with the church to engage with young people and look at the impact of knife crime on their lives.

'Inspired love and confidence'

She led the diocese's and the Church of England's response to climate change, attending the COP26 conference in Glasgow and worked closely with other faith leaders on environmental leadership.

The Bishop of Oxford, the Right Reverend Dr Steven Croft, said: "Olivia has inspired love and confidence across the area and the wider diocese both inside and beyond the Church."

He added: "I know Bishop Olivia and her husband Keith will be greatly missed across the diocese and especially in Berkshire when Olivia retires, but I know Olivia will want to be fully engaged in supporting God's mission in her remaining months in post."

The Diocese of Oxford is the Church of England in the Thames Valley region of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. 

There are more than 800 churches in 626 parishes, the largest number of churches of any diocese in the Church of England.

The diocese is also home to 285 schools and academies, educating some 60,000 pupils. 

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