The Bishop of Blackburn, Rt Rev. Philip North, has launched his 2023 Harvest Appeal raising money for charity CRESS UK supporting the Diocese of Liwolo in Africa. 

Bishop Philip kicks things off with a new video message - watch it below.

• Visit our Harvest Appeal page here to read more and find out more about the ways you can donate inclouding via the QR code below. Please be as generous as you can. 

Last summer, during the Lambeth Conference, Bishop Philip met one of the most inspirational Christian leaders he had ever come across. 

Bishop Joseph Aba is the Bishop of Liwolo, which is in the southern part of South Sudan.   Just two days after he was elected Bishop, that whole part of South Sudan was plunged into the most terrible and destructive Civil War.  Bishop Joseph had to lead his people into exile. 

We heard more about the experience of the people of the Diocese of Liwolo when Bishop Joseph visited the Diocese in person in March this year.

You can read more about that and hear Bishop Joseph speaking in a video all available on this page. 

And in the following video, Bishop Philip explains in more detail why we are supporting the work of Bishop Joseph and CRESS, with the full text of the message further below.

Full text of Bishop Philip's Harvest Appeal 2023 video message

Last summer during the Lambeth conference, I met one of the most inspirational Christian leaders I’ve ever come across …

Bishop Joseph Aba is the Bishop of Liwolo, which is in the southern part of South Sudan.

Now, just two days after he was elected Bishop, that whole part of south Sudan was plunged into the most terrible and destructive Civil War.

And so Bishop Joseph had to lead his people into exile.

They now live in refugee camps in the northern part of Uganda.

Bishop Joseph is serving some of the poorest people in the world; but, despite all the suffering and pain, what amazed me was the vibrancy of Bishop Joseph’s faith and his real ambition for the kingdom.

And now as those people start to return to their country; as they leave those refugee camps behind and go back to South Sudan he has the most wonderful vision of a nation transformed under Christ.

His work is not just evangelism and discipleship and church planting. His vision is so much wider than that …

He is also involved in education and healthcare; particularly wanting the best possible education for the young of South Sudan.

He is involved in the work of reconciliation, bringing together warring tribes and he wants to see agricultural security for all his people and to address issues around gender violence.
His vision is for a nation rebuilt with Christ at its heart.

The more I spoke to Bishop Joseph, the more I began to see the possibility of a friendship link between our Diocese and the Diocese of Liwolo.

These friendship links are quite difficult to arrange, so I was delighted to hear about a charity called CRESS UK; click here to find out more about them.

They are a small English charity, but one that is present on the ground in the refugee camps in Uganda and offering real practical support as people try to rebuild their shattered lives and access proper healthcare and education.

So this year for my Bishop’s Harvest Appeal we will be supporting the work of CRESS. The people of the Diocese Of Blackburn are always monumentally generous when it comes to the harvest appeal, but I hope that this year will be particularly generous.

Generous with our money, knowing that every penny given to the harvest appeal will go to a really strong cause.

But I hope above all we are generous with our prayer and we keep the people of Liwolo Diocese and Bishop Joseph, very much in our prayers as they seek to rebuild their nation.
It’s not often we find really inspirational Christian leaders.

Bishop Joseph really is one, and so I pray we can support him, his priests and his people with our generosity and our prayer and we can really make a difference.

Ronnie Semley, July 2023