The New Zealand-born founding Bishop of Eastern Zambia, Bishop John Osmers, has died in Zambia after a brief illness with Covid-19. He was 86 years old.

Bishop John Osmers CNZM, who died in Zambia on 16 June, has been well-known and loved in Aotearoa New Zealand for many years, not only by his family, churches and communities he belonged to, but for his lifetime spent upholding human rights in the face of racism and oppression. He is known particularly for his work in the movement against apartheid in South Africa, and in his care and advocacy for refugees.

Bishop John Osmers is also well-known as the survivor of an apartheid Government terror attack in 1979. While working with anti-apartheid student activists in Lesotho, South African security forces sent him a parcel bomb, which went off in front of him in a friend’s home, seriously injuring John and five others and causing the loss of his right hand.

At Bishop John’s funeral at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka on 26 June, Bishop of Eastern Zambia, the Rt Rev William Mchombo spoke of John’s resolve to work harder in the liberation struggle after the bomb, because in that attack he said the apartheid regime had confirmed that his work was important.

Bishop Mchombo spoke of Bishop John’s lifetime of advocacy and care in southern Africa, especially to the African National Congress in exile, to many different people in prison and refugee camps, and all to whom he ministered in Zambia, South Africa, Botswana and Lesotho.

“He was a father and a brother of many. He was a living saint who touched many lives … with his selfless leadership and a strong sense of social justice.” said Bishop Mchombo.

Bishop Mchombo said John Osmers was an inspiration to many and will always be remembered in Eastern Zambia, where he had only recently attended the opening of a new diocesan building named in his honour.

Archbishop of Capetown and Primate of Southern Africa, the Most Rev Thabo Makgoba offered his condolences in a message read at Bishop John’s memorial service on 26 June at the Transitional Cathedral in Christchurch.

“John Osmers was an extraordinary pastor, prophet and priest who selflessly dedicated his life to the liberation and welfare of God’s people, especially in Southern Africa.”

“Although we mourn his death, we also, along with many thousands of people to whom he ministered, celebrate an extraordinary life ...”

Archbishop Thabo said Bishop John achieved distinction in multiple countries as a consequence of his lifelong work as a faithful servant of God. Archbishop Thabo shared the words of a young South African student that John had cared for alongside other students in exile,

‘Bishop John gave his home, his telephone and his meagre supplies for all of us. His little van carried young refugees around. He remembered their birthdays, he took them to the hospital when ill and he took them blankets in winter.”

Bishop John’s sister Elizabeth Gordon told the story of John Osmers’ life that began as the eldest son of the three children in their “thoroughly Anglican family,” with their father an Anglican priest and their mother, a travelling secretary for the Anglican Girl’s Bible Class Union.

John Osmers was not the first in his family to choose a Christian path that led to political liberation. Bishop John’s great uncle was the Rev Charles Freer Andrews (Deenabandhu), an English priest who spent his life working in India where he was an activist for Indian independence and a close friend of Mahatma Ghandi.*

John Osmers went to Christchurch Boy’s High School, then to Canterbury College, where he gained an MA in English literature and was a leader in the Student Christian Movement (SCM), a role he returned to later as Secretary of Lesotho SCM.

Moved by the evils of apartheid in Trevor Huddleston’s book, ‘Naught for your Comfort’ John determined he would go to that country to understand it first hand.

So in 1958 he travelled to South Africa and spent six weeks touring by motorbike, visiting Black communities with his friend Ernest Gallo, a Black student member of the ANC, who introduced him to his political views on the state of South Africa.

John went next to the UK, where he studied the Sesotho language and African studies at the University of London, preparing for his hoped-for return to Africa. Also in the UK, he trained for the Anglican priesthood at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield, learning much from the life of its monastic community.

After serving as curate in the Yorkshire town of Rawmarsh for three years, in 1965 John returned to Africa to minister in the huge parish of Quthing with one small church and up to 70 congregations in south Lesotho. There he developed great respect for the work of Save the Children, which funded gardens to provide midday meals for local school children living in poverty.

But for John, food aid wasn’t all the people needed.

“He believed it wasn’t enough to give people food, what they needed was political change, to change the Government and get rid of the evil system of apartheid.” recalled Elizabeth at his memorial.

When John began to share those ideas in Lesotho he was banned by the South African Government. That was in 1970.

Then in 1976, the South African police opened fire on Soweto high school children demonstrating against compulsory instruction in Afrikaans, and thousands fled into Lesotho, where John organised care for the young refugees, finding schools for them and supporting their education in refugee camps.

South Africa’s current Ambassador to Spain, Her Excellency Thenjiwe Mtintso remembers how John Osmers cared for her son on his arrival in Lesotho, after her son had suffered multiple detentions and then banishment from South Africa,

“My son called him a Samaritan. John was an embodiment of Ubuntu: humaneness, compassion, solidarity, love and care and many such best human values.”

John’s work with students exiled in Lesotho continued until 1979, when he was grievously injured by parcel bomb sent by South African security forces.

John’s sister Elizabeth evacuated her brother to the UK to recover, and while he was away, in 1980 the Lesotho Government (pressured by South Africa) banned him from returning, a penalty that for John was worse than the bomb itself.

At that time, anti-apartheid work was growing in Aotearoa New Zealand, and through HART (Halt All Racist Tours) John Minto invited Bishop John to spend time back at home contributing to their movement protesting the Springbok Tours.

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Rt Hon Helen Clark recalled those times in her condolence message on 26 June,

“John Osmers was a New Zealander who dedicated his life to peace and justice at great risk to his own life. As a young activist in the anti-apartheid movement in the early 1980s, I was inspired by the sacrifices of John Osmers and Michael Lapsley.”

Current Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern highlighted John’s anti-apartheid work in Aotearoa in her condolences on Fr John’s death,

“It is with great sadness that I heard of the passing of Bishop John Osmers, a man whose passionate pursuit of social justice is a powerful example to us all.”

“He was a courageous voice for equality, and continued his fight for inclusivity undeterred by the clear personal danger that he was in.”

After his recovery, being unable to return to Lesotho or South Africa, John moved to Botswana invited by the Archbishop of Central Africa. He stayed there for eight years, supporting the ANC until in 1988 South Africa’s apartheid Government sent a death squad into the country to kill him.

Leaving everything behind, John fled Botswana and settled in Lusaka in Zambia, where he worked as a parish priest and chaplain to the 3000-strong cadre of the ANC in exile.

John served in the Anglican Church of Zambia for thirty years, including seven years as the first Bishop of Eastern Zambia from 1995-2002.

John’s sister Elizabeth remembered John’s caution about taking up that episcopal role.

“He didn’t think it was right for white people to be bishops in Africa. He didn’t believe in it. But there was no other candidate. He began that ministry with no priests, no house and no vehicles….and today, it is a flourishing diocese.”

In recent years, not long before Bishop John lost his sight in 2015, he reconnected with Aotearoa New Zealand, coming back frequently to retain the residency status that enabled him to live on a New Zealand pension – and shared it with the 23 refugee students whose university fees he was paying, including the five Rwandan refugees who lived in his house in Zambia.

Fuller accounts of Bishop John Osmers’ life and ministry can be found in his Lusaka funeral liturgy livestream, during the Christchurch memorial service and on his Wikipedia page.

John’s family have established the John Osmers Memorial Fund for Refugee Education which aims to help the students John was sponsoring to complete their education. Any donations would be greatly appreciated. You can give via the Givealittle page: givealittle.co.nz/cause/john-osmers-memorial-fund-for-refugee-education

Elizabeth Gordon’s full eulogy for her brother is here, Fr Jim Consedine's reflection on John Osmer's theology, life and ministry is here. The reflection from the Dean of St Luke’s Cathedral Msoro, Very Rev Edward Zimba is here and a condolence message from Christian Miko, one of the students who lived in his home, is here.

*Rev C.F. Andrews later contributed to ending the practice of indentured labour in Fiji.