Our guest speaker, the Right Reverend June Osborne, spoke about the challenges that women have faced, and still face, in the hierarchy of the Anglican Church. Until recently, June was Bishop of Llandaff in the Church of Wales. In 1994 she was one of the first women to be ordained in England. She moved to Salisbury and served as Canon Treasurer until her appointment as Dean in 2004. She remained in Salisbury until her consecration as Bishop of Llandaff in 2017. June was subjected to an investigation following an allegation of bullying, but the allegation was later dropped. June also discussed the challenges faced by other women in different spheres of life.
President Jenny welcomed Leonie Maclay as a new member of Soroptimists International. Jenny repeated her plea to members to come forward to fill the empty Executive roles.
In our spot ‘Meet the Exec’, Michelle Smith told us the story of her life. Having claimed it was so boring she needed to keep everyone awake with a Powerpoint presentation, Michelle told a fascinating tale of moves around UK, changes of career and most impressive of all, how she saved the life of her husband while he was having a heart attack! Thank goodness for CPR training! The British Heart Foundation later presented her with an award for her achievement.