Eurobishop

On 29 June, the Revd Robert Ellis, Chaplain of Mallorca , duly commissioned by the bishop, licensed the Reverend Canon Willam Melvyn (Mel) Smith, as Assistant Chaplain in the Anglican Church of Mallorca . There are three Anglican congregations on the island, St Philip and St James in Palma de Mallorca , St Andrew's in Puerto Pollensa , and Santa Maria del Mar in Cala d'Or . As Assistant Chaplain, Fr Mel will be responsible for work in the north of the island, centred in Puerto Pollensa . The above photo shows a gathering for a few drinks in the Bar Cultural after the licensing. The Eucharist was in the RC Church of Nuestra Señora del Carmen where worship is held each Sunday. (Left to right: Reader Linda Cade , Ibiza Chaplain Bob Short, retired priest Roy Greenwood, Mel and Kasia Smith, Congregational Wardens Mary Payne and Geoff Thomas, Mallorca Chaplain Robert Ellis). Fr Mel has served as the Diocesan Stewardship and Resources Officer of the Diocese of Worc...

Photo from Wikipedia In late May 1916 HMS E18, a submarine sent by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, to support the Russian Fleet, left the port of Tallinn and was lost along with its crew of 31 while on patrol in the Baltic Sea. For over 90 years the wreck had never been found. It was discovered in October 2009, off the coast of the Estonian Island of Hiiumaaa , by a remotely operated underwater vehicle deployed by a Swedish survey vessel. It is believed that the E18 was sunk by a German mine, possibly on 2 June 1916. On 30 May in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Tallinn, a Service of Remembrance held for the crew members who perished in the disaster. The service was conducted jointly by the Very Revd Gustav Piir , (the Church of England priest-in-charge in Tallinn), Revd Sean Carter RN, and the Revd Tõnis Kark of the Estonian Defence Force. Wreaths were laid by British and Russian representatives of the families, embassies and veterans...

The Revd Bob Bates, Chaplain of St Vincent’s in the Algarve, has recently completed a walk traversing the vast territory of the "parish" in the southernmost region of Portugal. (St Vincent's is made up, presently, of three congregations). Teaming up with Terry Ames of Algarve Walking Experience (grey shirt on the right) the pair walked the 260 kms from Alcoutim on the Spanish border to Cape St Vincent in just 7.5 days averaging just under 40 kms each day. The route chosen, called the Algarve Way, loosely follows the route which the Pilgrims of St Vincent took to the saint’s one time burial place at the south westerly extreme of Europe where mainland meets the Atlantic Ocean. Whilst the initial aim of the walk was to raise the profile of the Church of England Chaplaincy in that part of the Diocese of Europe Father Bob was also able to raise over €3,000 through sponsorship to help to supply air conditioning units at the Lar São Vincente, a home for severely mentally dis...

St George's Memorial Church, Ypres , Belgium, was packed last Sunday for a special service of E vensong to mark the retirement of the Revd Canon Ray Jones. Clergy from Belgium, military personnel, representatives of the city of Ypres and province of West Flanders, ecumenical guests and many laity from St George's and neighbouring congregations came to say farewell. A choir from Dartford Parish Church sang the service. After the Great War, St George's was built as a memorial to those who had paid the ultimate sacrifice in WWI. It has, over the years, become a place of pilgrimage for veterans, relatives of the fallen and in recent years, schoolchildren. Fr Ray has helped to develop a unique spiritual role for St George's, to deepen the experience of those who come to visit these battlefields, and to challenge them to search for God’s will for peace and reconciliation for humankind. Prior to coming to St George's 10 years ago, Fr Ray served as a priest in Fuen...

The Revd Canon Mark Oakley, currently Priest-in-Charge of Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair, has been appointed Canon Treasurer of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. As a residentiary canon he will carry particular responsibility for the fabric and collections and will take his place alongside the other staff in the work and mission of the Cathedral, one of the most famous churches in the world. I have had the privilege of working very closely with Fr Mark. Prior to his current post in Grosvenor Chapel, he was Archdeacon of Germany and Northern Europe and the chaplain of St Alban's Copenhagen. Like so many in this diocese I have come to appreciate his great gifts in ministry, and his joyous and creative approach to communicating the Gospel. His wit brightened many a boring diocesan meeting! Commenting on his appointment, Fr Mark said, "I am delighted to be joining the team at St Paul’s. It is an honour to be asked to contribute to the artistic and imaginative vocation of the ca...

The new Diocesan Environmental Officer, Madeleine Holmes (above), represented the diocese at the 8th Assembly of the European Christian Environmental Network, ECEN , in Prague from 9 - 13 June, one of 85 participants from 23 European countries. The theme for the assembly was Our Daily Bread - Living in a Time of Climate Change .  ECEN is the main instrument of the Conference of European Churches for addressing environmental issues, and also works closely with the World Council of Churches and with the Council of European (Roman  Catholic) Bishops' Conferences . Madeleine notes that despite the disappointing outcome from the COP15 United Nations climate summit last December in Copenhagen, churches continue to be committed to addressing the challenges of global warming which threaten God's creation on earth. One way is to encourage Christians to review our eating habits. Intensive meat production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Madeleine wri...

Each year the Anglican and Old Catholic Bishops in Europe meet for consultation, prayer and fellowship. From 17 to 18 June we gathered at Propstei Wislikofen , a historic former monastery north of Zurich. A photo of the beautiful chapel is above. As well as sharing information about news and developments in each jurisdiction, there was much discussion about the implications of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Pentecost Letter and the response by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church, both dealing with the present divisions within the Anglican Communion. The decision by the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, subsequent to the Archbishop of Canterbury's letter, to ask the Revd Carola Von Wrangel from the Episcopal Church to step down from membership on the Anglican-Old Catholic Coordinating Council was received with sadness by the bishops. We noted that the Coordinating Council is not strictly speaking an ecumenical dialogue, but an in...

June 20 is designated each year by the United Nations as World Refugee Day, set aside to lift up the concerns of people around the world who have been displaced by war, violence and persecution. This year the UN has focused on commemorating those who have died on their way to seeking safety. Only a small minority of the world's refugees find protection in Europe: 80% are hosted in the developing nations of Africa and Asia. Nevertheless, a ccess to asylum procedures in EU countries is beco ming increasingly difficult. Given the global refugee crisis, Doris Peschke , the General Secretary of the Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe , has said that. “European countries can and have to do more to provide protection to refugees. In addition to assisting the poorer countries to provide protection, food, shelter and water, more European countries need to participate in and establish regular programmes to resettle refugees to European countries. The cooperation bet...

The Revd Mark Collinson, the Chaplain of Christ Church Amsterdam, and Amsterdam South, in a comment on this blog, questioned of the "magic figure" of 270 congregations in this diocese. It is a number that has been in general use for a number of years. Mark writes that during his "idle hours" (I am certain he has few of these!), he counted the number of locations served by our diocese. He discovered that we actually offer worship in 309 locations . 170 provide worship every Sunday, and another 139 less frequently or not on Sunday. I have changed the welcome note at the top of this blog accordingly. One of the newer congregation in the diocese is a plant from Christ Church Amsterdam known as "Amsterdam South". Christ Church (with Amsterdam South) has an attractive website here .

St Catherine's English Church, Stuttgart, built in 1867, was largely destroyed by Allied bombers in November 1944. After the war, the church, now mainly rubble, was sold to the Old Catholics who set about rebuilding it, using as many of the original stones and carvings as possible. Unfortunately, the fine English organ which was in one of the transepts could not be saved. When the renovations were completed, the Old Catholics invited the Church of England to return to the building to use it as guests. Both the Old Catholics and the Anglicans have had to make-do with a rather poor electronic instrument, not really fitting for the fine building and the growing musical tradition in St Catherine's. In gratitude for many years of cooperation with our Old Catholic brothers and sisters, the Anglican congregation, under the leadership of the Priest-in-Charge, the Revd Ken Dimmick , has undertaken to complete "the final stage" of the rebuilding of the church by installing a...

Fathers' Day was first celebrated in 1910, in Spokane, WA, USA, and thus is 100 years old this year. In the countries of our diocese Fathers' Day is observed at different times of the year. Some celebrate it, logically, in conjunction with St Joseph's Day on 19 March: Andorra, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Some Nordic / Baltic countries mark the day on the second Sunday of November: Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. There are some which follow the UK / USA pattern of the third Sunday in June: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine and many of our congregations in these countries will be mark the day this Sunday 20th June. The Church of England has brought together some material that can be used at services for Fathers' Day. They are suitable for use this coming Sunday or whenever Fathers' Day will be observed in our congregations. I ncluded is a prayer that can be used by chil...

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams celebrates his 60th birthday today, 14 June. As a diocese in the province of Canterbury, we pray for him regularly, of course. I know that he holds the Diocese in Europe in his own prayers, and we are thankful to have a Metropolitan who knows and understands our particular needs in Europe. Criticism of his leadership continues from many in the Church in England and beyond. These days, more than ever, Archbishop Rowan needs our prayerful support. Almighty God, giver of all good things, Who by Thy Holy Spirit hast appointed divers orders of ministers in Thy Church: Mercifully behold Thy servant Rowan enthroned into the high office and dignity of Archbishop and Metropolitan of this Province; and replenish him so with the truth of Thy doctrine, and adorn him with innocency of life, That both by word and deed he may faithfully serve Thee in this office, to the glory of Thy Name, and the edifying and well governing of Thy Ch...

The Reverend J.C.D. ‘Charlie’ Newcombe, began work as Assistant Chaplain at the Anglican Church of St Paul, Tervuren (near Brussels), Belgium, on 6 June 2010. Charlie comes to this diocese from Emmanuel Church, Wimbledon, where he was Assistant Curate. He studied geology then worked for 5 years in Christian youth work before training for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. We welcome Charlie to the Diocese in Europe! St Paul's Tervuren website is here .

In his Pentecost letter, the Archbishop of Canterbury warned of certain consequences for provinces of the Anglican Communion which have failed to stand by the three moratoria . (No authorisation of blessings services for same-sex unions; no consecrations of bishops living in same-sex relationships; and no bishop authorising any ministry within the diocese of another bishop without explicit permission). One consequence would be that representatives from such provinces w ould not be able to participate in the formal international interchurch dialogues of the Communion. One of those dialogues is the Anglican-Old Catholic International Co-ordinating Council ( AOCICC ), the official instrument set up to deepen the relationship of communion established in 1931 between the Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht . As the member Churches of the Union of Utrecht are all European, the AOCICC is effectively a European body. (I am one of the members, appo...

Close links have been built up over the past couple of years between our parish of St Catherine, Stuttgart, and Patch Barracks, the home of US European Command ( EUCOM ) and headquarters for the US armed forces in Europe. (The barracks are named after General Alexander McCarrell "Sandy" Patch, who commanded the US Seventh Army which crossed the Rhine into Germany in WWII). Many of the personnel and their families are members and active supporters of St Catherine's. It helps that our priest-in-charge of St Catherine's, the Revd Ken Dimmick (above right), is himself from the USA and has some military experience. About 20,000 US military personnel and their families are associated with Patch. Last Sunday afternoon I had the joy of preaching at a "Baccalaureate Service" for the graduating class of 2010 from the American High School on the base. The service was organised by one of the members of St Catherine's, Mrs Barbara Crandall , whose own family a...

Today the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has elected its first woman bishop. The Revd Irja Askola is to be the new bishop of Helsinki in succession to the Rt Revd Dr Eero Huovinen who is retiring at the beginning of September, having been in post since 1991. Bishop-elect A skola won out over her rival candidate, Helsinki Cathedral Dean Matti Poutiainen . The voting was close, 591 to 567. The consecration will take place in Helsinki Cathedral on Sunday 12 September. Pastor Askola was ordained in 1988. She has extensive ecumenical experience having worked for 8 years at the Conference of European Churches, based in Geneva. She is presently the theological advisor to B ishop Mikko Heikka of Espoo . About 4.3 million people, over 80% of the population of the country, are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. There are 9 dioceses, 8 are geographical and the 9th non-geographical, serving the Swedish speaking minority in the country. 38% of ...

The most recent statistics for ministry in the Church of England are those for the end of 2008. They point to a healthy situation with regards to vocations and ministry in our Church. For instance, there were about 12,000 licensed clergy and almost 8,000 readers and Church Army officers. In addition there were almost 1,600 chaplains to prisons, hospitals, the armed forces and in education, and around 7,120 retired clergy and readers with permission to officiate. In 2008 the Church of England recommended 490 persons for ordination training. 574 (274 women and 300 men) were ordained in 2008, the highest number since the year 2000. (In the entire Roman Catholic Church in Belgium, there were 6 ordinations in the same year). The generally healthy state extends to our ow n Diocese in Europe where we have 152 licensed priests and deacons and 98 active readers who serve our 270 congregations. 28 of the clergy are women. We are supporting 39 men and wome...