Bishop of Helsingør visits St Alban's Copenhagen

Archdeacon LLoyd with Bishop Lise-Lotte
The Bishop of Helsingør, the Rt Revd Lise-Lotte Rebel was the ecumenical guest at the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols recently held at St Alban's Copenhagen and gave the blessing at the end of the service. St Alban's has an historic link with Helsingør as the first English congregation in Denmark started in 1793 in that town. Bishop Lise-Lotte was the first woman bishop in the Lutheran Church of Denmark, and has served as a bishop since 1995.

While the Church of England is still seeking to find a suitable measure to enable the consecration of women as bishops, it should not be forgotten that many Church of England congregations in the Nordic countries already have experience of life within dioceses of churches in communion, whose bishops are women. Commenting on this, Archdeacon Jonathan LLoyd, Chaplain at St Alban's and Archdeacon of Germany and Northern Europe said, "The Danish Church is taking a keen interest in the recent General Synod debate on women bishops, as one of their conditions for joining the Porvoo Communion in 2010 was that the Church of England will follow through its theological commitment to have women bishops. In the Nordic/Baltic Deanery we work in close partnership with women bishops with whom we are in full communion, in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Our ecumenical partnerships in this archdeaconry are very important to our mission and ministry, and Bishop Lise-Lotte was pleased to know that the Diocese in Europe Synod voted in favour of the legislation."


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