Porvoo and Meissen on the Canary Islands

The Revds Tom Barnfather and Knut Kaldestad

The Porvoo and Meissen ecumenical agreements are alive and well across our diocese. One example of our close cooperation is on the island of Lanzarote where our own priest, Fr Tom Barnfather, and the priest of the Norwegian Church and the pastors of German Protestant Church meet regularly for prayer, mutual support, consultation and fellowship.

The Porvoo Agreement brings the Anglican Churches of Britain and Ireland into communion with the Nordic and Baltic Lutheran Churches (except in Latvia) and the Meissen Agreement permits mutual Eucharistic hospitality between the Church of England and the EKD, (German Protestant Church).

On a recent pastoral visit to Lanzarote I was able to have some conversation with the Norwegian and German pastors who told me about their own ministry, which is quite similar to the work of our priests in Spain. Like the Church of England in Europe, the Norwegian and German churches provide spiritual homes and pastoral care for their respective diasporas and visitors, as well as providing a cultural and social meeting place. We joined in one of the Norwegian cultural traditions following our meeting: coffee and waffles!



The Norwegian Priest in Lanzarote is the Revd Knut Kaldestad and the German pastors are a husband and wife team, the Revds Rainer Wutzkowsky and Renate Sturm-Wutzkowsky. They were also very keen to learn about Bishop Justin Welby, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.

Comments

  1. Anonymous4 December 2012 at 17:58

    Glad to hear you can enjoy a taste of Norway even down there in the warm South! Mary, Trondheim

    ReplyDelete

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