Eurobishop

Fr Engin pictured (in white alb) directly above His Holiness This afternoon (Sunday) I received the message below from the Revd Engin Yildirim, the priest-in-charge of the Church of the Resurrection, our Turkish language parish in Istanbul. Fr Engin was one of the clergy from the very small Christian community in Turkey who was able to greet Pope Francis. _____________________________________________ Dear Friends Yesterday, Pope Francis visited Istanbul and celebrated Eucharist at St Esprit Cathedral where leaders of many Christian traditions were represented. It has been a very joyful celebration for all Christians. He delivered a very profound message about the work of the Holy Spirit towards the unity and witness of the Church. He will be visiting the Phanar (the headquarters of the Ecumenical Patriarch) today before he departs. Every blessing Fr Engin Posted with Blogsy

Bishop Farrell presents an Episcopal Ring to the Bishop-Designate of Limerick and Killaloe, Canon Kenneth Kearon. Every year those who hold official positions in the Anglican Communion with regard to Roman Catholic relations meet with their counterparts in the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) for what are termed "the Informal Talks". These are sessions when information is shared about developments in each Communion (including our ecumenical relations with other partners) and the progress in the dialogue between us is monitored and assessed. I participate in these "Informal Talks" in my role as the Anglican Co-Chairman of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Communion for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM) along with the Anglican Co-Chairman of ARCIC, who also happens to be the Director of the Anglican Centre in Rome, Archbishop Sir David Moxon. The Anglican Communion's Director of Unity, Faith and Order, the Revd Canon D...

The Reverend Dr Elizabeth Koepping, formerly the Assistant Priest at Christ Church Morningside, Edinburgh, Scotland has been appointed to be the Priest-in-Charge of the Anglican Church in Heidelberg, Germany with effect from 14th September 2014. She was licensed as priest-in-charge on 19 October by the Area Dean of Germany, the Revd Canon Ken Dimmick. Elizabeth comes to this diocese from having taught social anthropology and education at various universities in Australia and Germany and most recently lecturing in World Christianity and Religious Studies in the School of Divinity in Edinburgh. Her research has taken her to many countries including Tonga, Burma, Korea, Ghana, Germany, India, and Trinidad. The English Church in Heidelberg has a long history. In 1613, Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I of England and VI of Scotland, took up residence in the Castle after her marriage to the German Elector Friedrich V.  She had a priest with her, the Revd Dr Alexande...

From 21-23 November, the Director of Training, Canon Ulla Monberg, hosted an Introductory Weekend to Spiritual Direction, which will be the start of an ongoing programme within the Diocese. 9 persons who are presently engaged in spiritual direction or who are interested in developing this ministry attended the weekend which was held at St Cuthman's Retreat Centre in Sussex. The Revd Dr Mark Godson, Director of the London Centre of Spirituality, was the joint facilitator for this course, along with Canon Monberg. The programme is in response to a desire for training in spiritual direction which emerges as a frequent theme in ministry reviews with our diocesan clergy and readers.

There is a part-time job opening in the Diocese in Europe Diocesan Office, for a personal assistant to the Appointments Secretary.  If you are interested, please be in touch with Bron Panter at the email address below. If you know of a person who may be interested, do pass along this information.  I can vouch for this being a very congenial place to work! Here is the advertisement with the information:  Personal Assistant (half-time) £12,687 per annum We have a vacancy for a Personal Assistant to the Appointments Secretary, joining the Westminster-based Diocesan Office Team. The role is to support the work of the Appointments Secretary in correspondence, diary and database management, filing and archiving, and interview logistics.  This will involve regular communication with clergy and laity all round the diocese. If you are a self-starter with excellent communication, organizational, time-management and computer skills, we woul...

Syrians refugees are flowing into Europe. The Senior Chaplain of St Paul's Athens, the Revd Canon Malcolm Bradshaw, reports that it is estimated that 17,000 are now present in Greece alone. Many have entered Greece by crossing in small boats from Turkey to the Greek islands. They desire freedom of movement throughout the European Union, however the official exits from Greece to other European countries are closed to them. This further aggravates the challenging immigrant problem that already exists in Greece – a country itself suffering greatly from austerity measures. At present 200 Syrians are on hunger strike outside of the Greek Parliament so as to press their case. They are only four minutes walking distance from St Paul’s Anglican Church. The photos in this post are scenes from this protest. St Paul’s still participates in the ‘Church in the Street’ initiative - a soup kitchen, five years in the running, presently providing 700 meals each day. Increasingly Kurdish Syr...

Deacon Frances with Dean Andrew Nunn Congratulations to the new Honorary Minor Canon of Southwark Cathedral!  Yesterday evening at Evensong, the Revd Deacon Frances Hiller was admitted to this office and installed by Dean Andrew Nunn. Honorary Minor Canons assist the Chapter in the ministry and mission of the Cathedral Church, and take part in the daily work of prayer and praise as members of the Cathedral Foundation. Southwark Cathedral (The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overy is the full title) has been Deacon Frances' Sunday community for some time now. The Dean spoke of how important it was to have a "distinctive deacon" as a Minor Canon. We congratulate Frances on this appointment which recognises her gifts in liturgy and preaching. As Dean Nunn prayed over her "May the Lord enable you to use in this place the gifts he has entrusted to you, to his glory".  Of course Frances continues her "day job" as my ...

Rowan Williams, Meeting God in Mark. SPCK 2014. ISBN 978-0-07250-7. £8.99 Next Sunday, Advent Sunday, begins a new year in the liturgical cycle. The Sunday Gospels from Advent 2014 to Christ the King 2015 (year B) will feature mainly from St Mark's Gospel. Priests, deacons and licensed lay ministers who preach regularly know this, of course. I can think of no better way for preachers and the faithful in general to get ready for "the year of Mark" than to read the former Archbishop of Canterbury's little book, Meeting God in Mark.  The second Gospel is often overlooked by Christians who might prefer the clear exposition of Christ as teacher in Matthew, or the moving concern of Christ for the poor and outcast in Luke, or the mystical theology of John. But Williams gets to the heart of Mark's unique style and purpose in his Gospel in showing how, in Christ, God's new reign becomes manifest in a totally alarming, if often misunderstood, way. In this concis...

Madeleine chats to another delegate at the ECEN Conference Madeleine Holmes, our Diocesan Environmental Officer, was one of more than 100 delegates and guests from 24 countries who attended the 10th Assembly of the European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN) in Balatonszárszó (Hungary) from 27 September to 1 October 2014. Under the theme of “Energy and Climate Change - the Churches' Role and Voice”, the Assembly offered a place for discussion, worship and sharing of the churches’ concerns related to climate change and energy use. The statement from the conference is here . Madeleine points out a particularly relevant piece of information for this diocese: that the COP21 Climate Summit is scheduled from 30 November to 11 December 2015 in Paris. This will be a major global event, gathering world political leaders and many stakeholders from civil society. It is proposed that there are to be pilgimages from European Churches to Paris around the time of the summit, so that ...

The Revd John Barker, priest-in-charge in Yerevan, reports on an "intensive but very meaningful series of services of Remembrance" in the Armenian capital. On Sunday evening, 9 November, the usual service of Holy Communion was held that included prayers for family members and friends of members of our congregation that have died in times of war and violence Then on Monday evening, 10 November, at 6 pm an ecumenical service of prayers for peace and reconciliation, organised jointly with the Armenian Apostolic Church. Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, Director of Inter-Church Relations, represented Catholicos Garaging II. The choir of the host Church, St Zoravor enriched the worship. On Remembrance Day itself, 11 November, the traditional service was held to commemorate all those who have given their lives in times of war so that we might live in peace. This service was organised jointly with the British and German Embassies in Armenia, and proved to be a very moving act of remembrance ...

The Revd Dr Matthias Grebe, a priest of this diocese currently serving a curacy in Bonn and Cologne, is also a theologian whose work on Karl Barth is now receiving serious acclaim in the academic world. Dr Grebe has studied at Tubingen, Cambridge, and Princeton. A book which carries forward his doctoral dissertation has just been published entitled: Election, Atonement, and the Holy Spirit. Through and Beyond Barth's Theological Interpretation of Scripture . The significance of this study is underlined by Professor David Ford, the Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. In his Foreword to Dr Grebe's book, Professor Ford writes: Karl Barth’s doctrines of election and atonement are surely among the greatest achievements of Christian theology. They also contain some of the deepest and most daring biblical interpretation ever written. And throughout his works Barth challenges his readers to explore, test and if possible improve on how he understands scripture. Matthias ...

St Nicholas' Ankara was packed with standing room only on Remembrance Sunday, 9 November. Ambassadors and Military Attachés attended from Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Germany, Japan, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium and France. Not to mention the regular parishioners. A reception following the service was hosted by His Excellency Richard Moore, the UK Ambassador to Turkey. Ambassador Richard Moore (2nd from right) with other diplomatic representatives

St Nicholas's Ankara is a parish with a very rich cross-section of parishioners. Many are associated with the sizeable diplomatic, international and NGO community in the Turkish capital. Some are on short-term assignments in the country. Some are refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries. On Saturday 8 November, 8 persons were baptised and 10 confirmed. All of the candidates had fled dangerous situations in their homeland. The service was bilingual English and Farsi. The parish has an extensive programme of welcome and accompaniment for refugees. Like all congregations of the Church of England, there are regular programmes for the catechesis  and preparation for the sacraments for those who are new to the Faith. One of the delightful aspects to the parish is the group of young parishioners who take great care and pride in their ministry of preparing the Church for worship before people arrive and serving as acolytes for the Eucharist. Typical of an internatio...

Bishop Ring The Anglican and Old Catholic bishops in Europe send a letter each year on the feast of St Willibrord to the Anglican and Old Catholic parishes on the continent. This year's letter was written by Bishop Dr Matthias Ring, the Old Catholic Bishop of Germany. The text of the letter is below. St Willibrord's Day is 7 November. My apologies for the late posting of this, due to absence from my office.      In-People and For-People Message from the Anglican and Old-Catholic Bishops in Continental Europe to their churches on the occasion of the Feast of St Willibrord, 7 November 2014 Dear brothers and sisters, I must confess that I didn’t notice it at first. It wasn’t until a letter of congratulations arrived that I realised that the day of my election as bishop, 7 November 2009, was also the Feast of St. Willibrord. I don’t want to speculate on the deeper meaning of this coincidence, especially as I am a bishop in Bonn and not in Utrecht. But se...

On 30th October the Acting Archdeacon of Germany and Northern Europe, the Venerable Peter Potter, licensed the Revd Jana Jeruma-Grinberga as priest-in-charge of St Saviour's, Riga, Latvia. The historic Church in downtown Riga was full for the service. Although a Church of England congregation, St Saviour's is a home to people from many nations. It has an impressive programme of outreach in the community. The appointment of Jana is a first fruit of the signing of the Porvoo Agreement by the Evangelical Latvian Lutheran Church Abroad, which occurred last September. Jana was ordained a priest of that Church and as we are now in communion she was able to be appointed to a Church of England position, (after receiving the Archbishop of Canterbury's permission under the Overseas Clergy Measure in the usual way). Although Jana is licensed as a priest in this diocese, many will be interested to know that her last position was actually as a bishop. She was the first wo...

On Sunday 2 November the Feast of All Saints was celebrated in St Mark's Church in Florence. Besides being a time to remember departed loved ones and parishioners, this 70th anniversary year of the liberation of Italy was marked with special prayers for those who served and those who fell in that campaign. St Mark's Churchwarden Colonel Mark Ridley reading the first lesson A memorial plaque to the 48th Highlanders of Canada was unveiled, by Mrs Sandra Seagram Annovazzi, on behalf of the 48th Highlanders' Comrades' Association. The regimental collect was prayed by Lieutenant-Commander the Revd Canon David Greenwood of the the Canadian Armed Forces. Their Excellencies the Ambassadors of Canada and the UK were present for the occasion as well as military attachés to Italy from Poland, the UK, Canada, and the USA. The Archbishop of Florence was represented by Monsignor Timothy Verdon. At the start of the service, St Mark's Florence Chaplain, Fr William L...