Eurobishop

It was a joyful, colourful, multicultural three-hour liturgy. At Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, the Revd Austin Rios was consecrated the bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of California. I have known Austin from his time as the Rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church in Rome, where he was a great friend and collaborator with our own Church of England All Saints Chaplaincy in that city. The liturgy, appropriately, marked the multiculural make-up of the diocese, with prayers, readings, hymns and songs in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Tonga and Mandarin. The final procession was led by a Chinese dragon! I was told that there were about 300 in the procession and 2000 present in the beautiful gothic cathedral on Nob Hill San Francisco. My good friend and ecuenical colleague from Rome Fr Keith Peckers SJ was also in attenance, so the Church of Rome and the Church of England were both represented! Among the bishop friends present were Bishop Mark Edington of the Episcopal Convocation in Europe, a...

  There has been a Church of England presence in Venice since 1604, when the Revd William Bedell arrived in the city as part of the embassy of Queen Elizabeth I to the Doge. Over 400 years later, St George's offers a welcome to residents and to the many visitors who come to the city. It continues to be a congregation with people from many parts of the world, with an extraordinary range of gifts and talents. On Sunday 19 February, I licensed the Very Revd Lucinda Laird as the new chaplain of St George's (with Christ Church Trieste, too.) Mother Lucinda comes to us from the US Episcopal Church where she served in many places, as well as latterly as the Dean of the American Cathedral in Paris. I believe she is the first woman to serve as our priest in Venice. We welcome her most warmly to the Church of England Diocese in Europe. It was a significant ecumenical occasion as well. Lucinda has already been personally welcomed by the Patriarch of Venice who invited her to preach in St ...

  Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay   Today we wish a very happy Thanksgiving to the many folk across the diocese in Europe who come from the USA. In that country it is a national holiday and a day of thanks, which may have its origin back to 1621 when the Plymouth colonists and members of the  Wampanoag nation shared an autumn harvest feast, together enjoying the fruits of the earth.  In our multinational/multicultural Diocese in Europe, we rejoice in the ministry, witness, generosity and support that so many from the United States bring to our common life. We also recognise that for many of our US friends and colleagues this year's holiday will be a difficult time. Some have endured months or more of separation from loved ones. Some have lost family or friends, or are worried about those close to them who are sick. Some are concerned for values of truth and justice in their homeland. So we pray with you, the prayer for this day in the Prayer Book of the Ep...

Bishop Pierre hands the crozier to Bishop Mark (Photo courtesy of TEC Europe) On Saturday 6 April, a new Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of (US) Episcopal Churches in Europe, Mark Edington, was consecrated in the American Cathedral in Paris. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry presided, with another 35 bishops assisting. The preacher for the service was the Very Revd Dr Andrew McGowan, a well known theologian and liturgical scholar. In a stirring address, Fr McGowan declared that “Christendom is over, and this is not bad news. It’s good news. That’s over but the Jesus Movement isn’t over.” He turned to the bishop elect and said, “Welcome and go away, as God calls us to look out and not within". The ordination litany was sung in English, Spanish, Italian, French and German. The ordinary of the mass was a setting by Canadian composer Healey Willan! Unlike consecrations in the Church of England, the new bishop in the Episcopal Church receives a very impressive document cert...

Local and international dimensions of the Church's ecumenical justice ministry came together at an event at St Michael and All Angels Church in Dallas on Saturday 18 April. St Michael's had been hosting meetings of the Governors of the Anglican Centre in Rome (ACR) and the American Friends of the ACR. Archbishop Sir David Moxon, the Director of the ACR and the Archbishop of Canterbury's Representative to the Holy See, took a key role in the event which was a symposium on human trafficking. Archbishop David is well known to this diocese, of course, not only in Rome and Italy, but from his presentation to our Diocesan Synod last year. Abp Moxon, 2nd from rt Archbishop Justin Welby and Pope Francis are committed to working together with other ecumenical and inter-faith partners to fight human trafficking and modern slavery. Archbishop Moxon in his role as Director of the ACR devotes a significant amount of his time to promoting this ecumenical initiative. It is estimated tha...

Help continues to flow in to meet need and hardship in Greece, this time from children in an Episcopal Parish in the USA, to support children in Athens! Recently the Revd Tom Trees and his wife Kathleen of the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA, made contact with St Paul's Church in Athens. They declared that they were running a week-long ‘Vacation Bible School’ for young people at their Church called ‘Escape to Athens with Paul’. They declared that during the week they would love to make a collection for a cause in Greece.  The chaplain of Greater Athens, the Revd Canon Malcolm Bradshaw, provided them with information about a newly opened kindergarten built in a deprived area by the Greek Orthodox Church. Now three 60 lb boxes containing 130 colouring books, 130 easy readers, 100 boxes of crayons/markers/pencils, 40 card games/flash cards/board games/puzzles and music CD’s galore and some dollars are on their way for the English teacher at the k...

Photo: Matthew Davies ENS On Sunday 11 March, I accompanied our congregation of All Saints in Rome as we attended our sister Church, St Paul's Within-the-Walls Episcopal Church, where the Archbishop of Canterbury presided and preached. Bishop Pierre Whalon of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe hosted us. The Venerable Jonathan Boardman from All Saints, and the Revd Austin Rios the Rector of St Paul's Within-the-Walls, both served as deacons for the Archbishop. Choirs, servers, assistant clergy from both congregations were present as well as visiting Old Catholic clergy. Monsignor Mark Langham from the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Christian Unity and Fr Keith Peckers SJ were two prominent Roman Catholic guests at the service.  

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...

Photo: SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images This afternoon I went to observe the debate on the private member's motion on ACNA. As a bishop who serves a diocese which overlaps with some work of the Episcopal Church USA (through the latter's Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe), I believed it would be useful to feel the pulse of the synod on this matter. It was a long debate, not without some surprising moments. One member proposed the procedural motion to move to next business, which if passed would have been the end of discussion on this item for the life of the synod. The member's rationale was that there was not enough truth circulating about the issue and that the synod would be in danger of breaking the ninth commandment, "you shall not bear false witness". His procedural motion did not pass. At another moment the new, state-of-the-art electronic voting system failed so the synod had to revert to the old system of division by walking through separate do...

At the sessions of the General Synod of the Church of England this week, a private member's motion will be debated: “That this Synod express the desire that the Church of England be in communion with the Anglican Church in North America”. The proposer of the motion, Lorna Ashworth (Chichester Diocese) wishes to give the Synod a chance to hear of unfair treatment of loyal Anglicans in the Episcopal Church (USA ) and the Anglican Church of Canada, which has led to the formation of a separate body, the Anglican Church in North America . Mrs Ashworth asks “Does not our fellowship and communion in the Lord require us both to be aware of these happenings, to express concern, and where appropriate to provide the support we can?” There are many complex issues involved. Simon Sarmiento of Thinking Anglicans has brought together some background papers concerning these issues for ease of review (they are to be found in his February 5 entries in the Thinking Anglicans blog ). I am slig...

Today, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued this message of support to the people of Haiti affected by the devastation caused by Tuesday's earthquake. "I am profoundly shocked and concerned to hear about the devastating earthquake in Haiti. As the news comes through, we are learning more about the tragic loss of life, injury suffered and terrible damage to the country. We stand alongside all the people in Haiti affected by this terrible disaster in prayer, thought and action as the situation unfolds. We pray for the rescue of those still trapped and look towards the rebuilding of lives and communities. I commend the swift action of the UK Government's Department for International Development and the relief agencies and churches in mobilising an emergency response. In this time of catastrophic loss and destruction, I urge the public to hold the people of Haiti in their prayers, and to give generously and urgently to funding appeals set up for relief work." For tho...

News has come in from some sources in our diocese who have contacts in Haiti. Victoria Hobson, together with her husband the Revd George Hobson, at St Michael's Paris has a long association Haiti. Victoria received this news from an Episcopal Priest friend in Haiti, Fr Kesner Ajax: Dear Friends in Christ: We have devastating news to share with you from Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake yesterday. According to reports I have received here in Les Cayes, the damage in Port au Prince and areas around it is terrible. There is no Cathedral. The entire Holy Trinity complex is gone. The convent for the Sisters of St. Margaret is gone. The Bishop's house is gone. College St. Pierre is gone. The apartment for College St. Pierre is still standing. Bishop no longer has a house in which to live. In Trouin, four people were killed during a service. In Grand Colline, the church is gone. In St Martin of Tours, the kindergarten is gone. In St. Etienne Buteau the church, the recto...

For 10 years I worked very closely with the Haitian Church when I was the Mission Co-ordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Anglican Church of Canada, and visited many times. I have many friends in L’Église Épiscopale d’Haïti, which is the largest in population of all the dioceses of the Episcopal Church, serving about 150,000 people, in about 170 congregations. The work of our Church there has been impressive, with over 250 schools, a hospital, medical clinics, a symphony orchestra, the country’s only school for handicapped children, agricultural and micro-economic projects, a “Desmond Tutu” Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, and more. A close friend, the Very Revd Ogé Beauvoir (above), is the dean of the seminary in Port-au-Prince. I tried in vain to contact them him, but there are no telephone lines operating. The head offices of the Canadian Anglican Church (Père Ogé, born in Haïti, was ordained in the diocese of Montreal) and the Episcopal Church, USA had n...

Bishop Pierre Whalon, the Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, and an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese in Europe, was a special guest at a recent session of the Bishop's Council. (The Convocation was formerly known as the Convocation of American Churches in Europe. We in the Diocese in Europe were unaware of this name change which Bishop Pierre pointed out was needed since many members of his congregations are not Americans, and that there are other American churches in Europe). The Convocation website lists 8 parishes and 7 mission congregations, and is constitutionally part of the Episcopal Church, the United States based Province of the Anglican Communion. The Convocation sends 4 clergy and 4 laity (along with its bishop) to the triennial General Convention in the USA. Reflecting on the General Convention which met this year in Anaheim California, Bishop Pierre stated that the Episcopal Church's mind o...

A unique experience of Anglican unity is lived out in Germany where the congregations of the (Church of England's) Diocese in Europe and the Convocation of American Episcopal Churches in Europe (part of the Episcopal Church, USA) share a common deanery-like structure called the Council of Anglican / Episcopal Churches in Germany, CAECG. Twice a year the clergy and lay representatives of the 16 congregations meet for prayer, worship, study, fellowship and joint mission and ministry planning. The meeting is chaired by the Revd Christopher Jage-Bowler, (pictured here)  the Church of England's Area Dean for Germany, who is also the Chaplain of St George's Berlin . On 18 to 19 September, CAECG met in Hamburg. Apart from the usual deanery business, the delegates explored aspects of Ignatian Spirituality, led by the Revd Andrew Walker of the London Centre for Spirituality . It is a hopeful sign in these days of stresses within our Anglican Communion, that official delegates ...