Eurobishop

Among the Anglican Communion's  Five Marks of Mission , it is perhaps the fifth mark "to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the Earth" that has an urgent resonance for people of all faiths, and none. We are living in a damaged world in the midst of a climate emergency and time is running out for us to stop and change direction; we have no other planet to go to.  With Lent fast approaching, I wish to commend a resource produced by USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). It is a set of 6 studies, exploring environmental justice from Anglican perspecrives around the world entitled For Such a Time as This . This resource is available in PDF format here . Each study provides a reflection from a global partner, biblical extracts for reflection, questions for discussion, prayers and a simple action or commitment. The beauty of this resource is that it is easy for small groups to manage. Although written with a UK audience in min...

To assist the faithful across the diocese with their prayers during this time of lockdown, Fr Louis Darrant has produced a resource specially for us. It is a PDF booklet, which, as Fr Louis states in the introduction   "is to support us in our common prayer  during Holy Week".  You may already have found it among our diocesan resources on the website.If not, the link is here: https://europe.anglican.org/downloads/praying-at-home-in-holy-week-2020.pdf Louis writes: "The Church is responding quickly to the changing  circumstances in which we find ourselves. With imagination and creativity  we will find ourselves caught up in the Easter mystery in such a way as will  bear fruit in due time. No Christian prays alone. Together we share the  sacred work of the Church in offering praise to the Father through the  Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit." Fr Louis Darrant is the Chaplain at St Christopher's Costa Azahar in Spain. He is also...

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, CTBI, has published a useful resource,  We Will Remember,  compiled by Keith Clements, to help Christians reflect on the events of World War I. It is available as an e-book from CTBI, and can be downloaded FREE from their website here : Much will be said about the First World War during this time of commemoration. For Christians particularly it will be a time for reflection on how the churches 100 years ago responded to the crisis of war and the immensity of suffering that it unleashed, and on what this may still have to teach us as faith struggles with the issues of a violent world today. We Will Remembe r is a collection of voices from the First World War and its aftermath, showing how faith faced up to the shock of international conflict, the moral issues of patriotism and obedience to God, of suffering and grief, of enmity and forgiveness, of the choices between bearing arms and pacifism, and of how far the churches we...

Canon Meurig Williams, the Bishop’s Chaplain, has compiled a collection of resources which our Churches in Europe may find useful for commemorating WW1. He has drawn from material proposed by the Church of England and helpfully supplemented with his own suggestions. He points to two websites that are particularly helpful: http://www.ctbi.org.uk/673 (Churches Together in Britain and Ireland) http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/latest-updates/world-war-one-liturgy.aspx (The Liturgical Commission of the Church England) We thank Canon Williams for this resource. This is a very large post. For convenience, it is also in a separate page tab under the Eurobishop header photo.

Los Olivos is a retreat centre in southern Spain whose director is an Anglican priest, the Revd Daniel Mu ñoz. Daniel recently wrote to me to draw attention to a special week of theological reflection and conversation at the centre, exploring Anglican ecclesiology in the light of current challenges and opportunities. The event is called "Re-imagining Anglican Ecclesiology". It will be held from 14 - 18 July and is geared towards senior Anglican leaders and senior diocesan staff.  If you are interested, more information can be found here .  The full programme on offer at Los Olivos can be found here .

I commend to the clergy and people of the Diocese in Europe a new programme which can help us in our work of teaching the Christian faith and equipping disciples in our congregations: Pilgrim.  It is a specifically Anglican course which aims to cater for every tradition in the Church of England. It was commissioned by the bishops of the Church to support the presentation of the basics of the Christian faith. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have endorsed the programme saying "The Pilgrim course is a journey to the heart of God and to a living, personal relationship with Jesus Christ". There are two stages on the Pilgrim course. The first is the "Follow" stage, designed for those who are enquirers or very new to Christianity. It can be used by those seeking baptism or confirmation, for example, and is designed to be led by someone who is further on in their Christian faith and who is a skilled teacher. It is in four sections, based around the great texts...

At a recent meeting of the Ministry Team of the Diocese, the Revd Canon Ulla Monberg, Director of Training, introduced us to a new resource entitled Bible in life of the Church .  This is a study and a collection of resources prepared by the Churches of the Anglican Communion around the world which was presented to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) at its meeting in Auckland New Zealand in November last year. Canon Monberg is the representative of this diocese on the ACC. As Canon Monberg explained, "the project, commissioned in 2009, is an attempt to let the Churches of the Communion reflect on the ways in which they actually use the Bible - how they read it, whom they read it with, what they bring to the reading, what their experience is of transformation. It is geared towards 'ordinary Anglicans' in the pews. There is no agenda in the project, no liberal or traditional preference. The title of the project is important. This is a...

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Coronation of Her Majesty the Queen who was crowned in the ancient ceremony which was held in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday 2 June 1953. Churches in the Diocese in Europe may want to mark the anniversary at services on Sunday 2 June. There will be a service from Westminster Abbey televised on BBC on Tuesday 4 June at 11.00 am British Summer Time. The following prayer, which has the Queen’s approval, will be incorporated in the Service of Thanksgiving in the Abbey on 4 June. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have commended it for use throughout the Church of England. It is available in both traditional and modern language, and I commend it for use in congregations of this diocese. Some local adaptation may be required in countries which are clearly outside the realm of England. It could be as simple as omitting the words "of our Sovereign Lady" before "Queen Elizabeth". Traditional language: Almighty God, who ...

Sea Sunday is 14 July this year, and the Mission to Seafarers has prepared resources that will be useful for our parishes who wish to mark this day. The Mission to Seafarers is one of the mission agencies of the Church of England which is active in this Diocese in Europe. There are port chaplains based in Gibraltar, Antwerp, Vlissingen, Rotterdam, Odessa and Dunkirk and honorary chaplains and ecumenical cooperation with other seafarers missions  in many other places in addition. The Mission around the world serves the over 1.3 million seafarers, whose work is hard, often dangerous and involves long periods of isolation from their families. The Sea Sunday pack is available for download from the Mission to Seafarers website. There are resources for liturgically use on 14 July, sermon notes and material suitable for children. The pack is available here: www.seasunday.org .

If parishes in Europe are looking for a Lent resource, the Church of England has produced a booklet that is worth looking at. It is entitled  Love Life Live Lent - Be the Change!  written by the lay theologian Dr Paula Gooder and her husband the Revd Peter Babington. It is designed to lead people through simple daily activities to make small but revolutionary changes to the world around them during Lent 2013. There are two versions of the booklets, one for adults and one for children, each with daily biblical reflections and suggestions for the observance of Lent, such as: Adults' Version: • Keep in touch more: Phone someone you love but haven't seen for a while • Slow down: Take longer over breakfast and really taste your cornflakes (or whatever else you have!) • Do something different: Outside of work, have a screen-free day and do something different Kids' Version: • Be aware of others: Make a list of up to five people you have met today, and then pray for t...

In the past 12 years the Church of England's liturgical life has been greatly enriched with the publication of prayers, services and rites which are authorised or commended as alternatives or supplements to the Book of Common Prayer. I refer, of course, to the resources known as Common Worship.  What we have now is an embarras de richesses, which can occupy 7 or 8 volumes on our bookshelves! For clergy and lay ministers there is is not generally time to extract all you might need from these volumes as you head out the door to respond to an emergency or urgent need, say a sudden illness, injury or death. And certainly one does not want to be carrying two or more heavy volumes as you go! Church House Publishing has now addressed this situation with the compilation of a slim, light-weight volume, which contains the essentials that will be required in such pastoral circumstances. It is called Common Worship: A Pastoral Ministry Companion. It is durable enough (wi...

Clergy and Readers of the Diocese who are planning worship over the next months will want to know of resources which have been compiled by the Church of England's Liturgical Commission to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. There is a rich range of prayers and services available, drawn from material from the Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship. The Sunday of the Jubilee Weekend, 3 June, is a Principle Feast, Trinity Sunday, and the collect and readings at the main services that day must be for the feast itself, but the resources are adaptable to fit in with the feast or to be used on other occasions. Some slight modification may be needed to certain prayers recognising that Queen Elizabeth II is of course, not Sovereign in most parts of the diocese, but our clergy and Readers are already used to making these adjustments! Click here for the link to the resources .

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras. The former name recalls this as a time to be shriven or for confessions to be heard, and penances imposed. The latter name, “fat Tuesday”, points to the need to use up the rich ingredients in the kitchen before the Lenten fast, hence the tradition of eating pancakes.  Lent begins tomorrow, Ash Wednesday.  The Book of Common Prayer makes clear that the 40 days of Lent are days of “fasting or abstinence”. The 40 days do not include Sundays, which are always feast days. As a season to “tune up” our spiritual lives, there are many ways to observe this solemn period. Some suggestions include, Carving  out time for daily prayer, perhaps using one of the forms for the daily office of the Church, such as  Common Worship: Daily Prayer.  ( This is available online here , by the way). Switching off or reducing one’s wired connections, disciplining the use of the internet, facebook, emails etc, using the gained time ...

In case your parish has not yet decided on a Lent programme for this year, you might want to have a look at  "And it was good "   This is the title of a  5-session course available for group or individual use in Anglican Churches around the world. It is based on the  fifth mark of mission as understood by the Anglican Communion:  ‘To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth". It aims to help us discover how key aspects of the life, ministry and death of Jesus Christ also shed light upon this theme. The course has been put together by Anglicans from around the world, which make it an ideal resource for our own multi-cultural diocese, which has often been described as "the Anglican Communion in miniature". The five sessions are: The hope of something new (exploring Isaiah 11:1-9 and Mark 1:9-15) The place of humanity in the created order (exploring Genesis 1-2 and Jeremiah 4:11-28) Je...

The Fifth Mark of Mission acknowledged by Anglicans – “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth” – is sometimes seen as the neglected Mark across the Communion. Lent 2012 offers an opportunity to redress this, with the help of a course coming out of the work of the Bible in the Life of the Church project of the Communion. The five-week course will enable individuals and groups to engage with a Bible-wide range of scriptural passages that speak of our responsibilities in relation to the environment. It will also offer reflections on how Anglicans in different parts of the Communion engage with the Bible with discussion questions that challenge our thinking and behaviour. The course will be available both on the web, and as a booklet. It will be available by Advent this year, but you are able to sample the course on line and order booklets for use in 2012. The Anglican Communion Standing Commit...

It seems a long way away, but clergy and readers and others in the congregations of the diocese who may be planning study groups and programmes for Advent, may wish to look at a resource produced by St John's Nottingham. These Words of Mine... are a set of daily bible readers and reflections written by members of the St John's College community, which aim to help us examine ourselves in the light of Jesus' teachign in teh Sermon on theMount and in the Book of James. It is produced by students and staff of the College. Copies are £4.99. Information and orders can be placed by contacting Helen Taylor at St John's:  h.taylor@stjohns-nottm.ac.uk St John's Nottingham is the theological centre where our readers are trained, through their extension programme.

The Diocese in Europe, along with the rest of the Church of England, has endorsed the observance of a "Time for Creation", from 1 September (the first day of the church year for the Orthodox Churches) to 4 October (the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi). During this season our congregations are encouraged to give particular focus to environmental issues.  “Time for Creation” links in naturally with the time when we celebrate harvest thanksgivings.  This year the theme is “Our Daily Bread – Food in God’s Creation”.   I want to commend to the clergy and readers of the diocese and to all involved in planning and leading worship the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) website which has a host of useful resources, including sermon notes, intercessions and other liturgical material.  The website is here . Common Worship: Times and Seasons also has a rich selection of resources on pages 599-606 and 623-632. Those who pray the daily office may wish to use the m...

Those preparing services and parish programmes for this autumn will be aware that the 10th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York will fall on Sunday 11th September 2011. Christians have the opportunity to observe the anniversary as a milestone in our continuing search for peace and churches around the world are planning to mark the event by special services. Westminster Abbey will have a service of remembrance and reconciliation that day at 6.30 pm. A special educational programme has been launched by the Awareness Foundation under the banner: Awareness Sunday: A Path to Peace. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is patron of the Awareness Foundation. (He himself was in New York at the time of the attacks and wrote movingly of his experience of the horror). Archbishop Rowan said: "Awareness Sunday is acknowledging through education, the urgent need to dispel ignorance and the urgent need to help each one of us to buil...

The Church of England's Children's Advisor, Mary Hawes, has announced the launch of a new website of resources to support the Church's work with children and young people. It follows the Going for Growth report which went to General Synod last year. The intention is for the site to continue to grow with new resources, articles and information posted regularly. If you register, you are able to access all the areas, as well as contribute items if you wish. Although the site seems to be a bit slow, after a quick glance through the materials which are already available I thought it looks very promising. Certainly in our scattered Diocese in Europe, congregations which have work with children or young people, or who are looking for ideas to begin and continue such work, will find web-based resources to be very handy! You can reach the new website here . If you are interested in the General Synod report of January 2010, Going for Growth,  it can be accessed here ....

Image via CrunchBase Those who know me, know that I am a bit of a gadget lover so I was pleased to discover (as will other iPhone users in the diocese) that the Church of England has developed a new "app" in partnership with the Diocese of Guildford. It enables individual dioceses to put their news into the hands of iPhone and iPad users, and gives access to resources such as an online version of Common Worship: Daily Prayer . The Diocese in Europe is not yet one of the participating dioceses, but I hope that we might in the future. The app can be downloaded here .