Anglicans and European Protestants hold Faith and Order Consultation near Strasbourg

Some Anglican Participants in the Anglican - Protestant Consultation

It is often assumed that our diocese is interested in ecumenical dialogue only with Roman Catholics and Orthodox. This is not the case. Our ecumenical engagement and official conversations are much wider. Recently I was able to be part of the third Faith and Order consultation between the British and Irish Anglican Churches and the Community of Protestant (mostly Lutheran and Reformed) Churches in Europe (CPCE). The meeting was facilitated by the Institute for Ecumenical Research of the Lutheran World Federation, Strasbourg, and took place at Chateau Klingenthal, France, on 13-15 April 2011.

The consultation heard reports about recent developments in international ecumenical dialogues, in the ecumenical scene in Scotland, in the CPCE and in the Anglican Communion. It looked at reports from the Church of England on The Journey of Christian Initiation, from the Church of England and the United Reformed Church on Healing the Past – Building the Future and from the CPCE on Ministry-Ordination-Episcope, Scripture-Confession-Church and Training for the Ordained Ministry. It also received presentations on the Anglican Reformed tradition in the Seventeenth Century and the implications for Christian apologetics of recent work on science and religion.

The participants agreed to recommend to their sponsoring churches that the British and Irish Anglican churches and the CPCE should work towards a memorandum of agreement. This would reflect the commitment of the participating bodies to the visible unity of the Christian Church and would also include some consequences that can already be drawn as well as an agenda for future joint work.

Those attending the consultation:

From the Anglican churches

The Revd Canon Professor Paul Avis (The Church of England)

Dr Martin Davie (The Church of England)

The Revd Dr Michael Fuller (The Scottish Episcopal Church)

The Revd Gwynn ap Gwilym (The Church in Wales)

The Rt Revd David Hamid (The Church of England)

The Revd Dr Stephen Hampton (The Church of England)

From the CPCE

The Revd Dr Stephanie Dietrich (Church of Norway)

The Revd Prof. Martin Friedrich (CPCE Office)  

The Revd Fleur Houston (United Reformed Church)

The Revd Canon Harvey Richardson (Methodist Church in Great Britain)

Professor Michael Weinrich (EKD)

From the Institute for Ecumenical Research

The Revd Professor André Birmelé 

Professor Theodor Dieter

The Revd Professor Elisabeth Parmentier  

Professor Sarah Hinlicky Wilson

The participants were also able to pay a short visit to the nearby mountainside pilgrimage site of the patron saint of the area, Saint Odile, a ninth century holy woman who brought the Christian faith to the people of this part of Europe. Below is a fresco from the pilgrimage church.

May 2011 Book Selection

Here is May’s book selection (there was none for April!). These are 10 seriously impressive volumes including a work by the Russian Patriarch of Moscow and an important book exploring the myths of Calvinism. You will also find some biography, church history and more on the important area of bioethics.


Bonne lecture à tous!


For the reviews, press the read more button.

Announcement of Petertide Ordinations 2011

With great joy I announce the following persons are to be ordained this Petertide:

Sacred Order of Deacon

Mr Nigel Thomas (to serve as assistant curate of St George’s Madrid)

by Bishop David on Saturday 2 July at 11.00, in St George’s Church, Madrid. The street address for St George’s Church is: Nuñez de Balboa 43, (corner of Hermosilla), Madrid, Spain. For further details please contact the Revd Canon Ian Hutchinson-Cervantes on +34 915 765 109, or email: chaplain@stgeorgesmadrid.com

Liturgical colour: red

Mrs Jennifer Elliot de Riverol (to serve as assistant curate of All Saints Tenerife with St Martin de Porres, La Palma)

by Bishop David on Sunday 3 July at 12.00 in All Saints Church, Tenerife. The street address  for All Saints Church is: Taora Park, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain. For further details please contact the Revd Mike Smith on +34 922 384038, or email: mike.tenerifechaplain@gmail.com;

Liturgical colour: red

Sacred Order of Priest

The Revd Chris Nicholls (assistant curate of Holy Trinity, Utrecht)

by Bishop Geoffrey on Saturday 2 July at 14.00 in Holy Trinity Church, Utrecht. The street address for Holy Trinity Church is: Van Limburg – Stirumplein, (vicinity Wilhemina Park), Utrecht, The Netherlands. For further details please contact the Venerable John de Wit on +31 30 251 34 24, or email: chaplain@holytrinityutrecht.nl

Liturgical colour: white

All are warmly invited to attend these celebrations.

Clergy and Readers are invited to robe (please note the liturgical colour for each service above) and join in procession. Priests of the Church of England or of a Church in communion are invited to join in the laying on of hands at the ordination of priests. Please plan to arrive at least ½ hour before the appointed service time.

Please announce these ordinations in your churches so that the candidates can be upheld in the prayers of the members of our congregations as they make their final preparations towards ordination as deacon or priest.

New ordinands explore issues in Liturgy and Worship

Dr Paul Bradshaw with POT participants the Revds Jady Koch (Vienna) and Sampson Ajuka (Padua)

The Director of Training, the Revd Canon Ulla Monberg reports on another fruitful session of Post Ordination Training (POT) for our recently ordained clergy. They met from 10th – 13th May at St. Columba’s House, Woking, and spent three days together for worship, lectures and fellowship. (In the Church of England, newly ordained clergy are required to complete 4 years of training after their ordination).

The theme for this POT session was “Liturgy  - Common Worship”  and the sessions were taught by the Reverend Professor Paul Bradshaw, Professor of Liturgy at Notre Dame University and Liturgical Advisor  for the Diocese in Europe. Bishop Geoffrey also provided some input.

The 12 men and women who participated in this POT session came from churches across the Diocese - from Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Please read below an urgent message from the Chaplain of Christ Church Amsterdam, the Revd Mark Collinson:

______________________________________________________________________________

David Mukasa has been part of the community of Christ Church Amsterdam since 2003, when I first got to know him. He had escaped from custody in Uganda having been detained after writing letters to a newspaper objecting to the government’s land reforms. His political opposition have put him on the wanted list in the eyes of the Ugandan government. His attempts at seeking asylum in the Netherlands have failed. He has lived as an illegal delivering newspapers, paying his rent, and supporting his family, which at various times have visited the Netherlands from Uganda.  David is a committed Christian, having been brought up in a clergy family. His father, Canon Mukasa, is old and frail and cannot actively help his son. We believe there is no reason why David should not be allowed to live peaceably either in the Netherlands or Uganda. The Dutch Immigration Authorities think otherwise.

They were happy for him to live here illegally, until David was detained in the Netherlands on 12th October 2010 after being asked for ID whilst he was on a bus travelling back to his home in Old Amstelveen. He was detained in Zeist. Just over a week ago he was transferred to the detention centre at Schiphol Airport and he has now been booked on a flight back to Uganda on Friday 20th May. The Dutch Immigration Authorities do not consider the present political unrest in Uganda a threat to David’s life. We know that people who are critical of the present Museveni government are being arrested without charge and detained.

We are aware that the Ugandan authorities want David arrested. We do not know why. His name is listed amongst the top 15 people which immigration officials have at every entry point in Uganda.  We fear that when he arrives in Uganda he will be taken into custody by President Museveni’s special police and no charges will be publicly brought against him, which can be considered by a court. The freedom to criticise the government (in relation to land reforms which took place over eight years ago) does not appear to be tolerated in Uganda.

Please pray for David’s safety and the ability to live in freedom and in peace, without fear.

Please refer to this webpage for up to date information as and when we receive it from contacts here and in Uganda.

Please pass on his details to friends, via social networks, so that people are aware of his situation.

Mark Collinson

Official International Anglican-RC Dialogue Resumes

Archbishops David Moxon and Bernard Longley, ARCIC Co-chairmen

With all the news around Anglicanorum Coetibus, the provision of ordinariates for Anglicans to become Roman Catholics while maintaining some aspects of Anglican patrimony, it is easy to overlook the fact that the official Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenical dialogue continues with full vigour. When Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Rowan Williams met in November 2009, they gave a mandate for the third phase of the official ARCIC (Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission) dialogue to commence. Yesterday, 17 May, at the monastery in Bose, northern Italy, the Commission began its meetings.

The theologians on ARCIC are officially appointed by the Pope and the Archbishop to continue to work towards the goal first declared by Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey, that the dialogue might lead to "that unity in truth for which Christ prayed" which would be manifest in a "a restoration of complete communion of faith and sacramental life". (Note that the goal is expressed in terms or restoration of communion, not the absorption of one Church into another).

There are, of course, new challenges to the official dialogue which have arisen since the 1966 declaration of Pope and Archbishop. Nevertheless, Archbishop Bernard Longley the RC Co-chairman of ARCIC, repeated in a recent interview that "the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion are committed to working and praying for the full, visible unity of the Church and we see ARCIC as contributing to that end."

The dialogue is currently examining  the nature of the Church as understood by Anglicans and Roman Catholics including the way that the Church arrives at authoritative teaching, especially about moral issues.

There are four women on the Commission. Two are Roman Catholic and two are Anglican, including one woman bishop, Linda Nicholls, area bishop of Trent-Durham in Toronto, Canada. The Anglican Co-chairman is Archbishop David Moxon of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

The Revd Canon Alyson Barnett-Cowan, the Director of Ecumenical Affairs of the Anglican Communion (my successor in that position, once removed), is the Anglican Co-secretary of ARCIC. Canon Barnett Cowan will be at our Diocesan Synod immediately following the Commission meeting, to give a presentation on the Anglican Covenant and should have up-to-date news of the dialogue.

Bishop Linda Nicholls

US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at Anglican - Old Catholic Bishops' Meeting

US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

Each year the Anglican and Old Catholic bishops on the continent of Europe meet together to share information about the lives of our Churches and to address matters of common concern. On 19 - 20 May, our meeting was held in Amersfoort, Netherlands. Also present were some members of the Anglican-Old Catholic International Coordinating Council (AOCICC) because the Council's draft paper on ecclesiology and mission entitled Belonging Together in Europe was to be discussed by the bishops. I am also a member of AOCICC, so was present with both hats. Mrs Marion Jagers from Holy Trinity Utrecht is also a member of AOCICC and was present. Anglican and Old Catholic Churches have been in communion since 1931 when the Bonn Agreement was signed.

Bishops John Okoro (Austria) and Fernando Soares (Portugal)

Mrs Marion Jagers, Fr Lars Simpson (interpreter), Bishop Joachim Vobbe

But there was another high profile guest at the meeting who was invited by the Archbishop of Utrecht Joris Vercammen and Bishop Pierre Whalon of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe. It was US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Bishop Jefferts Schori addressed the meeting giving an account of the Episcopal Church around the world. The term Episcopal Church, USA, is no longer used, she said, because the Episcopal Church is a global Church operating in 15 countries outside the USA. These are Taiwan, Micronesia, Honduras, Ecuador, British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

When asked about Episcopal Church relations with other Churches of the Anglican Communion during this time of tension in our international Anglican family, Bishop Jefferts Schori said that "there are more missional partnerships across the world now than 10 or 15 years ago. We are learning from them". On Saturday 14 May, the Presiding Bishop delivered the what is interestingly called "The Quasimodo Lecture" in Utrecht.

The meeting closed with a Eucharist in the Old Catholic Cathedral of St Gertrudis in Utrecht.

Confirmations at St George's Berlin

Confirmations were celebrated at St George's Berlin on 8 May. As is the case in many Diocese in Europe parishes, candidates came from many backgrounds and ages. At this service among others confirmed was a German in a kilt and a Dutch professor of particle physics at the Max Planck Institute.

A typical Berlin barbecue in the parish grounds followed with additional dishes provided by members of this multicultural congregation. There has been Anglican worship in Berlin since at least 1830.

Spanish earthquake - a brief report from our clergy on the ground

Canon Hugh Broad and the Revd Christopher Scargill

Yesterday 11 May, an earthquake of magnitude 5.3 hit the town of Lorca, in the Province of Murcia, Spain. Our nearest Church of England parishes are Torrevieja and Costa Almeria. Both our priests in the area, Fr Christopher Scargill of Torrevieja and Canon Hugh Broad of Costa Almeria (who is also Area Dean) have been in touch with my office to report that members of our own communities seem to have been unaffected. The clergy are still making sure that any contacts at all in the affected zone are being followed up. The priests have also been in touch with local undertakers, just in case. Earthquakes are quite rare in this part of Spain.

Our prayers extend to all those who have been affected. Many are fearful to return to their homes in the ancient town. At least 10 have died. We also pray for the local Spanish Churches and of course the emergency services who are responding to the needs of the people of the area.

Visiting Florence? For accommodation check out St Mark's English Church!

Visitors to Florence seeking quality accommodation should look no further than St Mark's English Church in that city. St Mark's (pictured above) can provide hospitality for short or longer term visits in 4 spacious and well appointed apartments in the very the heart Florence, just a couple of hundred metres from the Ponte Vecchio. The apartments are in the upper floors of the medieval palazzo which houses the Church, and which is considered to have been at one time the home of the Machiavelli family!


For more information about the accommodation, visit this website.
 

St Mark's English Church has a proud Anglo-Catholic tradition and has since its inception been a centre for the both the Pre-Raphaelite and Art and Crafts Movements. It presently has an active worshipping life and is the centre for many cultural and musical events and an impressive outreach programme, thanks to the leadership of the the parish priest, the Revd Lawrence MacLean, who has led the Church into new vitality over the past nine years. Fr Lawrence recently been appointed to a parish in Exeter diocese and will be leaving St Mark's in July. He is pictured below with his wife Jacqueline.

Reader transfer from Wakefield diocese to Malaga

On Sunday 1 May Malcolm Tracey was licensed as a reader in St George's Church, Malaga, Spain. Malcolm comes to Europe from the Diocese of Wakefield where he served an active ministry in the parishes of Emley and of Flockton with Denby Grange.

St George's, Malaga is in the final stage of appointment of a new priest-in-charge, but as there are several worship centres in the parish it was important to begin to use the considerable gifts which Malcolm brings, so I was pleased to give a commission to the interim priest-in-charge, the Revd Dr Raymond Taylor, to license him, in the "interregnum". We welcome Malcolm to this diocese, and to the cadres of over 100 readers which serve the congregations in Europe!

Fr Raymond is himself a previous priest-in-charge of Malaga and is now, in retirement, serving as an honorary assistant. There is one other assistant priest, the Revd Sheila Mitchell.

St George's is home to the first non-Roman Catholic cemetery in Spain, with many graves of historic people, and is considered part of the historic patrimony of this vibrant Andalusian city. Visit St George's website here.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's reference to Osama bin Laden

Yesterday, 5 May, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at a press conference to do with another matter entirely, was asked a question about the death of Osama Bin Laden. His response has had some coverage in the media in the UK. Given the way news can become distorted, it is always useful to know precisely what was said. Therefore I post the question and answer below, for the information of those in our Diocese in Europe who often are asked about the position of our Church or statements of our leaders:

Q: Do you believe that the killing of Osama Bin Laden is justice for the 9/11 attacks and indeed other attacks? And was the US morally justified in shooting him even though he was unarmed as the White House now admits?


A: I think that the killing of an unarmed man is always going to leave a very uncomfortable feeling because it doesn't look as if justice is seen to be done, in those circumstances.  I think it is also true that the different versions of events that have emerged in recent days have not done a great deal to help here.  I don't know the full details anymore than anyone else does but I do believe that in such circumstance when we are faced with someone who was manifestly a 'war criminal' as you might say in terms of the atrocities inflicted, it is important that justice is seen to be observed.

Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia ordination in Paris!

The Rt Revd Dr Thomas Brown, Bishop of Wellington

St Michael's Church in Paris will host a unique event on 27 May. On that day, the Rt Revd Dr Thomas Brown, Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand, will ordain Paul McIntosh to the diaconate at 18.30. Although happening in a Church in the Diocese in Europe, the ordination will actually be an event of the Diocese of Wellington and according to the rites of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

Mr McIntosh, a candidate for Holy Orders in New Zealand, has been studying in England while he and his wife have been living in France. (His wife is a NZ diplomat). He has been engaged in some pastoral work as a lay person in St Michael's Paris, with the permission of his bishop. Following his ordination I will give Paul  receive Permission to Officiate in this Diocese and he will be attached for a short while to St Mark’s, Versailles, before returning to the Diocese of Wellington where he will serve his formal title.

It is a joy to be able to offer the use of one of our Paris Churches for a New Zealand ordination. At Bishop Brown's invitation I will be present and assist him in the service. It is a warm sign of our bonds of communion in the Anglican family around the world. The official name of the Province reflects the partnership of three cultural strands which make up the Church: Maori, Polynesian and European.

All are invited to attend the ordination in St Michael's. The street address for the church is:

5, rue d’Aguesseau 75008 Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 47 42 70 88  
Email: office@saintmichaelsparis.org
www.stmichaelsparis.org 

Clergy are invited to vest (liturgical colour will be red) and join in the procession. If you are attending, please plan to arrive by 18.00.

Please uphold Paul in your prayers as he prepares to be ordained deacon, and for his future ministry in Wellington.  


Very soon there will be a formal announcement about the ordinations of our own Diocesan candidates who, God willing, will be ordained to the diaconate or priesthood this coming Petertide. 

New Zealand Ordinand Paul McIntosh