St Thomas's Hamburg: Extending a Welcome 400 Years On.



A weekend of joyful celebration of 400 years of Anglican worship in Hamburg was held from Friday 17th to Sunday 19th February, part of a year long programme of concerts, events and services at St Thomas Becket Church entitled “Extending a welcome”.

Saturday saw the church packed for a service of thanksgiving led by Bishop Geoffrey and the Chaplain of St Thomas's, the Revd Matthew Jones. Among the many clergy there were the Lutheran Bishop of Hamburg and Lübeck, Kerstin Fehrs, and the Roman Catholic Suffragan Bishop of Hamburg, Hans-Jochen Jaschke. Also present were representatives of the City of Hamburg and a delegation from the Company of Merchant Adventurers of York.

It was the Merchant Adventurers who formed the first congregation in 1612 after the Hamburg Senate granted them freedom to worship in English according to the rites of the Church of England. Even taking into account the commercial advantage to the city, it was a remarkable concession in strictly Lutheran post-Reformation Hamburg.

The evening before the service, Daniel Hope teamed up with pianist Sebastian Knauer and the conductor and pianist Jeffrey Tate for a concert in the church at the invitation of the British Honorary Consul to raise money to pay for much-needed repairs to the early 19th century building.

Guests from the wider Anglican community are very welcome to visit throughout this celebratory year. Details of events can be found at the impressive special website here.


In the photo above, the Revd Matthew Jones is seen being presented at the anniversary service with a plunger as one of the symbols of thanksgiving activity in the church!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Farewell to the Diocese in Europe

Image
Deacon Frances and I packed up our office yesterday and turned over our official files, emails and equipment. Thus a close working together for 22 years comes to an end. So it is hard to believe that today, St David's day, a new chapter begins, after 44 years of stipendiary ministry, 22 years as deacon then priest and 22 as a bishop.  Here are just a few memories from the last couple of months...   But now it is time to begin a new chapter.  O God, by whose command the order of time runs its course: forgive our impatience, perfect our faith and, while we await the fulfilment of your promise, grant us to have a good hope because of your Word,  even Jesus Christ our Lord. (St Gregory Nazianzus, 330 - 390)
Read more

Archbishop of Canterbury's Pentecost Letter: A European Consequence

Image
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...
Read more

Bishop Austin Rios of California

Image
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...
Read more