Eurobishop

Since last Friday, all computers, servers and telephones in Church House, Westminster, have been completely shut down. This has meant that the Europe Diocesan Office and my own office have been left with extremely limited capacity to respond to any messages or emails. (We have been able to get some messages in and out through our mobile telephones). It is not possible to access any documents or work stored on the servers. Needless to say, this is an extremely frustrating situation, given that next week we are all in Cologne for the inside of a week at Diocesan Synod! Nerves are frayed, understandably. Meanwhile, the Diocesan Finance Officer, Mr Nick Wraight, is offering his colleagues comforting cups of tea. A classic English solution in times of hardship. The IT department of Church House is working on this systems meltdown. We sincerely hope to be back to full operation by the end of today. We apologise for any delay in correspondence or in matters related to the work of the D...

On 27th May, fifty two adults and thirteen young people of the Greater Athens Anglican Chaplaincy came together for a quiet day at the Uniate Convent of I Pammakapistos in the northern suburbs of Athens. We can certainly appreciate that with the upheavals in Greece, a time for prayer and reflection together was much appreciated. The Revd Canon Malcolm Bradshaw, the chaplain of Greater Athens reported that the weather was perfect, the grounds expansive, facilities excellent and the hospitality given by this small religious community was extraordinary. Sr. Frances Dominica of Helen and Douglas House led the Quiet Day. Drawing from her long experience within the Hospice movement she spoke on ‘Me’, ‘You’ and ‘God’. Both the tragedy and the joy in life were touched upon as well as living with unanswerable questions and the mystery of God. The worship for the day was based on the shape of the Eucharist. It was closely inter-related with the theme of each session. Parallel to the session...

Candidates renew their baptismal vows Great Feasts of the Christian calendar might get slightly displaced in Monaco if they happen to fall on the weekend of the Formula One Grand Prix. Road closures on Sunday morning mean that it is very difficult for people to get to Church. The main Sunday liturgy is thus celebrated on Saturday evening. This year it was the Feast of the Holy Trinity which had to be "anticipated" on Saturday night. But it was still a major and joyful celebration which this year included confirmation of two members of St Paul's Monaco, and one from the neighbouring parish of St Michael's, Beaulieu. Fr Walter Raymond OGS, of St Paul's was joined by Fr Philip Robinson, the locum priest at St Michael's, in presenting candidates for the Apostolic Rite of Confirmation.   Posted with Blogsy

Doreen Cage, John Barker, Richard Gardiner, Matthias Grebe With great joy I announce the following persons are to be ordained this Petertide (God willing): Sacred Order of Deacon By Bishop Geoffrey on Saturday, 29 June, in the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Brussels at 2.30 pm: Mr Richard Gardiner (to serve as assistant curate, St Boniface, Bonn and All Saints, Cologne) Mr Matthias Grebe (to serve as assistant curate, St Boniface, Bonn and All Saints, Cologne) Ms Doreen Cage (to serve as assistant curate, St George’s, Málaga) Mr John Barker (to serve as assistant curate, Christ Church, Vienna with responsibility for Yerevan) The street address for Holy Trinity is: 29 rue Capitaine Crespel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. For further details please contact the Revd Canon Dr Robert Innes on +32 2 511 71 83, or email: chaplain@holytrinity.be Liturgical colour: White Sacred Order of Priest By Bishop Edward Holland as Archbishop of Canterbury’s Episcopal Commiss...

It's a little known act of bravery - how two British priests serving in Christ Church, Vienna, rescued Jews from the Nazis by baptising them.  Between March and September 1938, after the annexation of Austria by the Third Reich, the Revd Hugh Grimes and the Revd Frederick Collard baptised some 1,800 Viennese Jews in the hope that the resulting baptismal certificate would help provide them with safe passage out of the country. At that time, Austria's neighbours, although wary of allowing Jewish refugees to enter, were more prepared to admit those who could demonstrate that they belonged to the Christian religion. The baptismal register of this Church of England parish in Vienna contains this remarkable story. On some days over 100 baptisms were held. On Saturday 18 May, at a service of Evensong in Christ Church, a memorial plaque was unveiled to commemorate the act of courage and compassion shown by these two priests. Testimonies were given by Dr Harold Chipman...

Our curates in their training (title) posts continue with scheduled residential meetings to fulfil the Church of England's requirement for what is known technically as IME 4 - 7. IME 4 - 7 are the 4 years of training for ordained ministry that must be completed after ordination. Thus the full amount of time required to train a priest or deacon in the Church of England is approximately 7 years.  IME 4 - 7 in the Diocese in Europe is delivered under the supervision of the Director of Training, the Revd Canon Ulla Monberg.  Earlier this month the curates came together at St Columba's House in Woking for an extended weekend of Post Ordination Training, focussing on prayer and spirituality. The resource person for this particular set of sessions was the Rvd Dr Mark Godson of the London Centre for Spirituality, who is pictured second from the right above.  What a fine looking group of curates we have!  

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 ...

Readers (that is Licensed Lay Ministers) in this Diocese in Europe, after selection for this ministry, train for approximately three years, studying various aspects of theology and biblical studies through St John's College, Nottingham. There is an additional module which the Director of Training, the Revd Canon Ulla Monberg, has instituted this year, on Anglicanism. This module will be run by the diocese itself and will be a residential weekend of lectures and discussion followed by an essay. The first Anglicanism module was held for 12 trainee Readers last weekend in St Columba's House, Woking. Director of Training, Canon Ulla Monberg Readers are licensed to lead services of the Word, to preach and to teach, and are better described by the phrase "Licensed Lay Ministers". Very often people from other Churches assume that all that Readers do is read lessons and there is sometimes some puzzlement as to why this requires a selection process and a three-year ...

On Tuesday 30th April Fr Peter Ford was licensed to serve in St James Porto by the Ven David Sutch, Archdeacon of Gibraltar in the presence of Bishop Jos é Jorge Pina Cabral, the recently consecrated Bishop in the Lusitanian Church in Portugal, Fr Nigel Stimpson from Lisbon, Fr Bob Bates from the Algarve, Fr Michael Bullock OGS, formerly of Lisbon and Judith Murray, a Reader in Training, supported by Terry Weineck and Ian Sinclair, the Churchwardens. Fr Peter knows this diocese well. He most recently served as priest-in-charge of Holy Trinity, Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, with her daughter congregations on that island. St James's Porto can trace its history back to 1671. The parish website is here . We welcome Fr Peter to this new responsibility in this historic parish. Posted with Blogsy

The Very Revd John Arnold, centre, with Fr Matthew Jones The Church of St Thomas Becket in Hamburg welcomed as its guest preacher at its Sunday Eucharist on 5 May, the former Dean of Durham, the Very Revd John Arnold. This Eucharist which celebrating the feast of Saints Philip and James, concluded the parish's extensive involvement over the days of Kirchentag in Hamburg and it was fitting that such a prominent ecumenist and distinguished European Churchman should be the preacher. Dr Arnold was in fact, one of the drafters of the Meissen Common Statement . He has also served as the President of the Conference of European Churches, and even had a hand in shaping our diocese at the time of the preparation of the Diocese in Europe Measure in 1980! The Chaplain of St Thomas Becket, the Revd Matthew Jones, informed the congregation that over 1100 people had attended services at St Thomas's over the 4 days of Kirchentag , and many more people visited the church which was open for...

The Revd Canon Janet Heil, the Chaplain of St Edmund's Oslo, is the parish priest of an international congregation in the Norwegian capital. At a recent parish visit on 29 April, I confirmed members that she had prepared from Kenya, Nigeria, Norway, and the USA. At a Church Council meeting I met other members from Zambia, South Africa, and even England! Worship at St Edmund's is in English, of course, but Canon Heil has also learnt Norwegian which does help our relations with our sister Church of Norway. Canon Heil also oversees the work of daughter churches and their resident priests in Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim.

Bishop Weber in St Thomas Becket Church An important worship service during the Kirchentag in recent years has been a Meissen Eucharist to celebrate the relationship between the EKD (The Evangelical Church in Germany) and the Church of England, a relationship established by the Meissen Common Statement which was signed in 1991  This agreement enables eucharistic hospitality between our Churches, as a stage along the way to full communion. The Agreement does not permit interchangeability of ministers, but does promote fellowship in as many areas of Christian life and witness as possible so that our Churches might advance together towards full visible unity one day. It is also an agreement that has huge significance with regard to reconciliation between two countries that once were at war. This year the Meissen service at the Hamburg Kirchentag was held in St Thomas Becket Church, our Anglican Parish in the city. Bishop Nick Baines of Bradford, the Anglican Co-Chairman of the M...

Archdeacon Jonathan LLoyd with St Thomas Becket Volunteer at Kirchentag The 34th Protestant Kirchentag was held in Hamburg from 1 to 5 May. There is no other event quite like it in the Christian world. It is an immense gathering of people of all ages and walks of life. There are addresses from global leaders, dozens of acts of worship each day according to many traditions, from Caribbean beat to Iona contemplative, cultural events, workshops, musical performances (brass bands are everywhere!), and a marketplace for churches, groups, movements and agencies to set out their wares. The  CAECG, the Council of Anglican/Episcopal Churches in Germany, were among the stalls at the marketplace. Angela Merkel and Helen Clark The theme for this Kirchentag  was "As much as you need” taken from Exodus 16.18, which gave opportunity for focussed reflection on issues of sustainability of the planet and to examine critically systems which promote wealth, greed and excess....

From time to time I spotlight a current vacancy for a priest in the diocese. There is one very interesting post which is currently open: the priest-in-charge of Emmanuel Church, Warsaw. The Church of England has a fascinating and long history in Poland, going back to embassy chaplains in the 16th century. After the ravages of WWII, for many years the communist regime resisted recognition of our historic work. The present congregation was reborn in 1995 and the Anglican Church in Poland is now a legally recognised Church.  This is a house-for-duty post, in a growing parish in an exciting  and fast‐moving city at the heart of Europe. The congregation is international, with about 60 on the electoral roll, including citizens of the UK, USA, Nigeria, Australia and Poland. There are two honorary assistant priests with Permission to Officiate who will work under the priest-in-charge. Services are in English. The priest's residence is a spacious four‐room apartment, cent...

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 .