Eurobishop

Diocesan meetings were interrupted in Woking on Wednesday, during breakfast. The fire alarm sounded and the Senior Staff and members of the Safeguarding Committee and the Bishop's Senior Staff were evacuated from St Columba's House to the safety of the Fire Assembly Point in the gardens. The cause of the alarm? Not the heated debate of the meetings, but the Archdeacon of Germany and Northern Europe's toast.   Posted with Blogsy

On 18 June, the Reverend Paul Strudwick, was licensed as priest-in-charge of Santa Margarita, Menorca, by the Archdeacon of Gibraltar, the Venerable David Sutch.  The Roman Catholic Bishop of Menorca,  Monseñor Salvador Jimenez Valls and his Vicar General, Fr Girrard Villalonga Hellin, were present at the service to help welcome Fr Paul to the island. A lunch for 80 people was held after the service. Fr Paul comes to this diocese from the Anglican Church of Canada where he was Rector of St Catherine of Alexandria Church in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. We welcome him to this Diocese in Europe, along with his wife Kate.

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...

Pope Francis loves children and there are already many photos of him taking great joy in blessing a baby, as above. The Bishop of  Rome was probably not aware that this particular young pilgrim is the youngest member of our Anglican Church of St Nicholas, Helsinki, Adelaide Frechette, who happened to be on a visit to Rome with her mother Sarah! Well done, Adelaide!  

Everyone in the Diocese knows we have a Communications Officer, the Revd Paul Needle. However most  people know of him only through his work, the Diocesan Website, the European Anglican , and other publications and communications projects. Because he is usually on the other side of the camera, snapping pictures of us we rarely get a glimpse of Paul himself. So here is my photo of Paul hard at work at the recent meeting of the Diocesan Synod. Many thanks Paul for your outstanding work in keeping our Diocese connected!

The Synod of the Diocese in Europe which meets annually in a residential setting for the inside of a week, has just concluded another set of sessions with its usual packed agenda.  It may not be widely known that our Diocesan Secretary, Mr Adrian Mumford, who is responsible for the synod's business and life, is also one of the finest organists in the Church! The week-long meetings are punctuated by times of prayer and worship each day in the Chapel of St Edith Stein in Kardinal Schulte Haus in Cologne where we gather. Adrian is the organist (and at times choirmaster) for these services. The members of synod find his playing both inspiring and thoroughly enjoyable during the busy week. We are very grateful to Adrian for this very special gift to us, as well as for everything else he does in his "day job"!

Readers who are members of Diocesan Synod held a special meeting during the week of synod to discuss matters of interest to their ministry. They took the opportunity to congratulate Mrs Angela Mirani, the Reader who serves in the parish of St John the Baptist, Varese, Italy, on her appointment to the Executive Committee of the Central Readers’ Council (CRC) of the Church of England. The CRC, which comes under the Ministry Division, is responsible for a range of issues dealing with the Church’s Readers (licensed lay ministers), including national conferences, training events, regulations and ethnic monitoring. This is the first time that the Diocese in Europe has a representative on the CRC. There are over 10,000 Readers in the Church of England. In our diocese we have about 110. 

On Ascension Day, a joyful service of confirmation was held in the parish of Costa  Almería, Spain.   There were some nervous moments as the candidates were wondering if the bishop would show up. I was made late for the service due to the Guardia stopping me, in my  rented brand new Mini Cooper, for speeding through the wonderful mountain and coastal roads which lead to the Church. The Church which is used by our congregation is a redundant village chapel given over for our sole use by the Roman Catholic Bishop of  Almería . It is perched high on a hill, overlooking the coast, near the town of Mojácar. The candidates are seen below with the assistant priest the Revd Canon Alan Bennett. The parish will welcome a new priest-in-charge later this year.

The Revd Peter Edwards is the Senior Chaplain one of the largest parish in our diocese in terms of numbers of members, Holy Spirit, Costa Blanca . It is also one of the most extensive of our pastoral charges consisting of 8 congregations in that part of the Spanish Coast. Fr Peter oversees a team of priests and readers who serve this active parish. Fr Peter was recently installed as a Canon of the Diocese at a ceremony in Holy Trinity Cathedral in Gibraltar. The installation was conducted by the Very Revd Dr John Paddock, the Dean of Gibraltar. Fittingly, Canon Edwards' stall is that of St James the Apostle, Santiago,  who is the patron saint of Spain. We congratulate Canon Edwards on this honour, and pray for his ministry in Costa Blanca.

On Saturday June 1st in Salinas, Spain, the Archdeacon of Gibraltar, admitted Tony Eccleston to the office of Reader and licensed him to serve in St George's Malaga. The picture above includes some of the people who were present: (from left to right) Andrew Hoskings (congregational warden), Caroline MacFarlane (Reader in Costa del Sol (east), Malcolm Tracey (Reader in Malaga), the Revd John-Henry Bowden, Chaplain in Malaga, the Venerable David Sutch (Archdeacon), Tony Eccleston, the Revd Geoff Johnston (Area Dean) and Anne Eccleston (Churchwarden). In typical Anglican style on the Spanish Costa , the service was followed by a lunch at a local welcoming restaurant. The parish of Malaga includes historic St George's Church in Malaga city itself, and two daughter congregations, one in Velez-Malaga and another in Salinas. The training of a Reader (lay minister) in this diocese of the Church of England follows on a process of discernment and selection for this ministry, and ta...