Eurobishop

The Annunciation, (unknown), the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.  Addressing the leaders of all Christian Churches, communities and confessions worldwide, the Pope invites us all, on 25 March at 12 noon in each local time zone, to recite the prayer of all Christians. “In these days of trial, as humanity trembles at the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, I would propose that all Christians join their voices together to heaven to invoke the Almighty, the All Powerful God, by reciting contemporaneously the prayer that Our Lord Jesus has taught us”.  25 March is the Feast of the Annunciation. Its central focus is the wondrous moment in history when the Eternal Word became flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary; in short God became one of us. The feast marks the dramatic entrance of the divine into our everyday world, God with us, Emmanuel. As we remember the closeness of God to us – God who took on our very flesh – Pope Francis encourages us in reciting our common...

Fr Parvez is blessed for his new ministry, Fr Tuomas Mäkipää looks on The job of any bishop includes personnel management, pastoral care, many meetings and much administration (the latter two these days particularly to do with safeguarding). That is not to mention conflict resolution. It sormetimes feels like my desk is a magnet for complaints and negativity. Overall there is rarely a pause in the work; as Deacon Frances Hiller my chaplain says, "it never slows down!".  But the most important things I do are also the most joyful: being with God's people together with their priests, deacons and lay ministers, celebrating the sacraments of the new covenant and teaching the faith to so many people.   It is a huge privilege to preside at the sacraments of initiation, to baptise new Christians, to confirm those who have been previously baptised and who seek to be renewed and strengthened by the Holy Spirit for Christian discipleship.  A recent parish v...

"....from plague, pestilence, and famine.. Good Lord, deliver us"   This supplication from the Book of Common Prayer must have had particular significance as the Litany was recited this morning in St George's Church, Venice, by the priest, Fr Malcolm Bradshaw, and the reader in training, Philip Jones. (There was no congregation as public worship is suspended in the region, see below). Indeed, t he people of this diocese, particularly in Northern Italy,are experiencing what one priest has summed up as "strange times".  Philip James, Fr Malcolm and the Patriarch of Venice As we are a very mobile and international diocese Bishop Robert and I have written to the clergy with instruction about church gatherings and liturgical celebrations that go, necessarily, beyond the current guidelines issued by the Church of England, centrally. (The Central Church of England advice can be found here:  https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronavirus-covi...