Eurobishop

  James Bartle, Fr Tony, John Wilson and Daniel Tsoi At the weekly eucharist at the Anglican Centre in Rome this week, on the Feast of St Luke the Evangelist, I had the privilege of presiding and preaching. It was a joy to see in the congregation one of our own Diocese in Europe ordinands, John Wilson, who is on placement at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome. He was joined by two other colleagues from the Church of England also on placement, James Bartle (Diocese of Newcastle) and Daniel Tsoi (Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham).  Their formation as future priests will be enhanced by this experience of living and studying alongside Roman Catholic seminarians, in the heart of Rome itself. I always advocate for maximum ecumenical input into the preparation of our future priests.  In the picture above the three are in the company of Fr Tony Currer, who was until last week, the Vatican Official responsible for relations with the Anglican Communion and a good personal frien...

The MES (Ministry Experience Scheme) is a programme largely funded by the National Church which places young persons, 18-30, who may be exploring ordination into parochial settings to get a sense of life in parish ministry. The MES programme of this diocese is one of the most successful across the Church of England. It is headed by Dr Clare Amos, our Director of Discipleship, with support from Fr William Gulliford our Director of Ordinands. Dr Amos at the Dome of the Rock One part of our diocesan MES programme which has not been able to be realised for the past two and a half years due to COVID has been a study-pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Finally this year we were able to restore this trip and so 10 interns spent from 7 to 15 July, visiting the Biblical lands, accompanied by Dr Amos, Fr Gulliford, the Revd Carolyn Cooke from the chaplaincy of La Côte, and myself. We were further very pleased that an intern from a similar programme of the Episcopal Church (TEC) in Europe, who is servin...

Canon William Gulliford reported on our recent Enquirers' Weekend which is held annualy for those at an early stage of exploring Holy Orders in the Church of England. This year there were 24 enquirers, equal numbers of men and women, from across the diocese. The breakdown of nationalities speaks of the international reach of this Church of England diocese in Europe: Italian 1 French 1 Dutch 1 Belgian 3 Maltese 1 UK 4 German 2 Norwegian 1 Finnish 1 Kenyan 1 Russian 2 Latvian 1 USA 4 Together the enquirers explored what would be ahead of them as they journey along the discernment path, whether to distinctive diaconate, priesthood or even the religious life. Former candidates from the diocese now serving elsewhere in the Church of England, Frs Ian Gallagher and Alaric Lewis were on hand to speak of their experience. Vocations Advisors, Fr Douglas Emmott and Ms Sonia Taylor spoke on ministry and spiritual direction respectively. Some individuals ...

MES interns Edoardo (with the cross) and Ksenia (with the candle) serving at All Saints, Rome The Ministry Experience Scheme (MES) of the Church of England offers young adults aged 18 to 30 the opportunity to serve in a parish as part of the discernment of a possible call to the ministry.  We have three MES interns in the Diocese in Europe serving on the scheme this year (it is the 5th year we have participated and we were among the first dioceses to do so) and two of them are assigned to All Saints Rome. One of the Rome interns, Ksenia Smykova, is a native of Russia. The other, Edoardo Fanfani, is an Italian-American. Typical of our international diocese! Both appear to be having a very enriching time, working along Fr Rob Warren, the Chaplain of All Saints, and supporting in a diverse range of ways the life and ministry of the Chaplaincy. As Ksenia said recently, "MES enables me to engage full time in the service that I love. I don't know where I will be when t...

MES interns at All Saints, Rome Dr Clare Amos, the Diocesan Director of Discipleship, also directs the MES programme of the diocese (the Ministry Experience Scheme, formerly known as CEMES, the Church of England Ministry Experience Scheme). We have 5 interns on placement for this academic year, in Brussels, Vienna, Copenhagen, Rome and Warnham Sussex (the intern is from Heidelberg). Together with their supporting advisors and mentors, Clare brought the interns to Rome recently for their official orientation to the programme. Pastoral Advisor Mary Talbot and Dr Amos taking a drink from a fountain in Rome. (The figure in the fountain is damaged as it was believed (mistakenly) that it was Martin Luther, not a popular figure in 16th century Rome.) At the PCPCU in Rome The orientation in Rome included a visit to the PCPCU, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, where Bishop Brian Farrell, the Secretary of the Council met with the interns and their ...

The ministry of deacon in the Church of England is still not well known nor understood.. Most people assume that being a deacon is simply a stepping stone on the way to the priesthood. It is true that priests must first be ordained deacon but the diaconate is also a distinctive ministry, to which people are called, and part of the three-fold ministry of bishop, priest and deacon that Anglicans teach as being characteristic of minstry in the Holy Catholic Church. The Lambeth Conference as early as 1958 made an attempt to renew the understanding of the diaconate as a distinctive ministry and recommended that "each province of the Anglican Communion...consider whether the office of Deacon shall be restored to its primitive place as a distinctive order in the Church, instead of being regarded as a probationary period for the priesthood". The distinctive diaconate, in my view, still needs to be taken more seriously as a vocational opportnity, within the Church of England. ...

Canon Elaine Labourel introduces the weekend workshop Readers (Licensed Lay Ministers) and those in training for that ministry recently came together in Woking, England, for a workshop on the ministry of preaching. Organised by the Director of Reader Ministry, Canon Elaine Labourel, this workshop included some theological reflection on the doctrine of revelation, how God communicates divine truth to the human community, some principles of Anglican preaching, as well as practical guidance and skill enhancement in homiletics. The Revd Dale Hanson of St Mark's Versailles was a key resource person for the event. As Warden of Readers, I was also able to spend some hours with the participants. Reader Angela Mirani (left) was the first Reader I admitted to this office back in 2003 These training events are very well supported by the Readers, and are generally oversubscribed! One participant thanked Canon Labourel for her encouraging leadership, "because of her, the read...

The recently ordained clergy of the Diocese continue in their Post Ordination Training programme, under the supervision of the Revd Canon Ulla Monberg, the Director of Ministerial Development. (The current short-hand for Post Ordination Training in the Church of England is "IME Phase 2). The topics covered in the last residential sessions held at St Columba's House in Woking, were "Conflict Resolution" led by Liz Griffiths from Bridge Builders,  and "Making Effective Use of Media and Communication" with our Diocesan Communications Officer, Liz Hudson. The present curates come from Athens, Bordeaux, the Hague, Paris, Kortrijk, Trondheim and Vienna. After this weekend's ordinations, they will be joined by new curates from Brussels and Florence.

23 persons from across the diocese met last weekend under the direction of our Director of Ordinands, Fr William Gulliford, to explore what it means to be called to the Sacred Ministry in the Church of England. Fr William was assisted in this task with a team of clergy (some who were former ordinands from this diocese), current ordinands themselves, and members of our Diocesan Ministry Team. Parish visits were arranged to 5 very different communities in London. The intensive three days covered a range of essential topics such as: the discernment, selection, training and deployment processes in the Church of England,  the nature of obedience and authority under which clergy live their vocation  spiritual resources for preparing for the vocational journey the Diocese in Europe's unique history and role in the Church of England the Anglican Communion's 5 marks of mission issues in human sexuality the ministry of priest and deacon  Those on this exploratory w...

The CEMES pilgrims at the Holy Sepulchre Dr Clare Amos, Director of Discipleship of the Diocese in Europe and a mentor for the CEMES* programme in the Diocese has submitted this moving report from the Holy Land pilgrimage __________________________________________ ‘I found the peace of Galilee fantastic, but Jerusalem somehow made me feel closer to Christ, precisely because he came for reconciliation, and in Jerusalem you can see how much reconciliation is needed.’  ‘We explored the multiple dimensions and many sides of stories, and we learned that nothing is as simple as it might seem. Perhaps that was partly exemplified for me by the need to go through a metal detector before one could access some of the holy sites.’ ‘I will never forget listening to Julius singing the Magnificat in the Church of St Anne and Ubi Caritas in the Crusader Church of Abu Ghosh.’ ‘Somehow we experienced the joys and sorrows of ecumenism. In the Holy Sepulchre we witnessed several differ...

St Albert of Trapani is a Sicilian saint from the 13th century, a Carmelite, widely known for his preaching and miraculous healings. He is also the patron of one of this Diocese's newest developing congregations. I was able to visit this congregation, located in the town of Randazzo on the slopes of Mount Etna, for the first time recently. I was accompanied by the Archdeacon of Italy and Malta, Vickie Sims. The occasion was the Feast of the Holy Cross. It was a warm and enthusiastic gathering. The mass was according to Common Worship, but in Italian. Archdeacon Vickie served as the deacon of the mass and also translated my homily for the assembled worshippers. It was televised by a local station! Visitors joined us from the Anglican congregations in Rome and Taormina. The priest is the Revd Giovanni La Rosa, who was received into the communion of the Church of England at the Chrism mass last March. He has been mentored by clergy of the Archdeaconry and continues his journey...

For the third year running, our Diocese in Europe is participating in the "Church of England Ministry Experience Scheme" (CEMES) which offers year long placements for young adults (under 30) wishing to test their vocation to the sacred ministry. This year 6 persons will be placed in our parishes in Lyon, Leuven, Brussels, La Côte (near Geneva), Ostend with Brugge and Vienna. They will be given practical experience in ministry, some time of theological reflection and exposure to the challenges of Anglican life on the continent of Europe. Our Director of Ordinands, Canon William Gulliford, oversees the CEMES programme in our diocese, and works with a team of volunteer priests and laity in the supervision of the participants. A special orientation session for this year's cohort was held on 31 August to 1 September in Rome, hosted by All Saints Church.    The scheme is part of the Church's effort to encourage more young people to consider Holy Orders.    ...