Eurobishop

  Bishop Michael Ipgrave The Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave opened the Anglican Lutheran Society Conference in Trondheim Norway today, and introduced the opening speaker, Presiding Bishop of the Church of Norway, the Most Revd Olav Fyske Tveit. Bishop Olav both inspired us and challenged us in recounting his years of experience in the ecumenical movement, including being the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches of 10 years.  Presiding Bishop Olav Fyske Tveit of the Church of Norway,  The theme of the Conference is “A Pilgrimage Towards Hope” and we are blessed to have such a gathering of Christian leaders, pastors and laity, who are committed to our common pilgrimage as Anglicans and Lutherans world-wide, to manifest the unity which is Christ’s will for the Church. The first day of the conference coincided with the feast of St James the Apostle, the patron of pilgrims. It is a tradition in the Nidaros (Trondheim) Cathedral to honour St James, one of...

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...

The Diocese in Europe Camino Chaplaimcy is preparing for its second year of operation in 2019. It is proposed to extend the ministry from April/May through to October/November, and will be expanding to include not only the ministry on offer in Santiago itself, but chaplains who will be walking with pilgrims on the various caminos. The Santiago base is "Egeria House" which is the home of Sybille Yates, the local coordinator for this ministry. 2018 was a fruitful pioneering year, some of the highlights being: 27 church services (Sunday mornings in a chapel-like room the Parador Hotel has given us for free, Wednesday afternoons at Egeria House, followed by a shared meal). Open House each weekday afternoon, for coffee/tea and chat. Hospital and albergue visits to ill pilgrims, and ad hoc meetings with pilgrims on request. Being present around town, and on the last kilometres of many Caminos to meet pilgrims, encourage them, welcome them and listen to them.  Working clo...

Last year over 300,000 pilgrims from around the world arrived in Santiago de Compostela. Today, 13 May, marked the launch of a new ministry to Anglican pilgrims in Santiago. The  Camino de Santiago Chaplaincy  is an initiative of the Rev Alasdair Kay from the Diocese of Derby working with Archdeacon Geoff Johnston of Gibraltar and myself as lead bishop for the Archdeaconry of Gibraltar. We are blessed with the presence of a local coordinator, Sybille Yates, who is based in the city and who will oversee the arrangements for Anglican clergy and volunteers on the ground from her home which she has named the House of Egeria, after the remarkable 4th century woman pilgrim to Jerusalem.  Egeria House is a short stroll from the Cathedral All priests have Permission to Officiate for this work, and have accommodation provided in Santiago. During this seasonal ministry they provide pastoral care and support for pilgrims and celebrate the Holy Eucharist on Sundays and oth...

Warm ecumenical relations continue in one of our newest parishes in France. The Revd Peter Hales, priest-in-charge of  Christ Church, Coutances , recently wrote in his parish magazine of a special invitation from the Roman Catholic Church to join them in their annual pilgrimage from Genet to Mont Saint Michel . Ten intrepid walkers, from the congregations at Coutances and Vezins, turned up early in the morning at Genet, still bleary eyed, to join over 1300 pilgrims to the ancient site. Monseigneur Stanislas Lalanne, the RC Bishop of Coutances, said prayers. To singing of a hymn, the pilgrims then set out across the sands for the 2 1/2 hour walk, sometimes wading through water up to their our knees, stopping at times to pray and sing. On arrival at the Mont, covered in mud and weak at the knees, the pilgrims faced the steep climb (about 800 steps) to the Abbey for mass. Mont Saint Michel has been a place of pilgrimage for 1300 years. Some of the Anglican pilgr...

The Revd Bob Bates, Chaplain of St Vincent’s in the Algarve, has recently completed a walk traversing the vast territory of the "parish" in the southernmost region of Portugal. (St Vincent's is made up, presently, of three congregations). Teaming up with Terry Ames of Algarve Walking Experience (grey shirt on the right) the pair walked the 260 kms from Alcoutim on the Spanish border to Cape St Vincent in just 7.5 days averaging just under 40 kms each day. The route chosen, called the Algarve Way, loosely follows the route which the Pilgrims of St Vincent took to the saint’s one time burial place at the south westerly extreme of Europe where mainland meets the Atlantic Ocean. Whilst the initial aim of the walk was to raise the profile of the Church of England Chaplaincy in that part of the Diocese of Europe Father Bob was also able to raise over €3,000 through sponsorship to help to supply air conditioning units at the Lar São Vincente, a home for severely mentally dis...

From 6 to 8 May Bishop Geoffrey and I hosted bishops from the Anglican and Old Catholic churches in Europe for 3 days of pilgrimage, prayer and fellowship in Hampshire. We were joined by Bishop Pierre Whalon from the Episcopal Church Convocation in Europe, and our Old Catholic brothers: Archbishop Joris Vercammen of Utrecht, Bishop Dick Schoon of Haarlem , Bishop Harald Rein of Switzerland and Bishop John Okoro of Austria. Bishop Lennart Koskinen from the Church of Sweden Diocese of Visby , our Porvoo Partner, was also able to be with us. Anglicans and Old Catholics have been in communion since 1931. This is the second joint pilgrimage in recent years, to help build up our episcopal collegiality and give time for reflection on our common mission in Europe. In 2006 we were the guests of Bishop Joachim Vobbe of Germany when we walked a route from Bonn to Echternach in Luxembourg, where St Willibrord , the British missionary who brought Christianity to...

It is very difficult to do put into words my feelings on being confronted today with the horror of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Passing under the gates with the cynical words “Arbeit Macht Frei” was chilling as I entered the site of the most horrific crimes ever committed by human beings. The enormous factory of evil, torture and death is just too hard to describe. But it is very real; the holocaust happened, and it is forever on the conscience of mankind. Thousands of people walked in silence along the railway track to join the representatives of the major religions for the ceremony of remembrance. We walked to proclaim to the world that never again can we sink into such an abyss of hatred and depravity. Representatives of Christian Churches, the Jewish community and of other faiths, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims, laid 21 wreaths before commemorative plaques, in what is the largest cemetery in history. It is estimated that close to 4 million people, mostly Jews, died in this immense comple...

On Saturday I leave for Krakow, Poland to take part in an international meeting of prayer for peace, sponsored by the Sant'Egidio Community , a lay movement within the Roman Catholic Church, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Stanislao Dziwisz, (who was the former Secretary of Pope John Paul II). The meeting runs from 6 to 8 September. This is a further gathering in “the spirit of Assisi”, continuing the movement begun in 1986 when Pope John Paul II convened a historical meeting of leaders from around the world and from the major world religions in the city of St Francis, to pray for and to promote mutual understanding, dialogue, and cooperation towards peace. This year's meeting is at a crossroads of European history, shortly after the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. We will be participating in an interfaith pilgrimage to the Auschwitz-Birkenau...

St Aidan was the focus of some reflection during a recent period of study in Durham, with senior colleagues from the Church of England. We learnt much from the history of his evangelisation efforts in the North of England, and were inspired by the simplicity of his strategy and his self-discipline in keeping focussed on his mission. We walked in his footsteps to Holy Island. Time to re-read the Venerable Bede's account in A History of the English Church and People. Everlasting God, you sent the gentle bishop Aidan to proclaim the gospel in this land: grant us to live as he taught in simplicity, humility and love for the poor; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.