March 2018
Convocation News
March 2018
A Newsletter for Members and Friends of the Convocation of
Episcopal Churches in Europe
This is a monthly convocational newsletter.
Please direct any comments to news@tec-europe.org
A blessed and reflective Lent to all ...
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Quatrième dimanche du Carême
Père plein de bonté, ton Fils est descendu du ciel, pour être le pain véritable qui donne la vie au monde: Donne- nous toujours de ce pain; que le Christ demeure en nous et nous en lui. Car il vit et règne avec toi et le Saint- Esprit, un seul Dieu, maintenant et toujours. Amen.

Vierter Sonntag in der Fastenzeit
Gnädiger Vater, dessen gepriesener Sohn Jesus Christus vom Himmel herabstieg, um das wahre Brot zu sein, das der Welt Leben gibt: Gib uns allezeit dieses Brot, damit er in uns lebe und wir in ihm, der lebt und regiert mit dir und dem Heiligen Geist, ein Gott, jetzt und in Ewigkeit. Amen.

Pray with us in the Convocation Cycle of Prayer - available here

(Photo of the Chapel of the Holy Family in Mühlbach am Hochkönig)
The Bishop Search Process
Please note: Application window
extended to March 9
Check out the

This website is the "go to" place for all information for the Bishop Search, Nomination, and the Transition processes. 

This site includes: 
  • The Convocation Profile, which was developed by the Bishop Search and Nomination Committee, both in an on-line and a downloadable form. 
  • It also includes the link to be used for applications for the position of Bishop in Charge. 
  • When the list of candidates has been finalized, biographical and other information about the candidates will be posted. 
  • It will also include other information about the Convocation, which will assist persons who are interested in the bishop search process, including a description of the Convocation Parishes and Missions.
  • As of March 1, there have been 11,836 visitors to the website.


Applications for Bishop in Charge will now be received  until: Friday, March 9, 2018  .

Further information on the Membership and the Duties of the Search and the Transition Committees  can be found here .

Bishop Search Update E-Mails....

Search Update #1   - Nov. 12, 2017.  Search Update #2   - Dec. 16, 2017
Search Update #3   - Jan. 23, 2018
Search Update #4 - Feb. 24, 2018
PRAYER FOR THE CONVOCATION
O God, we pray for the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe as we discern and elect a Bishop to serve your people, build up your Church and proclaim boldly the Gospel to the world. Send us, we pray, an apostle who is a wise counsellor, a merciful pastor, filled with your joy and grace. May your servant have the abundant gifts needed to lead your flock and the strength and courage to administer them. And may we renew and rededicate our lives to your will and service. All this we pray in the Name of our Great High Priest and Servant of the servants of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Upcoming Convocation Events
UPCOMING
CONVOCATION EVENTS


  • March 3-4: Visitation at St. Paul's Within the Walls, Rome, Italy

  • March 5-10: House of Bishops Retreat at Camp Allen, TX

  • March 8-10: CAECG meeting at St. George's in Berlin, Germany

  • March 24-15: Visitation at St. James the Less, Nuremberg, Germany

  • April 22: Visitation at Holy Family, Mühlbach am Hochkönig, Austria

  • April 27: COMB meeting in Geneva, Switzerland


  • April 27-29: Clergy Spouses Retreat

  • April 28-29: Visitation at Christ the King in Frankfurt, Germany

  • May 3-5: TEC-ELKB Dialogue in Augsburg, Germany

  • May 8: Board of Foreign Parishes Meeting in New York

  • May 10-13: Youth Events - Ascension Weekend
  • YAE - Florence, Italy
  • JAE - Clermont-Ferrand, FR

  • May 20: (Whitsunday) Visitation at the Cathedral in Paris, France

  • May 23-24 AOCICC Meeting - Winchester, England (Anglican - Old Catholic Meeting)


  • June 4-8: Clericus 

  • June 9-10: Visitation at Ascension in Munich, Germany

  • June 15-16: APL Vestry Workshop for Francophonie (FR, BE, CH) near Paris

  • June 22-23: APL Vestry Workshop for Germany in Nuremberg 

  • June 24: Visit to St. Alban's in Strasbourg




  • Sept 27-Oct 1 Bishop Candidates Walkabout

  • October 18-21 Convocation Electing Convention in Waterloo

  • November 16-18 Youth Leaders Training Event
European Institute of Christian Studies
Academy for Parish Leadership
APL regional workshop are designed to train vestry members in the particular ministry of governance in the Church. Workshops will focus on both general matters about vestry leadership and issues particular to different parts of Europe. This is especially useful for new vestry members, wardens, and treasurers.


  • June 15-16: APL Vestry Workshop for Francophonie (France, Belgium, Switzerland) at Manrèse: Le Centre spirituel jésuite en Ile-de-France in Clamart, near Paris

  • June 22-23: APL Vestry Workshop for Germany in Nuremberg 


In 2018 the Academy of Parish Leadership will host three regional Vestry Training Workshops in the Convocation. 


Registration is open for:
APL - Italy- April 27-28, 2018


The Academy of Parish Leadership in Munich, Germany, May 19-20, 2017
Youth Commission
Ascension Day Weekend - May 10-13
Juniors Across Europe

In May 2013, 27 youth and 9 adults from 5 different parishes across Europe all convened at the small mountain village of Benediktbeuem, just south of Munich for the first ever Convocation-wide retreat for our ‘junior youth' (10-13 year olds). 

Now an annual event, JAE kids spend a weekend together, meeting new people, learning about God and the Bible, and enjoying the beauty of creation. The retreats are a great mix of fun times, good teaching and plenty of laughs.

The next event in May 2018 will be in Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Registration Information:
Caireen Stewart Warren is the new Chair of the Youth Commission. Other members include: Valerie Perkins (Florence), the Rev. Scott Moore (Nuremberg), and Patty Solomon (Geneva).

Youth Across Europe 

Youth Across Europe offers a retreat for 13-19 year olds. Each year, a Convocation parish hosts the event, which happens during Ascensiontide weekend. 

The next YAE event is in Florence, Italy.

Registration Information:
Council of Advice
The Council of Advice reminds us of some important upcoming dates:

April 16 : Last date for parishes/missions to send to the Secretary of Convention, Deacon Richard Cole, the names of convention delegates and alternates (making clear which is which).

April 30 : Last day for grant applications and initial budget request to be submitted for to the Finance Committee for consideration in the 2019 budget.

May 20 (Pentecost) will be Mission Sunday. This years designated mission is the Episcopal Diocese of Puerto Rico to aid in hurricane recovery.

Francophone Outreach...
Magazine Anglican de février

Mgr. Pierre Whalon, dans le Magazine Anglican pour présenter l'ouvrage qu'il a co-écrit avec Jean-Michel Cadiot : Laïcité, l'expression publique de la religion.


A la radio : le Magazine Anglican
Le « Magazine Anglican », animé par Laurence Moachon, paroissienne de la Cathédrale de la Sainte Trinité à Paris. 
À propos du Magazine Anglican :
Depuis septembre 2012, Laurence Moachon présente le 4e samedi du mois, le Magazine Anglican. Avec l’objectif de faire mieux connaître la tradition anglicane au public français, elle traite de sujets d’actualité culturelle, historique, liturgique ou ecclésiologique dans la Convocation et la Communion Anglicane. 
ÉCOUTEZ OU TÉLÉCHARGEZ LE MAGAZINE ANGLICAN sur :
Parish Outreach: St. Paul's in Rome
SOCKS AND UNDERWEAR FOR REFUGEES FOR A YEAR
We buy UNDERWEAR AND SOCKS inexpensively from an Eritrean refugee (3 pairs of socks for €1, and one pair of underwear for €1) and we only allow each individual to take two pairs of both each month to stretch meager resources as far as we can...IF EVERYONE gave a little, we would soon meet our target.. EVERY DAY the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center WELCOMES 150-250 REFUGEES, 70% OF WHOM ARE HOMELESS. Text Link
Paris Cathedral History in Berlin
A fascinating chapter in the storied life of the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris is the period of the German occupation of Paris. In June 1940, as Nazi forces approached the city, the Dean and many parishioners of the cathedral fled Paris. The parishioners who remained continued to have services under the direction of Organist-Choirmaster Lawrence Whipp (1889-1945). (He was at the cathedral from 1921-1945 and his story is another interesting saga.) After the entry of the US into the war in December 1941, Mr. Whipp was arrested and sent to an interment camp, and church services were suspended. The cathedral property was then requisitioned by the German military authorities as their Protestant Military Chapel. The German Lutheran clergyman who served as chief pastor, the Rev. Rudolf Damrath, orchestrated the release of Mr. Whipp from the detention camp, and the cathedral was quite well taken care of and much used throughout the occupation. Pastor Damrath's daughter Maria Luise Damrath of Berlin has a great interest in her father's time at the cathedral and contributed material to the monumental history of the cathedral by Cameron Allen that was published in 2012, The History of the American Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris (1815-1980). The book is also available online here.

On February 17 and 18, in the context of a Cathedral Choir trip to Berlin, cathedral archivist and choir member Kate Thweatt, cathedral magazine Trinité co-editor and choir member Nancy Janin, and Archdeacon Baer visited with Frau Damrath. Frau Damrath attended the Evensong at the Berliner Dom (Protestant cathedral), at which the choir members sang, and the following day she invited the three visitors to her home. The group learned many interesting details of her father's life and of her own fascinating life, and received copies of documents and photographs.

The Cathedral Choir sang Evensong in the Berliner Dom together with the English Choir of Berlin. This choir will visit Paris in May and sing at the American Cathedral and at Notre Dame.
From 1942-1944, the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris served as the Deutsche Evangelische Wehrmachtskirche (German Protestant Military Church). The above image (left) is of the service schedule and other activities at the time. The chief Pastor of church was the Rev. Rudolf Damrath. In addition to him, there were two additional chaplains and two full-time musicians all of whom were housed in the deanery. Above photos, entrance to the cathedral in 1942 and 2018.
Nancy Janin, Maria Luise Damrath, Kate Thweatt, and Archdeacon Walter Baer in the home of Frau Damrath in Berlin-Wannsee. Frau Damrath is the daughter of Pastor Damrath, and was a child during WWII. The family remained behind in Potsdam while he was deployed to Paris.
The Berlin Protestant Cathedral - Berliner Dom on the Museum Island in the center of the city.
Sermons online
Archbishop Vercammen preached at the Cathedral on February 4th
The Most Rev. Joris Vercammen , Archbishop of the Old Catholic Diocese of Utrecht, was at the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris on February 4 to preach at the 11 a.m. Eucharist, and spoke at the Adult Forum. At this Adult Forum, Archbishop Vercammen will spoke of the Old Catholic Church and its relationship with the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. The Episcopal and Old Catholic Churches are currently in dialogue about the Episcopal Bishop in Charge in Europe exercising oversight of Old Catholic francophone parishes in France and Belgium.

Hear Archbishop Vercammen's sermon here :
Did you miss Church?
News from the wider Church...
Bishop Curry on The Episcopal Church’s need for world Anglicanism: “We need each other”
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has given an impassioned lecture on why his US-based Episcopal Church needs world Anglicanism, by saying: “We need each other”. The public lecture was given earlier this month at the Centre for Anglican Communion Studies at the Virginia Theological Seminary, as part of a series of events marking the centre’s 20th anniversary. And he said that without the Anglican Communion, lives would be lost. read more
  Check out the latest edition of The Read Thread
Read the latest on what's going on in the wider church
and much more....
"Go forth for God; go to the world in peace; be of good courage, armed with heavenly grace, in God's good Spirit daily to increase, till in his kingdom we behold his face."

                                                   Hymn 347 - Holy Eucharist; Music: Litton 
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