Convocation Newsletter
(COVID-19 special edition #3)
April 3, 2020
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A Newsletter for Members and Friends of the Convocation of
Episcopal Churches in Europe
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Holy Week in a time of pandemic...
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Palm Sunday
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
In Time of of Great Sickness and Mortality....
O most mighty and merciful God, in this time of grievous sickness, we flee unto thee for succor. Deliver us, we beseech thee, from our peril; give strength and skill to all those who minister to the sick; prosper the means made use of for their cure; and grant that, perceiving how frail and uncertain our life is, we may apply our hearts unto that heavenly wisdom which leadeth to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
.
(1928 BCP, 45)
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Please find about Holy Week offerings in our congregations below.
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Convocation COVID-19 Webpage
Information in one place
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Convocation COVID-19 Response
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Please visit our
webpage
dedicated to our COVID-19 response, as well as other resources.
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A Pastoral Word from the Bishop
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A pastoral word from the Bishop
When I was very young and growing up in Michigan, a frequent occurrence of the humid midwestern summers were tornadoes. They were very rare storms of ferocious and concentrated destructive power; in the unlikely event they visited your town, one home would be utterly demolished next to another that remained virtually untouched. Their capacity for destruction was at once complete, and random.
To my five-year-old self, they were, accordingly, extremely exciting.
We were taught from a very early age that when the public alarms sounded, it was time to drop whatever else we were doing and head immediately to shelter. My family had a lean-to tornado shelter against the southwest corner the southwest corner of the basement, built of sturdy oak; if the whole house caved in on us, we’d at least be protected. There was a first-aid kit, some air mattresses and blankets, a battery-powered lantern and radio, and a small stockpile of canned food for our family of three.
I loved going there. When the clouds gathered darkness in the summer afternoon sky, I would secretly hope that the alarms would sound. On the rare occasions that they did, we’d head downstairs and sit, listening to the radio and playing cribbage.
No one could work during a tornado—you had to be inside to be safe. But of course, my folks kept paying the mortgage—because it was the house that kept us safe.
It was fun—for about fifteen minutes. Then it wasn’t so fun anymore.
By now, we’ve been stuck in our shelters from this virus for fifteen days—and longer. It’s not even a little bit fun anymore. At first, our attention focused on preparing ourselves for the changed routines. Now we are simply enduring them—and they are chafing.
The church has been there for us in all of this. Our congregations have been incredibly inventive, resilient, and relentless in connecting us together, opening up new ways of being in faithful community, and inviting others in. Some of us (and I hope more of us soon) have visited other congregations in the Convocation through the instrument of video links. And in some ways, even our longing for being together is teaching us something about what the church is—and why it is so central to the lives of disciples.
But now, we need as well to be there for the church. The whole world may seem to have shut down in place—
but the church must still pay its way
. We cannot socially (or financially) distance ourselves from our obligations.
Our bills still must be paid.
As you are joining services from home, please remember
you can send your financial support to your church from home, too
. Many of our congregations have ways of giving directly online, or will help you make a simple transfer from your bank. That’s what I'm doing—and because I know the demands for the ministries of our churches will be all the greater when this crisis is past, I’ve decided to pay all of my pledge for this year up front.
We’ll come out of these shelters of ours. But even from here,
we can offer support to the church as the church is offering support to us
.
Blessings,
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Online Worship in the Convocation
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Palm Sunday: April 5th
Convocation-wide Service...
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There will be a
Convocation-wide Palm Sunday Service,
which will be webcast on Facebook-live and Zoom with liturgical participants and readers in various places throughout Europe.
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Online Worship Opportunities, including HOLY WEEK.
With all our congregations closed to public worship, many of our parishes and missions have moved their Sunday and weekday Worship online. Consider taking part in worship with your sisters and brothers in Christ across Europe.
All times are Central European Summer Time.
Worship on Sundays and during the week:
Sundays
Mondays
Tuesdays
Wednesdays
- American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris, FRANCE
- 9:00 a.m. Morning prayer live-streamed - here
- Compline available each day on YouTube - here
- Emmanuel Church, Geneva, SWITZERLAND
- 12:30 p.m. Noonday Prayer - Link
- Resurrection, Orvieto, ITALY
- Morning Prayer, Monday at 9:30 a.m. (in Spanish)
- St. Augustine, Wiesbaden, GERMANY
- Wednesdays at 11:00 a.m. "Word and Worship" - link
- St. James, Florence, ITALY
- Evening Prayer at 6:00 p.m.
- St. Paul's Within the Walls, Rome, ITALY
- Morning Prayer, Rite II at 12:00 Noon
- Evensong on BBC Radio Three - here
Thursdays
Fridays
Saturdays
Bishop Edington's Sermon for Lent IV is
here
Info about the annual
Good Friday Offering
for Middle Easter Christians is
here
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Convocation Youth Bible Study
:
Monday 6 April @ 6:30pm
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Everyone ages 10-18 are invited to this Zoom meet up! We’ll catch up with old friends, meet some new ones and dig into the Bible all from the comfort of our couches. Email Katie (
curate@allsaints.be
) for more information or questions. See you soon!
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A useful resources from the Youth Commission:
FAITH AT HOME - RESOURCES FOR ALL AGES
-
DOWNLOAD
For more information on youth events and registration, please visit the Youth Ministry webpage
HERE
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A Convocation Companion
Prayers for the Days of Isolation
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At the request of Bishop Edington, clergy and lay leaders of the Convocation have compiled "A Convocation Companion" of prayers and devotions based on the Daily Office readings from March 22 to April 17, 2020....
A Convocation Companion
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"On the day that a thirty-day ban on travel into the European Union was announced—a span of time with no regard whatsoever for our annual passage from the penitence of Lent to the joys of Easter—I found myself particularly in need of the support and encouragement of companions along this pilgrimage of faith. So I quickly wrote to a number of them with a simple request: Might we together create a series of reflections to share with everyone in our community of churches in Europe—even with the whole church—as a way of providing our isolated friends some sort of companionship for these days ahead?
"As it is set before you, it is not a seasonal reader for the days of Lent; it is rather a companion for all of us for these thirty days of being cut off from the world and, in some sense, from each other. The authors have all responded to a very simple prompt—to read through the lessons appointed for the Daily Office of each of these days, and offer a short reflection on a specific verse that spoke to them. They have done so with prayerful elegance, and I take this opportunity formally to express to them my deep gratitude for keeping me company. I hope you find companionship for these days in their words, too."
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Upcoming Convocation Events
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CANCELED OR POSTPONED EVENTS
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- April 17-19: VOCARE Young Adults Weekend, Berlin, Germany - CANCELED
- April 24-26: Clergy Spouses Retreat, Pallottihaus, Vienna, AT - CANCELED
- May 7-10: TEC-ELKB Dialogue Meeting - Augsburg, Germany - MOVED TO OCTOBER
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- July 19: U.S. Bishops visiting Convocation Parishes and Missions - CANCELED
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Spring 2020
- April 4: 12:00 noon. Clergy & Wardens Zoom Gathering with Bishop
- April 7: "Maundy Tuesday" - online Clergy Prayer Service
- May 2: Clergy Morning Prayer
- May 16 - Finance Committee Meeting - Moved online
- May 23-24: Visitation in St. James the Less Mission, Nuremberg, Germany
- May 30: Visitation at Church of the Resurrection, Orvieto, Italy
- May 31: Visitation at St. Paul's Within the Walls, Rome, Italy
- June 1-5: Bishops Meeting: "Living our Vows"
- June 8: Clergy Morning Prayer
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- June 21: Consecration of the new Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht
- June 22-23: AOCICC Meeting, Prague Czechia
- June 29 - July 2: Clericus
Fall 2020
- October 22-25: 2020 Convocation Convention in Nice, France
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Convocation Communications Committee
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Trinité Magazine
Spring 2020 issue
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The Convocation Communications Committee (CCC) coordinates the communications of the Convocation. Special emphasis is given to Social Media, and close coordination with the parishes and missions of the Convocation. Existing modes of communication such as newsletters and the website are getting a facelift.
Members are: Thomas Girty (Paris), chair; Felicity Handford, Marc Smets-Tolley (both Waterloo), Walter Baer (Paris), Audrey Shankles (Wiesbaden), Helena Mbele-Mbong (Geneva), and Ellen Hampton (Paris), ex-officio. Others are being added.
The Convocation is now also featured with four pages in the cathedral's semi-annual publication
Trinité
, covering Convocation events.
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- For questions on recording worship attendance for virtual services, click here
- An article in the Anglican Church of Canada's ANGLICAN JOURNAL about our churches during this COVID-19 crisis - here
- Download the Book of Common Prayer - here
- Some prayer resources during time the pandemic, click here
- Some frightening historical information about the church response to the 1918 flu pandemic, click here
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Did you miss Church?
Check out an on-line sermon:
Other pulpits in the Convocation:
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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 :
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Regarding Allegations of Clergy Sexual Abuse
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Important information on the lifting of the Statute of Limitation regarding clergy sexual abuse...
Let it be known that for three years in the Episcopal Church there is no statute of limitation on clergy sexual abuse. Every diocese has a confidential way to make a report. In Europe here is ours:
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Read the latest on what's going on in the wider church
and much more....
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"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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The Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe | 23 avenue George V, 75008 Paris, France
+33 (0) 1 53 23 84 06 | office@tec-europe.orgl | www.tec-europe.org
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