Convocation Newsletter
(COVID-19 special edition #4)
Maundy Thursday, April 9, 2020
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A Newsletter for Members and Friends of the Convocation of
Episcopal Churches in Europe
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The Holy Triduum in a time of pandemic...
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Good Friday
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now 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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Meditation for Good Friday from Bishop Edington is
here
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An Easter Message from the Bishop
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An Easter Message from the Bishop
The police in the neighborhood called the Cathedral this week. It wasn’t a courtesy call; they were calling to make certain it was clear no services are permitted in the building, not for Easter or any other purpose.
They were given assurances, of course. Services will be online—as they will be throughout the entire Convocation on Easter Day. (You can find out how to participate in the worship offered by your parish by having a look at
the listing of services on our web page
.)
But I could not help but wonder—what if there were no pandemic, and that call came anyway?
In this unexpected season of disruption and disease, one of the underlying stories has been what this moment has revealed about the often tense relationship between state power and the work and witness of the church. It is as though we are being reminded—and not so gently—that our ability to function as a church only goes forward by sufferance of the civil powers. Saint Paul, writing to the Ephesians, in some ways anticipated our circumstance: “We are not contenting against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness…” (Eph. 6:12, RSV)
This is hard for all of us; it is hardest, perhaps, for our clergy, who are deeply committed to the work of gathering spiritual communities. As one of my colleagues said to us on a recent call together, “We’ve been told we have to be useless and stay at home.” That is not a directive that goes down well with any of us, and certainly not with people who dedicate their lives to serving those in need and helping us.
Of course, in the immediate sense we are contenting against something that assaults flesh and blood very directly—a virus that has sickened hundreds of thousands, crippled economies, shut down transit links, challenged even our very advanced research and health care systems. And it is both right and in line with Christian moral teaching that the church should ask her people to follow guidance that helps to keep people safe and reduces the speed of disease.
But it is also true that the central claim we make as Christians is the victory of Christ over sin and death on Easter Day; and the drama that leads to the victory of Easter begins with a conflict between the claims of righteousness and the power of the state.
Easter will come this year as it always does. It comes not only when, or even because, we are permitted to hold it. It comes because Christ was raised from the dead, and opened for us the gates to eternal life. We celebrate that fact every Sunday, whether we are sitting in the pews or peering into our screens.
So I pray you will find new life and new hope in this Easter, even if for this remarkable moment we must do so in unfamiliar and distant ways. I pray you will find joy in the relentlessness, the certainty, of Christ’s victory for all humanity. And I pray that you might find, in the longing we all feel for the fellowship and celebration of the church we are all missing in this moment, a deeper sense of why it is God has called us to be in community with each other. After all, it is the nourishment of fellowship that we are missing most keenly in these days.
And I send you one small request. Would you
write out on a piece of paper
—or perhaps in a drawing, or a painting—that one word we wait so impatiently until Easter to be able to say, and with which we greet the victory won for us? Maybe as a selfie, maybe as a family photo? Just that word—
“Alleluia!”
Send it to me
at
bishop@tec-europe.org
, and we’ll make a digital collage of these to share with folks around the Convocation. We might even manage to get one for each one of the fifty days of Easter—and we sure could all use an Alleluia!
Blessings,
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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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Online Worship in the Convocation
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Online Worship Opportunities, for the Holy Triduum, Easter Day, and Easter Week.
With all our church buildings 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 (CEST).
Worship on Sundays and during the week:
Maundy Thursday - April 9
Good Friday - April 10
- Bishop Edington's Meditation for Good Friday is here
Holy Saturday - April 11
Easter Day
- St. Boniface, Augsburg, GERMANY
- Starting at 6am: "At the Easter fire" (about 1/2 hr, till sunrise, short liturgy on zoom)
- Easter Day 4pm, zoom: Easter Service
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
- Christ the King, Frankfurt, GERMANY - link
- 19:00 Compline
- Emmanuel Church, Geneva, SWITZERLAND
- 12:30 p.m. Noonday Prayer - Link
- Resurrection, Orvieto, ITALY
- Morning Prayer at 9:30 a.m. (in Spanish)
- St. Augustine, Wiesbaden, GERMANY
- Wednesdays at 11:00 a.m. "Word and Worship" - link
- St. Boniface, Augsburg, GERMANY
- 12:00 noon - Noonday Prayer
- 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
Info about the annual
Good Friday Offering
for Middle Easter Christians is
here
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Grant Applications for 2021 Now Available!
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Grant Applications for 2021 Now Available!
The Finance Committee of the Convocation has decided to extend the deadline for applications for next year’s grants to May 31, 2020. Instructions to guide grant-writers may be found at
this link
, and the application form may be found at
this link
.
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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
- 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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