Convocation Newsletter
(COVID-19 special edition #15)
June 26, 2020
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A Newsletter for Members and Friends of the Convocation of
Episcopal Churches in Europe
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"Ordinary Time" in a time of crisis...
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Also, please note that
the Rev. Stephen McPeek
will be ordained priest on
Saturday, July 11, at 7:00 p.m.
at St. Augustine in Wiesbaden. Bishop Edington will ordain Stephen on behalf of the Bishop of Hawaii, where Stephen is canonically resident.
A Prayer for Understanding
Almighty God, through your Holy Spirit you created unity in the midst of diversity; We acknowledge that human diversity is an expression of your manifold love for your creation; We confess that in our brokenness as human beings we turn diversity into a source of alienation, injustice, oppression, and wounding. Empower us to recognize and celebrate differences as your great gift to the human family. Enable us to be the architects and bridge-builders of understanding, of respect and love; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, the ground of all unity, we pray.
Amen.
-
Author Unknown, (This prayer was offered at a recent Bishops and Canons meeting.)
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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Uncharted Seas
Tomorrow at the cathedral in Paris we will ordain two new priests in the Convocation—
Stéphanie Burette
and
Jean Dumond Chavanne
. Each of them, in their own ways, are stories very different from the usual account of a person who senses a vocation to ministry and follows that call through to ordination. By offering themselves to this ministry, and by the church responding through affirming their gifts and presenting them for this moment, they expand our understanding of what ordained ministry can be in the Episcopal Church.
At the same time, however,
the world in which we we are launching them as new priests is, quite simply, unlike anything that has come before.
The church makes a claim for a set of truths grounded on the radical idea that love is the most powerful force for good in the world; and among other things these two new priests will vow tomorrow to “minister the Word of God and the sacraments of the New Covenant, that the reconciling love of Christ may be known and received.”
But the world is less and less willing to receive that message. A world trapped in a spiral of fear—fear of a virus, fear of the immigrant, fear of the unfamiliar, fear of the other—cannot see the value in the one thing it needs most. Martha Nussbaum, a philosopher at the University of Chicago, has recently written in her book The Monarchy of Fear that “Fear all too often blocks rational deliberation, poisons hope, and impedes constructive cooperation for a better future.” It is hard to imagine a more succinct analysis of the world Stéphanie and Dumond are being sent out to save.
It is not an accident, perhaps, that when Jesus sent his disciples out into the world to begin their work, he did not send them equipped with theological libraries or closets of new vestments. Neither did he send them with certificates to prove that they had been “ordained” to proclaim the kingdom to any they encountered. In fact, as the gospel makes clear, Jesus sends out those who minister in his name with—nothing.
Nothing, at least, of power, nothing of the accoutrement of privilege, nothing to convey or claim authority.
Nothing, that is, except this:
The gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected, and the possibility of justification before the throne of judgment by faith in that truth and in the transforming power of the love that brought it about.
This is what we equip Stéphanie and Dumond with tomorrow. Other than that, we pray in the moment of their ordination that the church, which has chaperoned their long relationship with the Holy Spirit to this moment, will move out of the way and let the Spirit complete the work begun when they first sensed this call. They are casting off from the dock and heading their ships out into unknown waters, with nothing more than the gifts planted in them by the God who created them out of love.
So keep them in their prayers as they leave the safe harbor of the oversight and care of the ordination process, and take on the high and holy task of carrying out their ministry in an often harsh and always skeptical world.
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See also the Bishop's Pastoral Message
from June 5 on YouTube -
here
Read Bishop Edington's op-ed
from June 10 in
Le Monde
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here
(French and the original English version -
here
)
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Ordinations on Saturday....
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Ordinations on Saturday, June 27, at 1:00 p.m.
Our transitional Deacons, the
Rev. Stéphanie Burette
and the
Rev. Jean Dumond Chavanne
will, God willing, be ordained Priests on Saturday, June 27, at 1:00 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris.
The service will be broadcast live over Facebook
. A very limited number of family and essential personnel will be present in person for the ordination in the cathedral. These precautions are of course due to social distancing and health requirements resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
View the Ordination on Facebook Live -
here
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The Rev. Stéphanie Burette
Sponsoring Parish:
Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris
Dr. Stéphanie Burette completed her Master of Divinity degree at Yale Divinity School in conjunction with Berkeley Divinity School’s Diploma of Anglican Studies and ministry formation program. She completed master’s and doctoral degrees from the Sorbonne Nouvelle, and was a school teacher in France before attending to Yale.
Stéphanie received an appointment as the Porter Fellow at St George’s College in Jerusalem for the 2019-20 academic year. She has worked with pilgrimage groups and others, as well as contributing to the life of St George’s Cathedral and to the Jerusalem Peacebuilders (JPB) organization. She returns to Europe in mid-June.
Stéphanie has accepted a call as curate at St. Thomas' Church in Hanover NH, USA, which is adjacent to Dartmouth University.
Mother Stéphanie will celebrate her first mass on Sunday, June 28, at 10:00 a.m. at the Cathedral. Live-stream
here
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The Rev. Jean Dumond Chavanne
Sponsoring Parish:
Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris
Jean Dumond Chavanne came to us as an ordinand of the Diocese of Haiti. He was, however, later accepted into our ordination process, being sponsored by the Cathedral in Paris.
During his time in France, he has completed both a master in pedagogy as well as theological studies at the Institut catholique and the Institut protestant de Paris. In the summer, the European Institute of Christian Studies (EICS) administered the General Ordination Exam (in French) and has certified his formation.
Dumond and wife Rolande are active parishioners at the cathedral. Dumond and his family hope one day to return to their homeland and serve the Church as priest and teacher. After his ordination, Dumond will be working in French-speaking Episcopal ministry in France and Belgium.
Father Dumond will celebrate his first mass on Sunday, June 28, at 4:00 p.m. at the Cathedral. Live-stream
here
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Academy for Parish Leadership Online
Remaining session: June 27
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The online sessions will include speakers from within and outside of the Convocation
who are motivated by their faith commitments to engagement in activism and witness. We will have online breakout sessions to discuss and explore both the spiritual underpinnings and look at concrete, practical steps so that we can live out our commitment in 21st-Century Europe.
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"Living Out the Holy: "
Engaged Spirituality for Concerned Christians
This edition of the
Academy for Parish Leadership
offers a range of speakers and resources on four topics at the center of the Convocation’s work and witne,ss in the world:
- Refugees and Migrant - June 6
- Climate and Creation Care - June 6
- Racism and Reconciling the Beloved Community - June 20
- Youth and Children: The Church of Today - June 20
- Final plenary, reporting back, next steps, worship - June 27
These four priorities were set at the 2019 Convocation Convention. See Bishop Edington's Address
here
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Dean Laird is featured on France24
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The Very Reverend
Lucinda Laird
, Dean of our Cathedral, was featured on France24 this week in a program called "The 51 Percent" which focuses on women in leadership.
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Some 2.3 billion people identify as Christians across the globe and yet senior leadership positions in many churches are still prohibited to women. Annette Young meets the Reverend Lucinda Laird, the Dean of the American Cathedral in Paris who is a leading female priest in the Episcopal Church.
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The church as a refuge for all:
A prayer service for World Refugee Day
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All Saints Waterloo hosted a
European-wide virtual prayer service on Wednesday 17 June
during the week of World Refugee Day.
The service can be viewed
here
This year, the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe is organising a Task Force on Migrants and Refugees to create a community of practice across Europe. This service will engage spiritually and prayerfully with the four core questions of the Task Force; what does it mean for us, as Christians and church communities, to offer:
Charity
to migrants and refugees in need;
Witness
to their stories and their faith;
Outreach
to newcomers to our local areas and to our faith and;
Welcome
newcomers to our churches to become full members and leaders.
These questions remind us that our churches must think about how we can best offer everyone with the information and hospitality that they seek from our communities.
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Online Worship in the Convocation
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St. James the Less Episcopal Church
(Ev. Luth. St. Jakobskirche)
Nuremberg, Germany
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Online Worship Opportunities for Sundays and Weekdays
With many of 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.
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Times of in-person worship are also indicated. All times are (Central European Summer Time (CEST).
Worship on Sundays and during the week
:
Sundays
- Emmanuel Church, Geneva, SWITZERLAND
- In-person worship Sunday 8:30: Morning Prayer
- In-person worship Sunday 10:30: Morning Prayer (with instrumental music and cantors singing) - sign-up required
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 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
Thursdays
- All Saints' Waterloo, BELGIUM (or on Facebook)
- 21h00 Compline
- American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Paris, FRANCE **
- 9:00 a.m. Morning prayer live-streamed - here
- Compline available each day on YouTube - here
- Ascension, Munich, GERMANY -
- 8:00 p.m. Compline - link
- Christ the King, Frankfurt, GERMANY - link
- 19:00 Compline
- Resurrection, Orvieto, ITALY
- Morning Prayer at 9:30 a.m. (in Spanish)
- Bible Study at 17:00 (in Spanish)
- St. Paul's Within the Walls, Rome, ITALY
- Contemplative Prayer at 12:00 Noon
Fridays
Saturdays
**
All live-streamed services are posted to the Cathedral
YouTube
and
Facebook
and may be accessed at any time.
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Upcoming Convocation Events
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- July 11, 7:00 p.m. Ordination of Stephen McPeek to Priesthood- St. Augustine, Wiesbaden
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- October 15-18: TEC-ELKB dialogue - Augsburg, Germany
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The Convocation Youth were invited to submit creative ideas for a project called “
Pentecost Project 2020
”, telling the story of
Pentecost
.
What a wonderful result:
a video featuring youth from throughout the Europe speaking the good news in the languages of our Convocation!
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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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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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Congregational Plans for reopening churches
- see the Bishop and Council of Advice directives
on
Regathering the Church Prayerfully and Intentionally
here
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About five years ago, Canon Jere Skipper began the work of expanding the Episcopal Asset Map to include our congregations and ministries in Europe to the church-wide resource.
All of the parishes, established missions, and other ministries are on the Asset Map. Much more information needs to be added. Please consider updating the Episcopal Asset Map entry for your church or ministry. If you need help contact the
archdeacon
.
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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), Maleah Rios (Rome) 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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Did you miss Church?
Check out an on-line sermon:
See Bishop Edington's Sermon for Easter 2
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here
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Other pulpits in the Convocation:
Check other congregational webpages
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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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"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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