Archdeacons in the Diocese in Europe

There are seven archdeacons for the Diocese in Europe. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that archdeaons in our diocese are first vicars/rectors (stilled referred to anachronistically as chaplains) of usually larger churches in our diocese, who later are invited by the bishop to also take up the responsibilities of an archdeacon. The second reason has to do with the geographical spread of our diocese. The diocese covers all of mainland Europe together with parts of Asia and North Africa. This way of pastoring and administering the diocese was envisaged back in the seventies before the end of the Cold War, the expansion of the European Union and the migration of Britons to various warmer climes within Europe and Turkey. For many years the diocese has been looking at new ways to pastor and administer the diocese wanting to take up more fully the mission opportunities that are presenting themselves.

The archdeacons from left to right: Jonathan LLoyd (Germany and Northern Europe), Peter Potter (Switzerland), David Sutch (Gibraltar), John de Wit (North West Europe), Patrick Curran (Eastern) and Kenneth Letts (France). That makes six! The missing archdeacon is Jonathan Boardman (Italy and Malta). 

A Prayer for the Second Sunday of Advent

Christ, now and always, you are our peace. May the second candle of this Advent wreath remind us that that you came and come to bring peace. May your peace fill our lives, our relationships, our churches, our cities and this nation. Your peace is a peace that we cannot give ourselves but all things are possible with you. Your peace passes human understanding help us to open ourselves to your peace. Amen.

The sketch above is by Christine Kohlmann of the Memorial to the women who served in World War II, Whitehall, London.

Advent musings at the weekly Wednesday celebration of Holy Communion

The four candles on the Advent wreath are the subject of two different interpretative models. The common model and probably more traditional one is that these four candles represent the Patriarchs, the Prophets, John the Baptist and Mary. This scheme reminds us that God has made his will known through his people with whom he has been in conversation ‘since the world began’. Our God ‘teilt sich mit!’ It belongs to God’s nature to make himself known in each and every generation. It is in his nature to seek relationship with those created in his image. 

The other model is based on four longings deeply embedded in us and which find their fulfilment in Jesus. These four longings are our longings for hope, peace, joy and love. As the first candle is lit the candle of hope we can articulate this hope. It is concrete. We hope for people who are not afraid, not suspicious and not second guessing people constantly but people who can trust, who are willing to grow and to grow you need to let go, to repent.

The four traditional themes of Advent are the Four Last Things: death, judgment heaven and hell. Today’s reading form the Book of the Prophet Isaiah addresses death. God will act decisively on his holy mountain and when he does this, this will be the outcome:

And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples,the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death for ever.

We believe that God has acted decisively in Jesus Christ and as we prepare to welcome Christ anew into our lives at Christmas through a keeping of the Christian season of Advent we do so with the expectation that God will lift the veil that remains spread over us, let alone the nations, and that we will fear death no more as death in and through Jesus Christ has been swallowed up for ever.

Through this Eucharistic meal, the sacrament of the altar, we anticipate now what is yet to be in all its fullness. Here on this holy mountain (replicated thousands of times in parish churches across Europe) none other than the Lord of hosts ‘makes for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-matured wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-matured wines strained clear’ as we journey on towards the great feast of Christmas. Today Jesus looks at us and says to his disciples, ‘I do not want to send them off hungry, they might collapse on the way!

We thank God for this provision for the way that leads to him. This provision gives us strength so that we may continue hopeful, trusting together with the generations of Christians who have preceded us in the wonderful message of the prophets. God’s good purposes for all the nations!