World Day of Prayer on Friday 3 March 2017

 

                                                                                                                                                                      World Day of Prayer logo

The World Day of Prayer is a global women’s movement which invites all people to join in prayer and action for peace and justice. Its vision is for “Informed Prayer and Prayerful Action”.

The World Day of Prayer is celebrated every year on the first Friday of March in more than 170 countries. The movement originated in the USA in 1887 and was first celebrated in France in 1960.

Among the 40 groups preparing celebrations this year in Alsace, the group “Strasbourg Centre” invites both men and women to join them in exploring the central theme:

Am I Being Unfair to You?

Friday 3 March, 15.00h

Chapelle de la Toussaint

15 rue de la Toussaint (near Rectorat and Clinique de la Toussaint, Bus 6 Faubourg de Pierre)

For more information about the movement in English:  http://worlddayofprayer.net/index.html

La Journée Mondiale de Prière est un mouvement mondial de femmes qui invite toutes les personnes à se retrouver dans la prière et l’action pour la paix et la justice. Sa vision est “s’informer, prier et agir”.

La Journée Mondiale de Prière est célébrée chaque année le premier vendredi du mois de mars dans 170 pays. Le mouvement est né aux USA en 1887 et la première célébration en France a eu lieu en 1960.

Parmi les 40 groupes qui préparent la célébration cette année en Alsace, le groupe ‘Strasbourg centre” invite à la fois les hommes et les femmes à le rejoindre pour une célébration sur le thème:

 “Me trouves-tu injuste ?”

Painting WDP 2017

Célébration ecrite par le Comité de la Journée Mondiale de Prière des Philippines (Matthieu 20:1-16).

Vendredi le 3 mars à 15h00

en la Chapelle de la Toussaint

15, rue de la Toussaint (près du Rectorat et la Clinique de la Toussaint, Bus 6 Faubourg de Pierre).

 Pour plus d’information en français:   http://jmp.protestant.org.    Facebook: JourneeMondialeDePriereFrance

Informed Prayer and Prayerful Action: Guiding Principles of the World Day of Prayer

Luxembourg 2008   WDP Luxembourg 2008  Starting point: Christian Women 
We recognize Christian women as competent to express their faith and to speak about their lives in prayer and worship before God and in community.

Egypt 2009  WDP Egypt 2009   Listening and speaking 
Prayer is rooted in listening to God and to one another. We listen to the Word of God and to the voices of women sharing their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, their opportunities and needs.

Papua New Guinea 2009   WDP Papua New Guinea 2009   Committed to learn; striving for wisdom
Learning is a mutual process.  Together we strive for wisdom that shapes our understandings and guides our actions in our daily lives.

Jordan 2011       WDP Jordan 2011   Being a Christian neighbor in a multi-religious world 
Called by Jesus Christ to love our neighbors, Christian women seek to live in community with everyone around them including people of other faith traditions.

Switzerland 2011 WDP Switzerland 2011    Developing global ecumenical sisterhood & building trust
Once you begin to respect, trust, and understand one another you can build long lasting bonds. A worldwide sisterhood that gathers in worship every year.

Mexico 2012  WDP Mexico 2012   Sharing acknowledges that all have something to give and to receive 
Each year women of a certain country are able to share their faith and lives. By taking turns each year we emphasize that all are welcome.

Paraguay 2012  WDP Paraguay 2012    Being faithful and creative 
Women strive to be faithful to the texts they received for the worship service, to make heard the voices of women of a different country, while creatively expressing their own responses to the text.

Philippines 2013  WDP Philippines 2013    Stretching beyond what is familiar; becoming inclusive
It takes some risk to understand one another from where the other person is rather than from where I am.
It brings renewal when the new generations of young women join.

Cameroon 2014   WDP Cameroon 2014   Moving into responsible action 
We encourage responsible action that grows out of the worship service and its theme. Being willing to look at the problems that affect the world and cause suffering requires courage. To take small steps and proceed one step at a time is an expression of hope, even when confronted by many difficulties.

Sarah and Andrew Wilson – Recent Publications

It was with great regret that last year we had to say farewell to Sarah and Andrew Wilson and their son Zeke.  They had been part of our congregation for seven years while Sarah was working at the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, and they contributed generously to our church life.  Andrew, a gifted singer, served as Churchwarden and set up this website, Sarah preached memorable sermons and led equally memorable Bible studies, and over the years we saw Zeke growing from a shy small child to a confident boy.  They are now back in the US, in St. Paul’s, Minnesota, but luckily many links remain.

“The Acts of St. Alban’s in Strasbourg”

 

This is the title of an article that Sarah wrote for the “The Living Church”, a magazine published by the Living Church Foundation in the US,  http://www.livingchurch.org/,  in its October 16 2016 edition.  In it she reflects upon how her understanding of the Acts of the Apostles was influenced by experiencing church life at St. Alban’s, “not a monochrome congregation”,  she notes, and “with a welcome that said: here, where nobody is at home, we are at home.”  By kind permission of the editor of “The Living Church”  Sarah’s article is available here (in four parts):

Living Church St. Albans’s 1       Living Church St. Alban’s 2      Living Church St. Alban’s 3     Living Church St Alban’s 4

“Here I walk – A thousand miles on foot to Rome with Martin Luther”

In August 2010 Andrew and Sarah left Erfurt, the city in which Martin Luther had lived as a student and as an Augustinian monk, to follow the route he had taken 500 years earlier across the Alps to Rome.  They went on foot, as Luther himself had done, as fellow-pilgrims.  One thousand miles in 70 days, to see, as Andrew writes, “what we could learn not just from Luther’s words but by walking in his footsteps.”

“Here I walk” is Andrew’s account of that pilgrimage: of the uncertainties and strenuousness of the route, with rain, snow and pounding traffic making progress difficult, of unexpected encounters along the way and spontaneous offers of help and hospitality.  It is equally a story about Luther and the way his theology developed, as reflected upon by present-day pilgrims wanting to understand what Luther’s insights and beliefs have to do with the transient world in which they find themselves.  And the fact that they set off in the wrong year from the wrong place does not detract in any way from the intensity of their experience, nor from that of the reader.

More information on  Andrew’s website:    http://www.hereiwalk.org/.   The book can also be ordered there.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Change of locum priest

Our locum priest since early January is once again the Revd. John Murray.  He will be taking services and offering pastoral care until Easter Sunday, 17 April 2017.  We are very grateful to him and Diane for yet again offering to serve St. Alban’s in this way.

He can best be contacted via the Chaplaincy phone numbers and email address.  Details on the website !

 The Rev. John Murray.     Sbx_Chaplaincy-31

27 January 2017 Women’s Bible Study meeting

The next meeting of the Women’s Bible Study group will be on Friday 27 January at 18.45h, at the home of David and Diana Cowley,  5 rue de Londres, Esplanade.  The nearest tram stop is Esplanade, trams C and E and the 15 bus.

Save the date:  the Women’s Bible Study group will meet again on  Friday 24 February at 18.45h, at the home of David and Diana Cowley.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 18 – 25 January 2017

Wednesday 18 January sees the begin of this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity; on this day the Anglicans in the Diocese in Europe are asked to pray for those celebrating the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation and give thanks for the various agreements of full communion between Anglican and Lutheran Churches around the world.   The Anglican Centre in Rome, which works to promote unity in a divided world, has produced a prayer card for the entire week up until Wednesday 25 January, which can be downloaded here:

http://europe.anglican.org/downloads/website-news-oct-2015-onwards/prayer-card-wpcu-2016-(3)-(1).pdf

In Strasbourg there will be an ecumenical service for the Esplanade Catholic churches and Eglise St Mathieu (Protestante), at Christ Ressuscité (4 rue de Palerme) on Sunday 22 January at 10.30 a.m.

The diocese offers this prayer for the week:

O God, it is your will to hold heaven and earth in a single peace. Let the design of your great love shine on the scandal of our divisions: give peace and unity to your church, peace among nations, peace in our homes, peace in our hearts. Amen