Author Archives: Sarah Palmer

Outlook: St. Alban’s in 2021.

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At St. Alban’s Annual General Meeting, held as an online Zoom meeting on Sunday 21 March, our priest Mark Barwick presented his report on the life of the church in 2020. As well as mentioning the activities that did actually take place in spite of Covid restrictions, and reminding us of all those that didn’t, he outlined some specific areas on which he thought St. Alban’s should concentrate in the coming year:

– Post-Covid (?) Rebuilding and Spiritual Development

  • –  Areas of Diocesan concern:
  •  – the Environment, piloted by St Alban’s Environmental Committee;
  •  – Living in Love and Faith, concerning matters of human sexuality, relationships and identity;
  •  – Diversity and Race.
  •  – Stewardship and Sustainability Review.
  • Read Mark’s report here to find out more.

Holy Week

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Welcome to Holy Week

Even if thus far your Lenten journey has been – ah-hem – somewhat spotty, you can make this week a good and holy preparation for the great feast of Easter. Regrettably, this year many of our usual Holy Week gatherings have been moved online. However, this need not prevent us from entering into the heart of this season, which is the principal commemoration of the Christian Year.

We are encouraged to set aside some time each day for prayer and Bible reading. Some of us may prefer to find a quiet corner in our homes or outside in a park for time to be alone with God. Others will join us online for brief or longer periods, as they wish.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 19h30, you can join us for

20 Minutes with Christ:

We will begin with the Collect for Holy Week, then read the Gospel of the day:

for Monday – John 12.1-11

for Tuesday – John 12.20-36

for Wednesday – John 13.21-32

… followed by a few minutes of reflection on the Gospel and ending with the Lord’s Prayer.

Contact anglican.chaplaincy.strasbourg@gmail.com for link to Zoom.

Maundy Thursday at 19h30

The service begins with the traditional prayers, readings and meditations

for the night before Jesus died, lasting about one hour.

It will be followed by an online prayer vigil for those who wish to join for as much or as little as they like, with brief prayers and readings at the hour and the half-hour until 22h30.

Contact anglican.chaplaincy.strasbourg@gmail.com for link to Zoom.

Good Friday 12h30-13h30

A solemn service remembering the sufferings and death of our Lord

Contact anglican.chaplaincy.strasbourg@gmail.com for link to Zoom.

Note that Good Friday is observed as a day for fasting. This often takes the form of abstinence from meat, alcohol or other pleasure while giving greater attention to prayer for all or part of the day.

Easter Sunday 4 April 10h30
9h40 BCP Communion Service
10h30 Festal Holy Eucharist at the Dominicans’ Chapel

Bienvenue à la Semaine sainte

Même si jusqu’ici votre trajet de Carême a été – eh ben – quelque peu irrégulier, vous pouvez faire de cette semaine une bonne et sainte préparation pour la grande fête de Pâques. Malheureusement, cette année plusieurs de nos offices habituels pour la Semaine Sainte seront en ligne. Cependant, cela ne doit pas nous empêcher d’entrer au cœur de cette saison, qui est la principale commémoration de l’Année chrétienne.

Nous sommes encouragés à mettre à part du temps chaque jour pour la prière et la lecture de la Bible. Certains d’entre nous préféreront peut-être trouver un coin tranquille à la maison ou à l’extérieur dans un parc afin de consacrer ces moments d’être seuls avec Dieu. D’autres nous rejoindront en ligne pour des périodes brèves ou plus longues, comme ils le souhaitent.

Lundi, mardi et mercredi à 19h30, vous pouvez nous rejoindre pour

20 Minutes avec le Christ :

Nous commençons par la Collecte pour la Semaine Sainte, puis la lecture l’Évangile du jour

pour lundi – Jean 12.1-11

pour mardi – Jean 12.20-36

pour mercredi – Jean 13.21-32

… suivi de quelques minutes de réflexion sur l’Évangile et se terminant par la Prière du Seigneur.

Contactez anglican.chaplaincy.strasbourg@gmail.com pour le lien de Zoom.

Jeudi saint à 19h30

L’office commence par les prières traditionnelles, les lectures et les méditations pour la nuit avant la mort de Jésus. Il durera environ une heure et sera suivi d’une veillée de prière en ligne pour ceux qui souhaitent, pour autant ou aussi peu qu’ils le peuvent, avec de brèves prières et des lectures sur les heures et les demi-heures jusqu’à 22h30.

Contactez anglican.chaplaincy.strasbourg@gmail.com pour le lien de Zoom.

Vendredi saint 12h30-13h30

Un office solennel en souvenir des souffrances et de la mort de notre Seigneur.

Contactez anglican.chaplaincy.strasbourg@gmail.com pour le lien de Zoom.

Notez que le Vendredi Saint est observé comme un jour de jeûne. Cela prend souvent la forme de l’abstinence de viande, d’alcool ou d’autres plaisirs tout en accordant une plus grande attention à la prière pendant toute ou une partie de la journée.

Dimanche de Pâques 4 avril 10h30

 9h40  Sainte Communion BCP

10h30 Sainte Eucharistie à la Chapelle des Dominicains

Annual General Meeting 21 March

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Our online skills are going to be tested on Sunday, 21 March at 14.30h, when we gather behind our computer screens for this year’s Annual General Meeting.  However, in view of all the online meetings this church has held in the last year – from Sunday services via church council meetings to prayer and study gatherings – it is really only a small step further to invite all church members to participate in our General Meeting.  This is when we elect our churchwardens and council members, look back at the events of the past year and forward to the path ahead.

Of course, not everyone has the opportunity to take part in these Zoom meetings, either because the internet connection is bad or because the devices (and possibly self-confidence) are lacking. So if this is the case for you, please don’t feel you cannot take part at all.  Contact fr. Mark (07 71 13 38 83) or one of the churchwardens,  Pauline Dif (06 76 80 30) or Anny Samuels (06 67 57 20 56), to arrange for you to join a small gathering of virtual participants, ensuring proper social distancing and safe health measures.

Lent Study Course: Pathways to Prayer

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We have entered the Season of Lent.

Lent is about getting out of ourselves and into the heart of Christ. We seek to be conformed to his image, loving as he loves and sharing in his dying and rising.

We pray. We fast. We give to the poor. Not out of guilt or as a programme for self-improvement. It is a way to follow the Christ and to live in union with him, who emptied himself and gave himself for the life of the world.

Nous sommes entrés dans le Carême.   C’est la saison pour sortir de nous-mêmes et pour entrer plus profondément dans le cœur du Christ. Nous cherchons à nous conformer à son image, à aimer comme il aime et à participer à sa mort et sa résurrection.

Nous prions. Nous jeûnons. Nous faisons l’aumône.  Pas par culpabilité ou comme programme de développement personnel. C’est une manière de suivre le Christ et de vivre en union avec lui, qui s’est vidé et s’est donné pour la vie du monde.

Study Course: Pathways to Prayer

An online exploration of the spiritual life over five Thursdays in Lent, beginning February 25 and ending on March 25.  Drawn from Scripture, spiritual writers and luminaries throughout the ages.  For beginners, practitioners and seekers of all sorts. Study guides will be provided for each session.

February 25    In praise of doubt

Have you ever considered that doubt can be a pathway to prayer? Maybe you’ve always thought that a strong faith was a necessary pre-condition to prayer… and somehow the presence of doubt disqualifies you from praying well. Join us on Thursday – and think again.

March 4           Running on empty

March  11        Praying with your eyes open

March 18        Finding your heart

March 25        Whistling in the dark?

To take part, please contact Fr. Mark Barwick (email to: anglican.chaplaincy.strasbourg@gmail.com) to receive the Zoom link.

Bishop’s Lent Appeal

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English Church in Liège, Belgium

Liège is a former industrial city and provincial capital in eastern Belgium. It is also now home to large numbers of migrants from beyond Europe. The Anglican congregation there is predominantly African, especially coming from Ghana. After several years of change and supported by strong lay leadership, the church now stands ready to welcome a new priest next month, The Reverend Guy Diakiese.

Fr Diakiese is originally from the Congo. He studied for the priesthood in Nigeria and Rome and has recently completed his curacy in The Hague. Bishop Robert’s Lent Appeal will raise much needed to help renew this chaplaincy. Contributions can be made through St Alban’s treasurer.  To find out more, follow Lent Appeal 2021.

Christian Unity in practice

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As the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity drew to an end on Sunday 25th February, we welcomed two representatives from neighbourhood churches to our service of worship:

Wendy Pradeis of Saint Matthieu (Protestant) – Strasbourg Port du Rhin.

A l’occasion de la Semaine de prière pour l’unité des chrétiens, nous avons eu la joie d’accueillir deux représentantes d’églises du quartier : Wendy Pradeis de la paroisse protestante de St Matthieu et Geneviève Gaudeul de la communauté catholique de Christ Ressuscité.

Geneviève Gaudeul from Christ Ressuscité (Catholic) parish.

The Rev. Canon Barney Milligan 1928 – 2021

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Canon Barney Milligan, the Chaplain of St. Alban’s from 1984 to 1995, has died at his home in Dorset, in England. He would have been 93 this year. Roger Massie writes:

“Barney was a big man and when he was our Chaplain in the 1990s he made a huge mark on our congregation and became a close friend to many of us old-timers.  It is a bit of an understatement that he had Friends in High Places : our chaplaincy benefited from a stream of visiting preachers including Archbishops Runcie and Carey. Claire and I have a memory of the former stirring a giant Christmas pudding mixture at Church coffee – it must have been ‘Stir-up Sunday’.

He combined his chaplaincy duties with a representative role in bringing together European Churches, and it was for this work that Queen Elisabeth called him to Buckingham Palace to recognise his work with a medal (the rather anachronistic-sounding Order of the British Empire). This work brought him into contact with the European Institutions including the one several of us work or worked for.

This still left him, his energy being boundless, time for Africa. Claire and I were among the beneficiaries since we accompanied him to Rwanda where we met Bishop Venuste in his diocese of Butare, a link which exists to this day.

After retirement, Barney sometimes visited us in London on cultural trips and once he asked me to stand in for him at an occasion at which the Archbishop – yet another one – bestowed the Lambeth Cross on Cardinal Caspar for his ecumenical work. The Cardinal delighted me by admitting that he communicated with His Holiness Pope Benedict in their shared South German dialect with which we are familiar here.

Why, it is permitted to wonder, did Barney himself never become a Bishop himself ? Perhaps because he was not everyone’s cup of tea, including those whose job it is to put names forward. Anyway, except for the odd confirmation or installation, who needs a Bishop ? And we were the winners in being able to select him to serve here.  Rest in peace, dear much-loved Barney.”

                                     Barney Milligan, Roger Massie & George Walker at a Kolbsheim lunch

In 1984, Barney Milligan, then a Canon of St. Alban’s Cathedral in England and a self-confessed “Ecumaniac”, published a book on the challenges facing Christians in Western Europe.  This made him seem a suitable person to run the new office of the European Ecumenical Commission for Church and Society (EECCS, later to become the Conference of European Churches) in Strasbourg, with a view to strengthening the common witness of the churches in Europe. At the same time, he served as part-time Chaplain to the Anglican community in Strasbourg. In 1989 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, appointed Barney as the Archbishop’s Representative to the European Institutions in Strasbourg, which meant he could also continue here as Chaplain.  It was Barney’s idea then to dedicate this Chaplaincy to St. Alban’s.  He was a powerful preacher with a gift for making the Christian faith accessible to all.

“Barney’s great strengths were energy, delegation and a gift for friendship. He was passionate about involving everyone [in the life of the Chaplaincy].”  (From: “Our History”).

Barney’s wife Evie, as warm-hearted as he and a gifted hostess, worked as a physiotherapist at a London hospital and used to commute to and fro. They have three daughters.  Our thoughts and prayers are with them as we give thanks for Barney’s life and ministry among us.

  1.                                                                         Evie & Barney Milligan

 

 

Christian Unity

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The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity takes place this year from 18 – 25 January. This year’s resources have been prepared by the ecumenical Monastic Community of Grandchamp in Switzerland.  The theme that was chosen, “Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit”, is based on John 15: 1-17 and expresses Grandchamp Community’s vocation to prayer, reconciliation and unity in the church and the human family.  Follow this link for more information about the Community:

https://www.grandchamp.org

On these websites you will find A Guide for Daily Prayer that you can use individually or as a family throughout the eight-day period.

https://ctbi.org.uk/week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity-2021/

https://unitedeschretiens.fr/semaine-de-priere-pour-unite-chretiens/

https://www.oikoumene.org/events/week-of-prayer-for-christian-unity