THE E UROP E AN A NGLICAN G ARD E N R E M E MBRANC E R E STORATION I N R OM E Y OU A R E M Y F RI E NDS O UR S HAR E D M ISSION R E D L IGHT – N O D ANG E R S A fe H AV E N I N A MST E RDAM S H E N E V E R M E ANT T O S TA Y R E TIR E M E NT F AR E W E LL T O J E ANN E H ISTOR Y IN H AMBURG 400 Y E ARS O F F AITH europe.anglican.org No.56 WINTER 2012 2 GOD’S HEART IN A GARDEN THE E UROP E AN OMAN ARD E N A NGLICAN R G F OR R E M E MBRANC E The Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe Gregory the Great was one of the The Rt Revd Geoffrey Rowell great Popes of the Christian church. Bishop’s Lodge, Church Road, He ensured the survival of the city of Worth, Crawley RH10 7RT Tel: +44 (0) 1293 883051 Rome, created a monastery from his Fax: +44 (0) 1293 884479 family’s patrician villa at the place where Email: his church still stands, and in 597 sent [email protected] Augustine and forty monks to evangelize The Suffragan Bishop in Europe the English. As a result San Gregorio The Rt Revd David Hamid stands as an historic point of connection Postal address: Diocesan Office between the Anglican and Roman Tel: +44 (0) 207 898 1160 Email: Catholic branches of the Christian [email protected] Church. New ecumenical links were forged The Diocesan Office Dana English, who was 14 Tufton Street, London, between All Saints’ Anglican Church SW1P 3QZ ordained Deacon in June this and the Church and Monastery of Tel: +44 (0) 207 898 1155 year, reports from Rome on San Gregorio-al-Celio with the Fax: +44 (0) 207 898 1166 a renovation project which is pre-ordination retreat at the end of June Email: attended by Mary Styles and myself [email protected] dedicated to the memory of a with Nigel Thomas and Verna Veritie Diocesan Secretary newly ordained colleague. before they became Deacons. On our Mr Adrian Mumford first evening we sat out on the periphery Appointments Secretary of the garden with the retreat leader Miss Catherine Jackson Stephen Ferns (from the Church’s Finance Secretary Ministry Division in London) sharing Mr Nick Wraight our life stories. We all remarked on the Diocesan Website extremely neglected state of the garden, www.europe.anglican.org run-down because the small number Editor and Diocesan Communications of monks (now just three) cannot Officer maintain it. After our ordinations we The Revd. Paul Needle began our ministries in Rome, Madrid, Postal address: Diocesan Office and Athens. Deacon Mary and I were Email: shocked so soon afterwards to learn [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)7712 463806 of the sudden and unexpected death of Verna, in Athens, on August 31st. Friends of the Diocese We decided to renovate the garden Secretary: Rev Canon Arthur Siddall Email: [email protected] Design Adept Design, Norwich Printer ONN E CTIVIT Y E AR E R TO TH E E ART O F OD Barnwell Print Ltd, Aylsham C - N H G Distribution Although I am hopeless at memorising London born poet Dorothy Gurney in the early CoDEStorm plc poetry I clearly recall, from my childhood, a years of the last century. She uses the work simple verse engraved in stone at the edge to link the image of God’s garden in creation of a neighbour’s lawn. with Gethsemane where God’s heart was broken for our salvation, concluding Front cover picture: The kiss of the sun for pardon; the song Youngsters from St Paul’s in Monaco of the birds for mirth For He broke it for us in a garden under enjoy their Christmas celebrations with the One is nearer God’s heart in a garden the olive-trees traditional crib service and nativity play re-enacting the tale of God’s humble entrance than anywhere else on earth Where the angel of strength was the into the world he loves so much. We trust all warden and the soul of the world Only recently I discovered that it is just our readers share the joy at celebrations of the found ease. birth of Our Saviour this Christmas. the fourth of five verses composed by the VERNA VERITIE 3 REMEMBERED and dedicate the project in Verna’s 15th. Sixteen volunteers worked October and will go on at intervals memory. under Beth Blosser’s supervision for throughout the winter and Spring in The time seemed right to begin three and a half strenuous hours. the entire complex of gardens at San immediately. Peter Hughes, the prior Beth is a landscape gardener who Gregorio. of the Camaldolese (Benedictine) has worked on the “secret garden” at Peter had just prepared the community there, welcomed the Villa Borghese and who is a member monastery to receive twelve students idea of an ongoing project to bring of All Saints’ Church. In conjunction who will be living there this the garden back to life through a with Peter Hughes she is drawing academic year, so we were reminded collaboration of volunteers from up a master plan for the redesign that the garden will benefit not only All Saints’ Anglican Church and an of the garden, to become a place of the monastic community (the garden even wider circle of friends. The meditation and quiet amid the noise is just off the chapel), but these volunteers include the community of the city. Peter also gave direction, students and other guests who come service committee of the British and was immensely relieved and to stay throughout the year, as well as Embassy, students at St. Stephen’s, grateful to see how much was groups seeking a place for retreat. the international school a short accomplished in one afternoon. As the shoots of new life come distance down the street, where We filled 37 oversize black plastic through in the garden we shall give Dana’s son Sam has begun high garbage bags full of weeds, grass, thanks for the Verna’s life and witness school, people without gardens of branches, and last season’s rotten fruit and for her faith in the Lord who their own and others who believe from the trees! Work continued in renews and gives life eternal. in the ongoing effort to draw the different branches of the church closer together. Beautiful ecumenical For those contemplating a pilgrimage to Rome San Gregorio has 12 recently services will take place at San renovated guest rooms with ensuite bathrooms, at 35 euros per person per night. Gregorio throughout the year. It is an excellent location, directly across from the Circus Maximus and five or six The inaugural work-party for minutes’ walk to the Colosseum. Contact Signora Loretta Tommasini at the garden was Saturday, September (39) 06 7000987 or e-mail [email protected]. is set in a garden with its powerful Yet more connectivity links people C ONN E CTIVIT Y - N E AR E R TO TH E H E ART O F G OD symbols of death and rebirth and forms and places as we reflect the unique a fitting tribute to the short ministry of a ministry and mission of our Diocese. It comes therefore as no surprise to newly ordained Deacon whose memory Exciting and challenging times lie find that Mrs Gurney also wrote the and personal commitment will inspire ahead for our Diocese in 2013 and words of the hymn O perfect love all others to new faith in the future. beyond. We pray that our Christian human thought transcending. One Elsewhere there is more Christian connectivity – links formed and bonds fascinating fact leads to another. connectivity with contrasting forged – will strengthen us in God’s It is an example of what can experiences of living in community service. be called Christian connectivity. in Rome and Amsterdam. There are Human experiences, friendships musical echoes with hymns written by P AUL N EEDLE and developments in life become the Bishop, organ rebuilding in Malta E DITOR , interlinked and bonded. So our feature and a hi-tech alternative when no TH E E UROP E AN A NGLICAN on this page of The European Anglican organist can be found to lead worship. 4 YOU ARE MY FRIENDS ‘YOU AR E M Y F RI E NDS I F Y OU DO W HAT I C OMMAND YOU ’ From a sermon preached by Lord Hope of Thornes, formerly Archbishop of York at the annual service for the Friends of the Diocese in October. Its exactly forty five years and almost to the day that all I can say is that from my own experience, albeit limited, I was Licensed in the then Diocese of Gibraltar by this Diocese has already been there and done that – indeed Bishop Stanley Ely in the Church of the Resurrection continues in ‘being church’ in the most unsuspecting Bucharest to the care of souls in Romania, Bulgaria and of places. I remember baptising in a front room in the Yugoslavia – a ministry which whilst it was based in the consulate general in Zagreb, celebrating the Eucharist in Theological Institute in Bucharest and at the Church of the the Ambassador’s residence in Sophia, conducting Morning Resurrection, took me every six weeks or so to Zagreb and Prayer in an international centre in Belgrade.