wfn.org | [ENS] 'A vision seen, a call obeyed' by American Churc

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Monday, October 17, 2005

'A vision seen, a call obeyed' by American Churches in Europe at
convention

By Thomas Mansella

ENS 101705-1

[Episcopal News Service] Under sunny German skies, delegates from parishes
and missions of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe met October
12-16, 2005, for their Annual Convention at the Dominikanerkloster,
a Christian conference center in downtown Frankfurt. Bishop-in-Charge
Pierre W. Whalon joined with clergy, laity, and youth delegates from
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland and representatives of
the Diocese in Europe (Church of England), the Board of Foreign Parishes
(USA), the Office of the Presiding Bishop, and the Office of Communication
of the Episcopal Church Center to discuss and shape priorities which
will guide the European mission and parishes for many years to come.

A new mission hymn, the presence of representatives of a fledging
Spanish-speaking congregation in Rome, Italy, and of three free-standing
Francophone missions in Toulon, Clermont Ferrand, and Bordeaux, France,
and a decidedly mission-minded agenda contributed to shatter any lingering
image of laid-back English-speaking chaplaincy churches.

The convention approved a budget of over $465,000, made changes to
the by-laws of the Paris-based official European non-profit holding
corporation for some of the American congregations, proposed changes to
the canons regulating the life of the Convocation, and agreed upon six
mission priorities: Youth Ministry, Training and Nurturing, Building New
Missions, Spirituality and Worship Development, Environmental Justice,
and Leadership and Visioning..

The convention's approved mission priorities call for planting
congregations in English and other languages as the need is
discerned. Indeed, the convocation has recently published editions of
the Book of Common Prayer in French, Italian, and German. A bilingual
English-Spanish edition of the Book of Common Prayer is also in use.

"Pray as if expecting your prayer will be answered, because it will,"
Whalon challenged the delegates and visitors in attendance to the opening
Convention Eucharist. "Who's calling us? What for?" The business of
the convention is to make happen "what we ask Jesus to do in each
Eucharist--to be sent in mission into the world," said Whalon.

On Friday, Oct 14, the Convocation appropriately gathered at the
Heilig-Geist-Kirche (Church of the Holy Spirit) for Morning Prayer and
the commemoration of the Rt. Rev. Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky
(1831-1906). Schereschewsky, a gifted linguist and former Bishop of
Shanghai, translated the Bible into Mandarin and, despite a relentlessly
devastating condition, "spent the rest of his life completing his
Wenli Bible, the last 2000 pages of which he typed with the one finger
that he could still move." His ministry, indicative of "how much can be
accomplished with so little," highlighted the convocation's pressing need
of educational materials in the Anglican tradition in languages other
than English-- in French, Italian, German, Spanish and, eventually,
even in Chinese, as according to Whalon, there are conversations for
developing an English-Chinese mission congregation in Eastern Europe.

> traditional chaplaincy ministry to English-speaking residents, to
ministry to US deportees, to ministry in higher education, to outreach to
the unchurched in their native languages, under Whalon's leadership the
congregations of the convocation are actively and faithfully involved
carrying out God's mission in this world "to reconcile all things
in Christ."

At the closing Eucharist, celebrated at Christ the King Church, Frankfurt,
Whalon handed over the Cross of Canterbury to the Very Rev. Zachary
Fleetwood, ninth Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral, Paris, France. The 4
foot tall wooden cross was dedicated in 1997 as a commemoration of the
arrival in 597 AD of St. Augustine to the British Islands. As a powerful
reminder of the power of prayer and of the proclamation of the Gospel, the
cross is sent from the congregation hosting the current year's convention
to the next hosting church which, in 2006 will gather in Paris, France.

All through the Convention "A vision seen, a call obeyed," a hymn recently
composed by former Convocation Bishop-in-Charge Jeffery Rowthorn of the
Convocation "to be sung at the Annual Convention of the Convocation of
American Churches.in commemoration of the first use of the new Book of
Common Prayer (1552) by the English exiles in Frankfurt am Main in May,
1555," uplifted participants singing to be empowered, "with a faith well
trained" to follow in St. Paul's missionary steps.

-- The Rev. Thomas Mansella is Translation Services Coordinator of the
Office of Communication at the Episcopal Church Center.

-- To SUBSCRIBE to enslist, send a blank email message, from the address
which you wish subscribed, to: join-enslist@epicom.org

Send QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS to news@episcopalchurch.org

The enslist is published by Episcopal News Service:
  http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens

--