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Lent programme 2017
During Lent everyone is invited to take part in a series of breakfast time meetings before the service on Sunday mornings. The theme is:
The Psalms: Songs of Faith and Doubt.
On Ash Wednesday, 1 March 2017 at 19.30h there will be a service of Holy Communion for the start of Lent at the Chaplaincy flat, 15 rue d’Austerlitz, which will be followed by a simple supper.
You will find all the details of St. Alban’s Lent Programme here:
Saturday 18 March: Evening of Music for CASAS at Munsterhof
CASAS ( Collectif d’accueil pour les solliciteurs d’asile à Strasbourg) is one of the local organisations which St. Alban’s has been supporting for very many years. Thanks to the practical and expert support of CASAS many members of our congregation who arrived in Strasbourg as refugees have been granted asylum and found their place in French society. CASAS has existed for over 30 years, but since the introduction of new asylum legislation in 2016 many of its state subsidies have been cut (see http://www.casas.fr/appel-a-solidarite-mai-2016/ for further details.)
We know at first-hand how important the work of CASAS is; we feel it is vital to do what we can to ensure that it continues to exist. Therefore St. Alban’s is activating its impressively diverse creative potential to raise funds for the organisation. St. Alban’s charitable organisation, ACAS, invites everyone to an Evening of Music for CASAS on Saturday 18 March 2017 at 19.00h at the Munsterhof, 9 rue des Juifs, Strasbourg. Entrance is free, finger food and drinks are on sale, and donations are requested. All proceeds from the Evening will be donated to CASAS.
Annual Chaplaincy Meeting Sunday 26 March 12.00h
After the morning service on Sunday 26 March the Annual Chaplaincy Meeting will be held in the Centre Mounier next door to the church. This is the occasion on which reports of the previous year’s activities are presented and elections are held. This year we will be electing churchwardens, archdeaconry synod representatives and chaplaincy council members. Please consider carefully whether you could be to be a candidate for any of these positions, and which church members you would like to nominate for election. In the coming weeks there will be nomination forms available at the back of church: each nomination needs to be proposed and seconded.
In order to vote at these elections and to be elected your name needs to be on the electoral roll of the chaplaincy. If you are a regular member of St. Alban’s congregation it would be a good idea if you were on the roll. This brings no obligations, but does entitle you to be nominated, and above all to vote at the elections. Electoral roll forms are available at the back of the church, and if you’re not sure whether or not you are on the roll you can check the list of members displayed on the notice board. The application forms should be given to Churchwarden Anny Samuels, deadline for new entries on the electoral roll is 12 March 2017.
Liebfrauenberg Weekend 31 March – 2 April 2017
Weekend retreat on the topic of “The Gift of Uncertainty”
Leader: Brother Luke Fox, Mucknall Abbey, nr. Worcester, England.
Liebfrauenberg, a former pilgrimage site and monastery , is a retreat centre surrounded by woods on a hill with wonderful views near Woerth in northern Alsace. Every springtime in Lent members of the Anglican chaplaincies of Strasbourg, Heidelberg and Stuttgart meet here for a study and recreational weekend. As well as study and discussion of the given topic there is time to enjoy the company of friends and to make new ones, to worship together, walk in this beautiful area and enjoy rest and relaxation. All are warmly invited to come and join in. Children are always welcome.
This year our leader is Brother Luke Fox from Mucknell Abbey near Worcester in England, a contemplative Benedictine community for men and women which is part of the Church of England, and he has chosen to talk about uncertainty and thanksgiving.
The weekend starts with supper on the evening of Friday 31st March at 6.30pm and finishes at teatime on Sunday 2 April at about 3pm. It is possible to come for just part of the time if you cannot make it for a whole weekend. If there are four or more children coming there will be a programme especially for them. And on Saturday evening there is a long-standing tradition of visiting the local village for “tarte flambée”. Please note that this year the Eucharist on Sunday will be held early on the Sunday afternoon.
Our leader
Brother Luke writes: “My name is Luke Fox. I am 29 years old and was born and raised in Wales. I studied theology at the University of Wales, Lampeter from 2006-2009. Upon leaving university I spent some time working in a variety of roles for a residential management company before spending a brief period travelling around Europe. I entered Mucknell Abbey as an Alongsider (someone who lives alongside the community without formally becoming a member) in 2011 at the age of 23. After nine months as an “Alongsider” I then entered the novitiate, this lasted 3 years. I then moved on to become a junior professed member of the community. I am now approaching the end of my time as a junior professed member of the community and considering whether to take life vows of stability, obedience and conversion of life, in the community, or to leave and pursue a different path.
The Subject
The focus of the retreat will be on the experience of uncertainty in our lives and the gifts that can emerge from engaging, not fleeing, from that uncertainty. We will spend time reflecting prayerfully on scriptural stories that relate episodes in which characters encounter uncertain times and situations in their lives, and hopefully find correlations with our own lives and the contexts in which we find ourselves. By seeking to ponder the place of uncertainty in our lives we will seek to discover if it offers to us gifts of God’s grace for which we can be thankful.
Practicalities
Every effort is made to keep costs as low as possible. The cost is all inclusive with full board.
Adults 75 euros each day
Young people 13 -17 54 euros each day
Children 4 – 12 40 euros each day
Children under 4 no charge
If you find the price too high please speak to the local Strasbourg organisers, John and Diane Murray. Please use the booking form (see link below) and let the organisers know by 15 March. john.murray67@googlemail.com
Booking form Liebfrauenberg 2017 Email to: john.murray67@googlemail.com
For more information about Liebfrauenberg see http://www.eglise-autrement.com/
Mucknall Abbey also has its own website: http://www.mucknellabbey.org.uk/
World Day of Prayer on Friday 3 March 2017
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 ?”
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 
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 
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 
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 
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 
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 
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 
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 
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 
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.
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 !
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