Newsletter for St Alban’s Church, Diocese in Europe, Copenhagen. www.st-albans.dk

April - May 2013

Church Calendar April - May Sunday 14 April The Third Sunday of Easter 1000 Service at Kastrup Lutheran Church (Kastruplundgade 3, 2770 Kastrup) 1030 Parish Eucharist at St Alban’s Wednesday 17 April 1030 Holy Communion Sunday 21 April The Fourth Sunday of Easter 1030 Parish Eucharist Wednesday 24 April 1030 Morning Prayer Sunday 28 April St Mark 1030 Parish Eucharist at St Alban’s Followed by Annual Church Meeting Wednesday 1 May 1 St Philip & St James 030 Morning Prayer Sunday 5 May The Sixth Sunday of Easter 1030 Family Eucharist NB Visitors’ season starts with Guardians’ Team Wednesday 8 May Julian of Norwich 1030 Holy Communion Thursday 9 May Ascension Day 11:00 Eucharist Sunday 12 May 1030 Parish Eucharist Wednesday 15 May St Matthias the Apostle 1030 Morning Prayer

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Sunday 19 May Pentecost 1030 Eucharist Wednesday 22 May 1030 Morning Prayer Sunday 26 May Trinity Sunday 1030 Eucharist Wednesday 29 May Corpus Christi 1030 Holy Communion You are invited to join us for refreshments after the 10:30 Sunday Service St Albans’ Church in Jutland (in partnership with the Danish Lutheran Church) Sunday 28 April at 1400 at Løgetkirke, Løget Center 2, 7100 Vejle: International Service (in English) led by Deacon Christophe. All welcome. Info from [email protected] Sunday 12 May at 1900 at Mollevangskirke, Aarhus: Ascension Eucharist (in English) led by Archdeacon Jonathan. All welcome. Info from [email protected]

Concerts at St Alban’s Church Sunday 21 April at 1200 ‘Wind Trio Amerise’ (free) Sunday 12 May at 1600 The Roskilde Choir (tickets on door) Sunday 26 May at 1200 Copenhagen Trombone Quartet (free)

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Dear Friends It was lovely to welcome so many visitors on Easter Day. Thank you to our choir and organist, sidesmen and women, flower team, verger and churchwardens for all their hard work. I am grateful to Bishop John Saxbee for his moving and challenging input into our worship over the three days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day - known as The Triduum. As we move into the 50 days of Easter, we look to the future of our Church. We have a new archbishop - Justin Welby - now installed at Canterbury. There are many huge issues that need to be resolved in the world-wide Church, including gat marriage, women bishops, and the cultural clashes across the Anglican Communion. He certainly needs our prayers! And we have a new Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, who has quickly made an impression with a new style of leadership. Our own Diocesan Bishop, Bishop Geoffrey Rowell (who shares his Easter message in this edition) has announced that he will retire in

November. We remember fondly his last visit here last summer at the Deanery Synod Eucharist, and the fantastic African lunch that followed the service, and his presenting Maundy Coins to Carole Rasmussen to honour 50 years of being a chorister. The process of finding a new Diocesan Bishop will take about a year, and Bishop David Hamid will lead our diocese during this time of vacancy. I will keep you briefed on any updates. We also look forward to the Spring and Summer, and our St Alban’s Annual Church Meeting which will take place on Sunday 28 April at 1130. This will be a time to take stock, to hear reports from the various areas of our church life, and look to the future with the excitement of the resurrection of Jesus still ringing in our hearts. Allelulia, Chirst is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! May the joy and peace of the risen Lord, be yours this Eastertide.

Jonathan

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Members of the Lent Study Group with the book ‘Abiding’

Lent study group concludes A small group of women and men have met over the Sundays of Lent to explore our Christian faith in the context of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recommended book for Lent 2013. The book is written by Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts at King’s College, London. The title of the book is Abiding and, as the Archbishop writes in his introduction, is a reflection on where we find our centre of gravity. Ben Quash looks at the different ways in which we can misunderstand our need for continuity and security – by resorting to inflexible habits or expectations in a world where things naturally change - and

against this he explores the habit of patience, the willingness to learn and be changed, the readiness to be someone else’s guest and dependent, not being in sole control of our lives. It is a book about learning to inhabit our own bodies and our history, and it is also about inhabiting mindfully the discipline of prayer and the reading of Scripture. Ben Quash places these qualities within the tradition of the Anglican Ethos, suggesting the rarely used concept of Abiding as the key to the exploration of the depth and hidden treasurers of our faith. It is a remarkable small book and has been a blessing and challenge for the group of us who have met over Lent to deepen our understanding of faith by working through it. Ulla Monberg

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St Alban’s member takes on Copenhagen Marathon This year, member of St Alban’s Owen Prewett will be running the Copenhagen Marthon for charity again, on this occasion for UNICEF. On the past two attempts, the congregation of St. Alban’s have been particularly generous in their support, helping to raise over 10.000 kroner for Redden in 2011, and in excess of 6.000 kroner for Save the Children last year. If you want to offer your support and encouragement this year, you can donate to UNICEF either by going direct to his Just Giving web page at: http://www.justgiving.com/Owen-Prewett2 or by giving your cash donation to him after which it will be transferred to his Just Giving account with a message to say where the money has come from. Owen knows that these are difficult times, and knows that you have given countless times – and that some of you have supported his efforts before – but asks you to please consider giving again. Any amount will help spur him on and make sure that children across the world get the help they so desperately need.

Last chance to join the new St Alban’s Electoral Roll If you haven’t yet joined the new Electoral Roll (check the list on the notice board in the Narthex), there may still be time. The absolute deadline is April 14th if you want to be able to take part in and vote at the ACM on April 28th. The applications forms are also on the notice board and there is a box on the window sill for the filled in forms. Also, when you change your address, email or telephone number, do remember to inform the Electoral Roll Officer: [email protected].

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Lunchtime concert programme delights growing audiences The new programme of monthly lunch-time concerts is proving a great success. Audiences have doubled and so has the revenue spontaneously collected. We began in February with an astonishing concert of piano accordionists who played a wide range of music from baroque to blues. Those who attended were surprised at the variety of tone and rhythm and style the performers exhibited. On 24 March 10 Irish harps were wheeled into the church and a concert, arranged by Helen Davis was held. The performers – called “harpers” not “harpists” we learnt - had just completed a weekend workshop held by two very famous Irish harpers, Kathleen Lougkane from Galway and Aibhlin McCram from Dublin. Both women played solos and explained in detail the history of Irish harp music and the way it developed.

Thanking them, the Chaplain said he felt as though he was on his way to heaven with the angels. As the music floated gently and harmoniously into the heights, we all agreed. The collective noun simply must be “a heavenliness of harps”. Helen has delighted us on several occasions alone, but few had heard an entire group before, led so ably by her, and her two guests. In Queen Elizabeth I’s day harpists had high status and played at the tables of royalty and nobility. As musical tradition changed, the role of the harper diminished but fortunately the music played centuries ago still exists and today one has a sense of a faraway, delicate jollity in some of the tunes. The gentle repetitiveness of the melody and the choruses is meditative and as the rhythm changes one can picture how new groups of dancers and revelers would take the floor. We hope that Dorthe Nielsen, Margrethe Livholm, Karin von Daler, Elsebeth Isen, Anne Lisbeth Willerup, and Heller Schmidt-Pedersen will join Helen again calm and lift our spirits with their heavenly music.

Elizabeth Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Lehn & Claire Clausen

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Bishop’s Easter Message At the very heart of our Christian lives, at the very heart of the life of the Church, is what we call ‘the Paschal Mystery’, The word ‘paschal’ comes from the Greek word pascha, referring to the Jewish Passover which celebrated God’s deliverance of his chosen people from slavery in Egypt and their exodus journey to the Promised Land. Passover was therefore a feast of liberation by God, and a recalling of God’s faithfulness to his promises to his people. The Christian Passover which we celebrate every Holy Week and Easter is a celebration of an even greater liberation and faithfulness. This is not just a celebration of deliverance from slavery in Egypt, but of deliverance from the enslaving power of sin and death. It is a victory won by the God who in Jesus freely chooses to know from the inside our human condition, to bear the crushing burden of human sin, to enter into our dying. As in Holy Week we follow again the events of our Lord’s Passion, we remember on Maundy Thursday Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, taking the role of a servant; his taking of bread and wine at the Last Supper, breaking the bread and sharing the wine, identifying his

life with this sacramental sign - and telling his disciples to go on doing this in remembrance of him to share in his life,. We remember that this gift of communion is given in the context of betrayal - the denial of that very communion. We move to Gethsemane - the ‘place of the pressing out of the olives’ (for that is what the name Gethsemane means), where the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One, is ‘pressed out in agony in the costliness of love and sacrifice. Judas, one of the close circle of the disciples, gives a kiss not of friendship but of betrayal; the disciples flee; and the Lord is handed over, bound, led to trials, savagely scourged, mocked, condemned, and in the end led out to the appalling torture of crucifixion. Nailed to the rough wood of the cross in excruciating pain, hands spread wide in what is the human embrace of love, Jesus hangs a scarecrow figure, beneath a mocking inscription, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews’, a crown of sharp and spiky thorns rammed hard down on his bleeding brows. There is darkness over the land, over the whole world, as the Light of the world is blotted out. And from the heart of that darkness comes a cry of dereliction - ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ And then with a great cry Jesus dies. The centurion at the foot of the cross utters words of amazing faith ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’

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He is dead. Wrapped in a shroud, laid in a tomb. Holy Saturday, Easter Eve, is a day of desolation, a day on which the living God embraces the annihilation and nothingness of our human dying. But if that was the end, the full stop, so to speak, of the story, there would be no story for Christians to remember, to enter into, to celebrate. It would simply be one more story among many of another martyrdom, another terrible example of torture and the triumph of evil and injustice. There would be no church, no Christianity, and Jesus would be but another deluded prophet broken on the crushing wheel of human sin. Yet this is not the end. The horizon is not the death of Jesus, but new life, new creation, a life born out of death. All four Gospels end with accounts of that new life - a tomb found empty, a stone rolled away, frightened women who had cone to perform the last rites for the dead and found themselves face to face with a new, overwhelming and unbelievable mystery. Mark, the earliest of our Gospels, probably ended with the women fleeing from the tomb, for fear and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid - they were overcome with awe. That awe and wonder is at the heart of Easter. This event blows

open human history, blows open human life, to the life of a new order. Jesus, the Risen One, appears the same, yet different, transformed, transfigured, his physical being taken up into this new order. His disciples and Mary Magdalene recognise him - and yet not immediately - as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. St Paul, trying to explain to the Corinthian Christians what this means, uses the analogy of the seed sown in the ground and the plant that springs up from it - the same but different. This is Paul says, a ‘spiritual body’, by which he means a body ‘animated by the Holy Spirit’. For this is the life of God’s new creation. It is because this is the case that we can sing at Easter, Jesus lives! Henceforth is death, but the gate of life immortal! It is because of this that we can speak triumphantly in the Creed that we look for (literally wait with longing expectation for) the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Matthew’s Gospel ends with the Risen Jesus appearing to his disciples in Galilee and sending them out to proclaim the good news, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always to the close of the age. That is our

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life - your life and mine, That is the Church’s mission, That is the Easter message running like wildfire in our lives and hearts - a new creation energised by the Holy Spirit, the living breath of God breathed out by the Risen Lord on his disciples on the evening of the first Easter Day. For Easter is not something shut up in the past, in a single life, but is your life and mine, for, as

St Augustine proclaimed long ago, We are Easter people and “Alleluia¨” (Praise be to God) is our song! May God bless you in the singing of that song and the living of that life. And may you over and over again meet and know the Risen Lord of life as did the disciples in the breaking of bread at the supper at Emmaus. + GEOFFREY GIBRALTAR

Sunday School to be held on the 4th Sunday of every month There have been some temporary changes in Sunday school schedule recently, due to the small number of children attending. To address the matter, the Council has agreed that for the remaining months before the summer holidays Sunday school will be held on the 4th Sunday of each month ONLY. In addition, the ministry team will, on the first Sunday of each month in combination with baptisms, host a “Family service” and parents are encouraged to bring their children regardless of their age to this service. It is expected that before the start of the 2013-2014 school year and the annual influx of new families from abroad, an outreach and communications strategy will be devised to increase the number of young families and children attending Sunday school.

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St Alban’s on St Alban’s Copenhagen has a closed group (secret, actually, so you can’t search for it), called ‘Friends of St Alban’s’ on Facebook just for us, which you are welcome to join, if you are part of our community and you are on Facebook. It is used for news from our church, from the Diocese, and from our sister churches. It has pictures of events and lots more. If you are interested, please send a “friend request” to Pauleen Bang (easy to find if you searcch for her name). The more we are who are part of this group, the more interesting and valuable it becomes. Since there are quite a few new people in church and on the new Electoral Roll, we hope there will be lots of new people joining up!

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Helsinki’s Senate Square, dominated by the city’s Lutheran Cathedral

News from the Deanery There have been many things happening in the Helsinki Chaplaincy recently. Firstly, the induction of Tuomas Mäkipää, which took place on the Eve of Christ the King. On the Monday after the Synod meeting, Tuomas was interviewed by the Bishop, the Archdeacon, and two Chaplaincy representatives, Keith Battarbee and Diana Webster. Already that same evening he accidentally met with Bishop Geoffrey at Kastrup Airport where he was told that they had agreed to appoint him. The Induction service took place on the same day as their Church Bazaar. This was not planned but since Bishop Geoffrey’s diary was already full, they really did not have much

choice. In the end, despite it being a bit chaotic, they managed to steer through both events! The service was beautifully organised; the English Vocal Consort of Helsinki sang Thomas Tallis’ Mass for four voices and their own Nicholas’ Singers sang - as on most Sundays - the psalm and some music during the Eucharist. Approximately 200 attended the service including guests from the Finnish Lutheran Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Finnish Ecumenical Council. Immediately after the service the Bazaar was opened by the Bishop, the British Ambassador Matthew Lodge and Tuomas, himself. They are very proud of their Christmas Bazaar. It is one of the rare places where you can get traditional English Christmas specialities, including Christmas Crackers. They order items from the UK every year at the beginning of October and they

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have to be transported by land, since Christmas Cracker are considered to be explosives, so they cannot be carried by air. The Bazaar serves as an opening for their Christmas preparations. The New Church year was opened by introducing the new mass setting. Tuomas says that they still need much practice but with the help of the choir they are already getting some bits right! On the Fourth Sunday of Advent the traditional Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols took place. The service is well known in Helsinki but they were worried that is was perhaps too late this year, since many of their regular members leave Helsinki for Christmas. Despite this, more than 600 arrived at Helsinki Cathedral to listen the word of God and to sing together. The collection was given to the Jaatinen Foundation to support the work among families with disabled children. Next Christmas they plan to work together with the Salvation Army to raise not only money but Christmas presents for less fortunate families. Fr Heikki Huttunen, an orthodox priest and the Secretary General of the Finnish Ecumenical Council was their ecumenical guest and read how the Angels proclaimed the birth of Jesus to the shepherds.

Midnight mass on Christmas Eve took place in one of the oldest church halls in Helsinki. Former Katajanokka prison functions as a hotel nowadays but the chapel has been preserved. It is an interesting place with high windows which have never had bars on them and yet there is no recorded escape through the chapel. The Christmas Day service was more quiet since many decided to take the opportunity to visit the Prison Chapel. Earlier last autumn the Chaplaincy had the honour of inviting a group of Lakota Warriors to their Sunday Eucharist. The Revd Canon Robert Two Bulls, who is the missioner of the Department of Indian Work and Multicultural Ministries for the Episcopal Church in Minnesota preached at the service. They decided to observe the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by arranging lunch on Trinity Sunday. For this occasion 150 copies of the Jubilee New Testament were ordered and given to members of the congregation and to those with whom they cooperate. Together with the Lutheran Archbishop of Turku and Finland they sent a letter of thanks to the Queen for her witness to Christian faith. My grateful thanks to Tuomas for his wonderful news from Helsinki. Pauleen Bang

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Our historic font is restored Pictured here at work is Susanne Trudsø, Conservator from National Museum of Denmark.

Conservation work has started on the historic font at St Alban’s Church. The conservation work has been generously sponsored by The Mærsk Foundation, and will include the pulpit, reredos and memorial to Princess Alexandra. The matching font, pulpit and reredos are very special. They were the gifts of Doulton of Lambeth, and for the first time they were made in terra cotta with salt-glazed details. The designer was George Tinworth, the English ceramic artist who worked for Doulton at Lambeth from 1867 until his death. George Tinworth was born in 1843 at Walworth Common, South London. The son of a greengrocer turned wheelwright, he and the family suffered extreme poverty. Aged 19 he pawned his overcoat to pay for evening classes at the local Lambeth School of Art in Kennington Park Road. In Chums Boys Annual of 1896 Tinworth explained:

“I had to keep the whole affair dark from my father. Indeed, I went to Lambeth School of Art of a night for months before he knew anything about it. He used to ask my mother where I was, but happily for me she always refused to gratify his curiosity.” Before he sold any work he made money by mending cart wheels. He also worked in a fireworks factory earning half a crown per week. In 1864 he went on to the Royal Academy Schools, and began work with Doulton in 1867. At first he made cases for water filters, but soon moved on to making the new range of salt-glazed stoneware that became simply known as ‘Doulton Ware’. About thirty examples of his work were shown at the 1867 Paris Exhibition. His father died the same year, and he was left as the main supporter of his mother and family.

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Many of Tinworth’s pieces were shown at the Royal Academy where they were admired by John Ruskin, among others. Tinworth’s work can be seen in the Museum of Garden History (next to Lambeth Palace), St Bede’s College Manchester, the Baptist Chapel in Wraysbury, Truro Cathedral, St Mark’s Church Hanley, and St Mary’s Church in Burton, Wiltshire. The Cuming Museum has Tinworth’s major independent art project in storage. This is a four foot high model of a project for an elaborate memorial to Southwark’s connection with Shakespeare, made in 1904. Sadly, not enough money was raised to realise it. George Tinworth died on 13 September 1913 and was buried at West Norwood Cemetery. His name is commemorated in Tinworth Street, Lambeth. We are fortunate indeed to have, as a gift, such a special and priceless work of art in our midst. The font is a central part of our church, the place of baptism, welcome and new life in Christ. It is used on the first Sunday of every month. And as we walk past it when we enter the church, we are reminded that baptism into Christ is

the start and the daily continuation of our journey of Christian faith.

Although poor in quality, this is believed to be one of the few surviving photographs of ceramic artist George Tinworth, 1843 - 1913.

Newsletter editor required As we prepare to say goodbye to our temporary newsletter editor Scott McAusland - who has edited the last two issues of the newsletter following the departure of longstanding editor Charles Robson - we are looking for an editor for the St Alban’s newsletter. If you have six to eight hours to spare each month, and preferably some desk top publishing experience, then please contact Claire Clausen at [email protected].

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Registrar’s Report Wedding 2 March 2013 Niels Christian Hollington and Maria Frydenlund Christensen Baptism 3 March 2013 Reza Alexander Bayat Parents: Ardavan Bayat and Tina Elisabeth Holbech Bayat

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Saint Alban’s Church Churchillparken 11, 1263 Copenhagen K Under the Patronage of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II Weekly Eucharists Sundays and Wednesdays at 10:30 All are welcome – Sunday School for children every 4th Sunday of the month. Open Vestry Morning is on Wednesdays 09:00–10:30 Please call in if you are seeking baptism, confirmation, marriage or have any other pastoral or prayer request. Church Office is open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings Verger Jane Passant 33 11 85 18 [email protected] 51 28 12 42 Your Ministry Team Chaplain Archdeacon Jonathan LLoyd 39 62 77 36 [email protected] Diocesan Director of Training Canon Ulla Monberg 35 26 06 60 [email protected] Deacons Deacon Christophe Ndikuriyo 71 41 21 14 [email protected] Deacon Linda Brondsted [email protected] Licensed Reader Mr Graeme Lloyd-Roberts 50 84 55 19 [email protected] Churchwardens Claire Clausen 28 12 01 28 Christopher Parker 32 11 73 90 [email protected] St Alban’s Church Newsletter

[email protected] · www.st-albans.dk

St Alban’s receives no subsidy from the state or national Church and is funded by the generosity of the congregation and visitors. To support the mission and ministry of the Church,contributions can be made to ‘St Alban’s Church’ to the Church Post Giro 7 09 99 24 or for UK tax payers by Gift Aid increasing the value of their gift by 25 %

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