The Radio 4 Sunday Worship programme is listened to by millions across the world. This Sunday, the service shared reflections, prayers and music from across the Diocese in Europe. The Sunday service followed a week of daily services on Radio 4 from all parts of our diocese. You can listen again (at 8.10) if you missed the programme on Sunday. The Sunday service was hosted by St Edmund’s church in Oslo, and included reflections from Malaga, Kyiv and Bergen. All touched on the theme of our role as both guest and host in our diocese, and the how we provide mission and ministry from the arctic circle to North Africa.

Bishop Robert Innes gave the sermon, taking Hebrews chapter 11 as his text:

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth. Yes, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.”

The Diocese in Europe  feels like one of the Church of England’s front lines. It is the diocese where we encounter the harsh reality of war. Our communities in the south of Europe face new arrivals from the global South. Our project worker in Calais works amongst refugees stranded on the French coast and caught between the French police and UK immigration rules. We are part of the Church of England, but in the countries we serve we are not the majority, established church as in England. Sometimes we have our own buildings, other times we borrow church buildings or meet in schools. We share with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that sense of being travellers, living in tents, being guests in a foreign land.”

You can read the full text here.