Freiburg. The Anglican Church BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF GRACE

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1 The Anglican Church BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF GRACE Freiburg January 2017 The gifts we have to offer Despite the church beginning the liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent, the calendar year has begun and one of the church feasts in January is Epiphany. In the areas surrounding Freiburg, children dressed as wise men, or Magi, come and bless the homes, leaving chalk marks over the doorframe of our homes and businesses. The wise men come to bring their gifts to Jesus. The biblical record mentions three objects that are brought in adoration: Gold, Frankincense, and C h a p l a i n s M e s s a g e Myrrh. Over time the three gifts seem to have symbolized the three wise men, but as many a Christmas Pageant will show you, there can be a wide interpretation as to who and how many people show up to pay homage to Jesus. After all, I have always liked the tongue-in-cheek joke of the fourth wise man who brought a fruitcake, but got lost along the way. As we prepare for a new calendar year there is much to look back on and give thanks for in the life of our church. Equally, there is much to plan for in the future. So my attention now turns to thinking of the gifts we bring into the life of the church. Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh are highly symbolic gifts of Jesus Lordship, anointing and death. As Christians we are given gifts of the Spirit that are also used to proclaim the wondrous workings of God in this present time. Again, the community will have opportunity to express gifts of gratitude, hospitality, generosity and compassion as we pray together and throughout our lives. In our own prayers and devotions this year we might like to explore God s calling to us as individuals and as Church. Surely God is up to Minister: Rev. Christopher Parsons Address: Lorettostraße Freiburg Church freiburganglican@gmail.com The Anglican Church in Freiburg (ACF) receives no funding from the Diocese of Europe, nor German Kirchensteuer. We rely solely on contributions from members and friends of the ACF. Bank Details: Anglican Church in Freiburg: Sparkasse Freiburg IBAN: DE BIC: FRSPDE66XXX (Konto Nr.: BLZ: )

2 Services in January: 1 Jan 11:30 All Age Worship 19:30 Taize Service with Holy Communion 8 Jan 11:30 Holy Communion 15 Jan 11:30 Morning Worship 22 Jan 11:30 Holy Communion 29 Jan 11:30Morning Worship Activities in January: 5 Jan 19:30 Roots and Shoots followed by Compline 9 Jan 18:00 Men s Prayer Meeting 12 Jan 19:30 Women s Prayer Meeting 19 Jan 19:30 Roots and Shoots followed by Compline 22 Jan 13:15 Joyful Singers Practice 23 Jan 18:00 Men s Prayer Meeting 24 Jan 19:30 Council Meeting Groups German/English Conversation Group every Thursday at 17:30. Please contact Rafaela Furtado rfurtado_01@yahoo.com Tuesday morning Women s Bible Study Group is on hold for the time being. North Freiburg home group. Please contact Julia or Malcolm for details. ml.maclaren@web.de Young Adult Group. Meets first and third Fridays in the month, at 7:30. Please contact Debbie at debora.niermann@gmail.com. Men s Prayer Group meets every other Tuesday evening. Please contact Josef Brockmeier: fjbrockmeier@googl .com or / 7417 The Wise Ones Group for those no longer working, meets the last Thursday of the month. See Linda Sloanecker@aol.com or Keith campbellk@t-online.de for details. Singing Group In January our singing group practices will be on the 8th and the 29th, at 13:15. Message (continued) something, and calling us to new frontiers of our faith. This work, this spiritual work that will come more to light as the year proceeds, is not more busy work after an extremely productive year. Even as the Christmas excitement still lingers I recall a verse of Psalm 127 which makes its way into the late evening service of Compline, which reminds us that our gifts are from God and they are for God. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. (KJV) With the unfolding of time our God given gifts will come to light and help us to proclaim not only in the Christmas and Epiphany seasons, but throughout the year that Christ is born and we are here to worship Him. Christopher Position of Warden Those who wish to stand for election must comply with the Church of England regulations on Wardens such as: be a Baptized Christian, a regular communicant and on the electoral role. Also, they should be over 18 years old, been confirmed, consent to being appointed, and perform the mandatory safeguarding training which is a policy of the Church of England, and to be prepared to serve for a maximum of six years, but be elected each year. Christopher Joyful Singers In January it will be a year since the joyful singers had their first meeting. In this short time our little group has already given a number of nice performances and became a fixed part of the musical life of our congregation. We used to meet once a month on a Tuesday. Unfortunately many of us have to work during the week, so that it was difficult to join the practice. To give more people the opportunity to join our group, we decided to have our practice once a month on a Sunday after the service, starting on January the 22nd. We hope that many of you join us for joyful singing. Solveyg, Christoph and Keziah CAECG Meeting March 2nd till 4th As you might have heard our church has the honour to host this event in Usually some places in private accommodation are offered. The prices for hotels in Freiburg are very high. I am looking for accommodation for two nights (2nd and 3rd) for a young

3 American clergyman and for a middle aged Englishman from Wiesbaden for one night (3rd) and for a lady from Hamburg for one night (also 3rd). All they need is a bed and breakfast and to be shown how to get to church. If you have questions, please contact Almut.schulz@gmx.de Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Theme for 2017: "Reconciliation the love of Christ compels us" At least once a year, Christians are reminded of Jesus prayer for his disciples that they may be one so that the world may believe (see John 17.21). Hearts are touched and Christians come together to pray for their unity. Congregations and parishes all over the world exchange preachers or arrange special ecumenical celebrations and prayer services. The event that touches off this special experience is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The Service in Freiburg will be on January 16th at the Annakirchle and Christopher will be one of the celebrants. Please try to come, in 2016 he and I were the only Anglicans. Almut Dear ACF, Merry Christmas to you all! It has been a full-on 12 weeks, but the teaching phase of the DTS has now come to an end. Students are heading home this week for the holidays only to return again to Orlando in a couple weeks for their outreach trips. Around the new year Youth With A Mission Orlando will be sending teams to Haiti, India, Indonesia, Tunisia and Europe with the goal to preach the gospel to all creation. I will be co-leading a team of 15 people coming to Europe to work with refugees. We will be staying in Athens for 5 weeks followed by 3 weeks in Berlin. In Athens we will be one of 15 YWAM teams who will be serving God together in the refugee camps. Our goal is to minister to Syrian refugees by evangelizing and working with existing ministries. We are looking to provide for both the material and physical needs of the people. We are hoping that in the 5-weeks of our stay in Athens we can develop good relationships with both the workers in the camps and the refugees themselves; we are looking to bring refreshment and hope. In Berlin we are partnering with Youth With A Mission Berlin who have been overwhelmed by the needs of the refugees crisis. Our team will be visiting refugee camps in the area and serving in any ways that we can. YWAM Berlin are very kindly hosting our team and are inviting us to work alongside them in the various ministries that they do in the city. These could include homeless ministry, working with orphans, visiting hospitals and evangelizing. Our team members have expressed a strong desire to work with children, so we anticipate that we will be loving on kids everywhere we go! In the past 3 months I have in many ways completed my second Discipleship Training School teaching phase. I attended all the classes, and did all the same local outreach trips. However this time my experience was far less restorative and much more ministry focused. God wasn t so much laying a foundation, but giving me tools to reach out to others. It has given me such joy to see our students grow in the LORD, I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us in Europe! If you have any questions about our trip, or would like to support me in giving or prayer, please contact me on cuthbea327@gmail.com. God bless! Alastair

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5 All pictures taken are for our website only and not to be posted on Facebook or other social media. Contact: Revd. Canon Christopher Parsons / / His day off is Monday. Please visit our website: January 2017 Newsletter If you have any items for the February newsletter, would you please send them to Cindy by January 24th. Thanks. cindywyneken@gmx.de