Visit to Salisbury Diocese
During the week of Christian Unity 2011 eight members of the Evreux diocese twinning committee visited the Poole area.
The Anglo/French twinning committee has been working for twenty years to foster a greater understanding between Roman Catholics and Anglicans, regularly making exchange visits between the two dioceses to develop an increasingly fruitful dialogue about the lives of our churches.
An example of this was the visit last October to France by two Archdeacons (Sherborne and Wiltshire) and the Team Rector of Dorchester for a working/study week, to evaluate the work of the laity in the Evreux parishes. Evreux is far ahead of Salisbury in this respect, and the Anglican team found much to report favourably on; a report on this matter has been made to the Salisbury Diocesan Synod, as required by Bishop David.
In January, building on this, the Evreux branch of the Committee paid their traditional two-yearly visit for a very full weekend and were again impressed by the Anglican use of their church buildings.Social events, discussions and shared use: even in the smallest churches childrens’ corners were found enabling the little ones to be near the congregation during services, kitchen areas, toilets – indeed everything needed to allow the congregation to socialise after the services.
This year’s main purpose has been to study ecumenical practices and we have seen the results of some long-standing inter-church relationships.
After several presentations by priests and laity, it was obvious that each church had adopted inter-church practices developed from its own daily life, and we visited several oecumenical centres catering for different combinations of churches.
At Creekmoor,a very open church caters for all creeds of Christians and to non-Christians and the building is shared by several denominations.The sharing is real,all activities being communal, and only the celebrations of mass/holy communion are separate.The services are varied and for all ages; for example, the 9am service may be quiet and contemplative, followed by a 10.30 service of sharing and fellowship, with an evening service at 7pm for the younger members.Non-liturgical meetings provide several sessions during the week for mothers and young children, including a ‘health clinic’ day on Wednesdays and toddler services.We also visited Poole hospital where we met the Anglican chaplain and her Roman Catholic colleague; the chapel there is multi-faith and also has an area set aside for Muslims. This chaplaincy serves not only the patients of the hospital but also the staff.At Dorset Police headquarters we met Jean Saddington, a police chaplain, who spoke about her work. All these institutions have the churches at their heart.
At Corfe Mullen, we heard from Colin Brady,a layman who works for Churches Together in Dorset.He spoke to us from his heart.
We finished with something completely different – a visit to the Poundbury Quiet Space at Dorchester. Arising out of an inter-denominational initiative, this will provide a spiritual centre open to all, churchgoers and non-churchgoers alike, for calm and meditation.There will be a quiet garden, and facilities for users.The most remarkable thing to us was the working together of various denominations both in the planning of the building and in its financing – true planning for the future.It was also a great pleasure for us to see something that two years ago was only an idea and is now reality.
These few examples show that by sharing our experiences both Evreux and Salisbury dioceses can move towards a deeper brotherhood.The Anglican committee will visit us next year during the Week of Christian Unity, when it will be our turn to show a fresh part of ourdiocesanchurch.