The Church of the Resurrection, the Anglican church in the centre of Bucharest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Patrick Comerford
During the Season of Easter this year, I am continuing my theme from Lent, taking some time each morning to reflect in these ways:
1, photographs of a church or place of worship that has been significant in my spiritual life;
2, the day’s Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society, Partners in the Gospel).
Easter began on Sunday with Easter Day. This week, I am offering photographs of images of the Resurrection from seven churches, some of which I have already visited during the season of Lent.
My photographs this morning (8 April 2021) are from the Church of the Resurrection in Bucharest. The Anglican church in Gradina Icoanei is an attractive, red-bricked church in the centre of the Romanian capital. The earliest records of the church date from the 1860s, although there was an Anglican presence in Bucharest from 1850.
The cornerstone of the church was laid on 20 October 1913. The external fabric was completed by 1914, but building work was interrupted with the outbreak of World War I. The first service was held in the new church on Easter Day, 4 April 1920; it was soon completed, and was dedicated by the Bishop of Gibraltar on 5 November 1922.
Among the many icons presented to the church is one donated by the Patriarch of Romania to the Bishop of Gibraltar when Archbishop Michael Ramsey visited Romania in 1965. A full-time chaplaincy was established a year later in 1966, and the chaplains included the Revd Dr David Hope, later Archbishop of York.
I have visited the Church of the Resurrection numerous times when the Revd James Ramsay was the chaplain, preached there when the Revd Martin Jacques was chaplain, and I have also spoken at meetings of the Parochial Church Council.
Luke 24: 35-48 (NRSVA):
35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ 37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in their presence.
44 Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you – that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.’
Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary:
The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (8 April 2021) invites us to pray:
Let us pray for women and girls who are refugees, living in camps as a result of war.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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