What else happens at St Ursula's?

Our Chaplain

Our chaplain is the Reverend Helen Marshall. She took up her duties in 2019. She is married to the Reverend David Marshall, who has worked in Geneva at the World Council of Churches as an expert in relations with the Islamic and Jewish faiths. (Click here for a short introduction from Helen.)

Helen has written about her vision for St Ursula's and her priorities for deepen our and her own prayer and spiritual life, for strengthening faith and discipleship, for emphasizing our unity in Christ, for building a caring community, for encouraging children and young people and for being active in outreach and in service to others. We pray for God's guidance and strength in making these priorities into a reality here.

Helen in the Bund

A 2019 article in Der Bund in their Wieder Montag series featured Helen and St Ursula's. It was entitled Eine Kirche ist mehr als ein Club von Gleichgesinnten - there is also an English translation (thanks to Dorothy Beriger).

Hatred and Prejudice

Christians everywhere are appalled by the continuing and atrocious violence in the name of religion. This kind of behaviour is not confined to any particular faith, but lurks below the surface in many cultures and societies.

David Marshall, Helen's husband, has specialized in Christian-Muslim and Christian-Jewish relations at the World Council of Churches. A year ago, David gave us a short introduction to Islam, which helped many of us to learn the background to some of the hot topics in the news today, as well as a follow-up talk on Islamic reactions to the modern world. We hope more of these introductions will follow.

Helping our Neighbours

We are collecting non-perishable items for the local Passantenhilfe, serving transients and homeless people in the city of Berne. There are blue crates in the church hall and in the church porch at service times for you to put your gifts in for distribution, even during the pandemic. We have a flyer telling you what is most needed.

Study and Reflection

Our regular activities were suspended during the COVID crisis. However we have been developing an evening online Study group, often on Tuesdays or Wednesdays at 19:00. It is for both men and women. We have studied a variety of topics – the passage which was the focus for the previous Sunday's sermon; particular people or movements. Recently we have been reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Life Together.. The group does not meet every Wednesday, so please get in touch with Helen or David, or read Helen's latest newsletter (see above) for details of topics and for the Zoom link.

Lectio divina is a useful way of meditating by focussing on a short piece of scripture. We currently do this by Zoom on Thursdays at 10:30. Email the office or Helen to get the Zoom link.

An Eco-Church

We are committed to the Church of England's environmental campaign, Shrinking the Footprint, which aims to make church members more aware of their place in the world around us. It also aims to reduce the church's consumption of non-renewable resources, and specifically to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, making our activities greener.

And our diocese is now an eco-diocese, and we are supporting them by becoming an eco-church.

A group of us meet and plan future steps to make the church greener. We have completed a series of steps aimed at saving energy. Catering at our events tries to respect the environment. In prayer and preaching we recall the need to restore our lost harmony with God's creation. A team is working to make our grounds more natural and more friendly to wildlife.

We have already gained a bronze award (silver and gold come later!), but we need to do more to raise people's awareness in the congregation, and encourage them to participate more fully. If you can help in this, contact Helen, or our Local Environmental Officer, Hector Davie, or any Council member. And if not, keep an eye on our notice boards! And in any case. have a look at our Eco-group's web pages.

Confirmation – Seeking, Believing, Belonging

On 10 September, we had the joy of welcoming Bishop Robert, bishop of our diocese ("of Gibraltar in Europe"), who came to confirm five young Christians in their faith, and to receive one more into the Church of England. The service was a joyful and memorable occasion, and in his sermon the bishop reminded the condidates that although in much of Europe the church was in decline, worldwide the church was growing – along with all faiths.

You can read about the Bishop's four-day visit to Switzerland on his his blog.

Pray especially at this time for Laeticia, Delali, Joana, Manu and Zornitsa, for Helene, as they continue with a further step along the way of faith, and for Bishop Robert, who continues in the demanding work of caring for the needs of our vast diocese, extending from Iceland to Morocco, from Tenerife to Vladivostok.

Why not come and visit us yourselves on a Sunday morning at ten, or join in one of our activities listed by Helen in her weekly letter - see above!

Taking Care of our Church - Our Technical Committee

Our recent renewal and energy project has left us with improved premises and some sophisticated equipment. Hans Goepfert, Edi Wildhaber and Rolf Klingler from the energy team have been joined by Tony Read to form a Technical Committee to look after our infrastructure. They are also on hand to assist with the audiovisual system at church services and to give advice on technical matters.

They can be contacted by email, or using their dedicated mobile number, 077 472 20 60. They have a rota, so please do not contact members individually! They offer support from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening, seven days a week, and aim at a one-hour response time, though this cannot be guaranteed!

If you find anything that is out of order, or not working the way you think it should, give them a call. And if you spot something that could be improved, tell one of their members. We hope that this will provide an improvement on the former arrangement for noting faults on a sheet of paper.

Some Spiritual Help

Clare Amos, the Diocese's director of lay discipleship, has been working on a Rule of Life for Anglicans in Europe, developed originally in the Diocese of Auckland, New Zealand. It is based on the experience of the disciples on the Emmaus Road, and more details are on the diocesan website.

Not many people realize that the Diocese also has a blog based on the weekly lectionary readings, from a European perspective. This is at faithineurope.net. It is well worth taking a look.

And while you are surfing, why not look at Everyday Faith (also known as "Setting God's People Free", the Church of England's "programme of change to enable the whole people of God to live out the Good News of Jesus confidently in all of life, Sunday to Saturday." This is a good introduction to Christian living, too. Our own contribution is taking shape here. Helen has described what we are doing for our fellow churches in the Swiss Archdeaconry.

Tidying the Church

We have sorted and tidied a lot of things in the church, hall and house. A new storage concept has been produced, and there is a place for everything. If you are not sure where something is, or where it should go, ask Maria or a council member!

Music, music, music!

We have an active Music Group with a variety of instruments. If you would like to join us, please contact the Church Office.

Weekday Services

Some of us use Morning and Evening Prayer following the order in Common Worship.

You will find the order of service using the link above, or by downloading the Church of England's free Daily Prayer app from iTunes or Google Player.

Thun

We have held services in Thun for many years, usually on Thursday evenings – for a long time there were in rather a remote part of Thun.

Now we are at the Chapelle Romande (the French Chapel), Frutigenstrasse 22, less than five minutes' walk from the station. (You can see some pictures of our first service in the Chapelle Romande here.)

Everyone is welcome, and you can be assured of friendly company and a short and meaningful service. When possible, many of the congregation follow it with a time of fellowship and refreshment. There is a flyer here - print one out for a friend!

Click here for details of the next few services. Details of how to find the Chapelle Romande can be found here.

Gardening

Gardens never stop growing, and even (perhaps especially!) in winter they need getting into shape! We have an active gardening team. There are gardening parties throughout the year. If you are able to help at any time, please get in touch with the church office.

Water, water, Uganda

We and our Junior Church have been taking a keen interest in a project to bring clean water to villages in the Kigezi diocese in Uganda. Some of our church members have been to the area and helped with the work, and we have dedicated our Harvest and Christmas collections to the plan, which is also supported by Tear Fund Schweiz.

Money, money, money

Many of our members pledge to give a regular sum to support the church. We receive no state support, and have to finance the ministry here ourselves. There is still time to add to the growing number of people who pledge to the church. You may fill in a form (there are several in the church hall) and give or send it to the Treasurer. Trying to move with the times, we are also introducing the possibility of pledging "on-line" - the pledge page on our website has details. We hope that paying on line will come later (paying by Twint is already possible). In any case, every rappen is appreciated!

Refugees

As an English-speaking church in a German-speaking land, we have few direct contacts with the flood of refugees who come from the Middle East. We would value your prayers for them. We give to specific projects run by Refuge Egypt, Tear Fund and Partner Sein, and other charities which are directly involved in this problem.

Helen and David's son, Simon, has been working in France with the Calais Food Collective, providing support for refugees from war zones in Asia and Africa.

Books for our Book Sales

Our book sale team have produced some notes on how you can help them by bringing the right kind of book, and not bringing the wrong kind of book. You can read their notes here.

Facebook

There's up-to-the-minute news as well on the church's Facebook site. Take a look!

What Else has Happened Recently?

Energy and Sustainability

In 2014, we began a major project, with a team headed by Hans Goepfert studying and analyzing the church's energy use. We took expert advice, and where possible made use of the cantonal energy programme. The aim (in no particular order!) was to have a warmer church, to make major savings in our heating and energy costs and at the same time to benefit the environment. This cost money - more than we had!

The estimated cost of the original project was some Fr250,000, which was provided by an anonymous donor. Alleluia. Needless to say, the costs grew as the work went on. The project is now complete, but we are still happy for gifts of money. You can help consolidate our Building Fund by sending a donation to Postfinance account 60-666488-7 (IBAN: CH61 0900 0000 6066 6488 7), St Ursula's Charitable Association. Donations are tax deductible.

Welcome Cards

We also want to keep our address lists up to date, so that we can contact you if the need arises. There are cards in the porch and in the hall for newcomers to give us their details. If you have not yet filled one of these cards in, please help us by doing so and leaving it in the box in the porch, or giving it to the sidesperson. And if you change your address, please let us know!

Communicating

We want you to make the most of the information we have on the web. Have you looked at our sitemap to see just what there is you can find out about? Have you tried clicking on some of the links on our pages to find out more?

In addition to photographs on this website (see the magazine index page for a list), the church has a photographic archive, with pictures of church events, new and old, and many of the sermons in St Ursula's in recent years have been recorded for you to listen to.

If you have ideas for improving the information we can give, or if you have pictures of the church or our activities that you would be willing to share on this site, do please contact us.

The church magazine appears every two months, in paper format and on the web. If you are interested in saving paper and reading the magazine on line, please use this link to ask us to provide you with details.

And you can see the weekly notices by clicking here. The readings are available too.

Pictures - Old and New

We regularly put pictures of church events on our Google website. They are worth taking a look at to see if there are faces you recognize, or memories you recall. Take a look!

There are some recent albums on Facebook, too. (Because of the curious way Google works, there are also links to some recent albums here.)

Photographs and Privacy

Several people take photographs of church events, and these can be uploaded to the church's website. We do not normally publish photos of individuals without their agreement, but we assume agreement to photographs of groups of people. If children are present, we try to ensure the child cannot be recognized, and will ask for their parents' written consent to use the image.

If you do not wish photographs of yourself to appear, please contact either the webmaster or the office - their email addresses can be found on our contacts page.

A general privacy notice can be found here.