From Mr Frederic Stansfield
Sir, - The Rt Revd Christopher Morgan, the retired Area
Bishop of Colchester, is right to argue that the Reuilly Concord
between the Church of England and the newly united Église
Protestante Unie de France (EPUF) offers opportunities from which
Anglicans can learn (Comment, 16
August).
One of the most pressing needs is to support French-speaking
Protestantism in England. There has recently been an even larger
movement of people from France to England for economic reasons than
during the religious migrations of the 16th and 17th centuries.
At present, two churches in England are affiliated to La
Commission des Églises Évangéliques d'Expression Française à
l'Extérieur (CEEEFE), the co-ordinating body for Francophone
Protestant churches outside France. One is in London, at Soho
Square. The other, which I attend regularly, worships in the crypt
of Canterbury Cathedral, receiving generous help from the Dean and
Chapter. If one in 100 French-speaking immigrants in England
attended a Protestant Church, this would be about 5000 people -
more than ten times the current attendance in London and
Canterbury. It is beyond the resources of a small, local
congregation such as ours to address this unmet nationwide
need.
A reinvigorated mission is needed to bring the Christian message
to the French-speaking community in England. This could be provided
through the Church of England, through expansion of the French
Protestant Church, or preferably by both methods.
FREDERIC STANSFIELD
1 Coppergate, Canterbury
Kent CT2 7RT
From the Archdeacon of Switzerland
Sir, - Bishop Morgan's article on French Protestants was very
informative, but did contain one slip. The words of the hymn "Thine
be the glory" ("À toi la gloire") were written by a pastor
of the Swiss Reformed Church, Edmond Louis Budry (1854-1932).
He was born in Vevey, on Lake Geneva (where there is a
flourishing Anglican chaplaincy today, part of the diocese in
Europe), and ministered in the town for 35 years. The English
translation by Richard Hoyle dates from 1925.
Strangely enough, the hymn has not found its way into the
Reformed Church in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, as I
discovered when looking for a multilingual hymn for an ecumenical
service.
PETER M. POTTER
St Ursula, Jubiläumsplatz 2
3005 Berne, Switzerland
From the Revd the Lord Griffiths of Burry Port
Sir, - I did enjoy Bishop Christopher Morgan's article on
French Protestantism. The Église Réformée de France successfully
united with the Église Méthodiste de France in the early 1970s. I
was pastor of a church in the eighth arondissement of
Paris in the early 1970s, just before the union.
I so agree with Bishop Morgan that we in Britain can learn much
from the way church unity has been and is being achieved in France.
He suggests that "the Reuilly Accord [which] has been in place for
more than a decade" means that Anglicans and members of the
Reformed Church need not feel they are strangers to each other.
The Covenant between our two Churches here in Britain has also
been in place for more than a decade: I hope it, too, might lead to
something more significant than polite smiles and distant
hopes.
GRIFFITHS OF BURRY PORT
Wesley's Chapel and Leysian Mission
49 City Road
London EC1Y 1AU