In the “Terms of Reference” to the Diocesan Synod each year there is a sentence which says that there are certain congregations that are “still working out authority/responsibility relationships to our Bishop and Synod.” In some way this has been true of the Famagusta Fellowship congregation to which Val and I have now come to minister and to bring it (DV) on its next stage of a developing relationship with the Bishop and the Synod. Some History The Famagusta Fellowship arose at the suggestion of the then Catholic Priest to the UN base in Famagusta in 1994 (Fr John - an African) to see if there was a desire to meet at times other than for the Masses in the Leopold Barracks Church. Linda Bilton and Jonathan Warner then Eastern Mediterranean University lecturers and Carole Lijertwood were involved in the initial meeting at Carole's Moonwalker Restaurant, (where the after church fellowship still takes place). After Fr.John's departure at the end of his tour the Anglican Bishop was approached and assigned the Rev Bill Schwartz the then Diocesan Secretary to help in the leading/teaching at the Fellowship. A couple of years later The Rev Philip Blair and his wife both lecturers in the English Department became involved though by this stage Philip was no longer ministering as an Anglican priest. To give it legal status - as all places of worship and indeed all groups meeting together in the TRNC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) must be registered with the government under the Law of Association -it became a daughter church of St Andrew's Kyrenia under the pastoral care of the Anglican Chaplain whose responsibilities were until now for the whole of North Cyprus. To go back a while further, the history books tell us that the first English service to be held in Cyprus was the wedding of King Richard the Lionheart and Princess Berengeria on the 12th May 1191. English ministry after that was minimal until after nearly 400 years of Turkish Ottoman Empire administration the British took over in 1878. St. Paul’s Cathedral in Nicosia was consecrated in 1893 and after the island formally become a British Crown Possession in 1914 a mixed pattern of military and civilian chaplaincies developed through the island. The Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf as one of the four Dioceses within the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East came into being in January 1976. In the Diocesan Office is a copy of the deeds of St. Mark’s English Church Famagusta dated 1913. The previous registration at the land registry is indicated as 1895 presumably when it was opened and consecrated being two years after the church in Nicosia. We believe it was demolished in the 60’s at the behest of the then hierarchy in Jerusalem and the land was subsequently sold and presently there is a modern court building on the site in the same street as the Public Hospital and the Post Office. The involvement of Val and myself in ministry at the church began in 2001 and we increasingly felt the call of God to transfer here on a permanent basis and put the proposal to the Bishop in October 2003. We moved through December of last year, and DV the formal licensing will take place on March 5th at the 5.30pm service. Present
Ministry
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