On Sunday 22nd July we hoped to welcome the world famous Tiffin Boys Choir from England to support us in a sung eucharist. Unfortunately, it was not to be.......... Because of the heavy rains in England, the flights to Bucharest from London were severely disrupted, and at 1000 on Sunday morning we had to start our service with neither choir nor organist!

The service was led by the Reader, who proved that although he is a reasonably proficient reader, his singing skills leave much to be desired! However, by 2pm part of the group reached Bucharest via Frankfurt and at 4pm they performed an impromptu concert in church before a small but very appreciative audience. Before they left they learned a Romanian version of "If you're happy and you know it......" which they intend to sing during their tour of Romanian cities over the coming week.

Yet another confirmation about the best laid plans of mice and men................... Thank you God, for proving once again never to take anything for granted!

Church of the Resurrection Garden Party

On Friday 13th July the church held a British Garden Party at the home of Philip and Karine Hall. We were very lucky with the weather and over 150 people came along and enjoyed a fun packed evening with barbecued food, cold beer and wine, and lots of good company.

One of the highlights of the evening was a live auction where different gifts were auctioned-everything from two tickets for the Rolling Stones concert in Bucharest to 365 bottles of beer-one for every day of the year! Guest auctioneers included both the British Ambassador and Deputy Ambassador.

We are incredibly grateful to the large number of local businesses and individuals who gave so many things to help the evening be such an enormous success. In total we managed to raise over 6500 euros for our church funds. Even more important than that, everybody who attended seemed to enjoy their evening.

The blessing part!

Here we are in church before the children took thre tree out into the garden. Our Chaplain, Revd. Martin Jacques, blessed both the tree and the wall hanging (photographs to follow of that wonderful creation!)

Planting the Jesse tree!

Our Sunday School continues to go from strength to strength! Last Sunday therre were around 11 of them in church, with ages starting at less than 1 year! They had a very busy day. First of all we blessed in church a wall hanging that they had made the previous week (at the same time as enjoying pizza at the home of their leader, Cate Johnson!). Think it's called mixing work and pleasure?

After that we blessed a Jesse tree that the children had dressed during advent last year. They then planted it in our tiny church garden. Bucharest cats and city pollution permitting, we hope that it will survive and can come back into church next advent season!

From the shouts that came in through the church windows during the sermon it seems that they were also mixing work with pleasure while they were planting the tree!

Thank you children!

new baby in Sofia!

Our congregation in Sofia has received a wonderful addition with the birth of baby Gabriel, son of Jonathan and Tsveta Dunne. Jonathan and Tsveta are leading members of our congregation in Sofia, with Jonathan acting as "treasurer" for our activities there, as well both assisting and leading services.

We give thanks to God for the gift of Gabriel, and we remember in our prayers Jonathan, Tsveta, and Gabriel. In the coming week the Bishop of Gibaltrar in Europe, Bishop Geoffrey, will visit both Sofia and Bucharest. He will be able to see that our congregation in Sofia is very much alive and growing!!!

Our beautiful country

Bucharest is a typical capital city, big and beautiful but also very congested, busy, and incredibly noisy at times! Some people say that it is

even too noisy and too busy!

However, get away from the capital and there is beauty almost impossible to describe. These are just two pictures that prove that God's handiwork is by no means confined to humanity!

Church of the Resurrection-a truly international fellowship!

Our Anglican church is located in Bucharest, but within our congregation there is a multitude of nationalities and Christian denominations represesented. This is the first of a series of introductions to members of our church from around the world.

Arnold (Noldy) and Lavie Lengkey are long standing members of our church. Noldy is studying for a doctorate at the Agricultural University in Bucharest and Lavie is here with him and attending the German school in Bucharest. They enrich our worship every Sunday, with Lavie an enthusiastic member of our Sunday School. On Easter Sunday they easily won the prize for the "most smartly dressed couple attending church" as these photographs confirm.

Noldy's wife has stayed in Indonesia with Lavie's sister, and they are waiting eagerly for Nlody's studies to finish in the autumn of 2008! From Bucharest we send Christian greetings to them in Indonesia!