The Golden Jubilee year of the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf was ushered in with a hymn specially written for the occasion.
It had its premiere at a special Eucharist held at All Hallows by the Tower – the London church which since the incumbency of the Venerable Peter Delaney has been a willing and gracious host for the Diocese for any London based gatherings.
JMECA Director Dr Clare Amos was there. She writes,
2026 sees the anniversary of the whole Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, but the anniversary is being kept with particular enthusiasm by the Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf: it was the one of the four constituent dioceses of the original Province that itself gained its own diocesan identity when the Province was inaugurated in 1976.
The church was full, both with people who had lived and worshipped in the Diocese in the present or the past, and with representatives of organisations such as JMECA whose role it is to support the Province and its constituent dioceses.
The hymn had been composed for the occasion by Revd Canon Chris Butt, former Dean of St Christopher’s, Bahrain, and Chair of the Friends of the Diocese. It celebrated the dual identity of this unique Diocese – geographically the second largest in the whole of the Anglican Communion and was sung enthusiastically to the tune Westminster Abbey, appropriately the tune often used for the hymn ‘Christ is made the sure foundation.’
“Heavenly Father, as we gather,
Thank you for the life we share.
You have blessed our life together
In the land of calls to prayer.
In our Golden Jubilee year,
Give us rest, renew, restore;
Grant us grace to persevere
And know your presence evermore.
Jesus, you have come among us,
Welcomed, healed, restored and called;
In the land of Paul and Barnabas
Bring your loving Word to all.
We are shaped by many nations
Drawn from north, south, west and east,
Shaping life and expectations,
Foretaste of the heavenly feast.”
Holy Spirit, come renew us
For the road hat lies ahead.
Guide us, teach us, heal us, fill us;
Strengthen us through wine and bread.
Give us all renewed compassion
For the lands in which we live.
Be as one in full communion,
Sharing all we have to give.
Sing God's praises to the Father,
Sing God's praises to the Son,
Sing God's praises to the Spirit;
Ever Three, but ever One.
God has called us, shaped us, led us,
Gives us all we need to be
In the Gulf and land of Cyprus
In our Golden Jubilee.
Bishop Sean Semple’s evocative address celebrated the experience of many who have been associated with the Diocese over the years:
“We have lived outside many people’s frame of reference, and so we might dine out on stories of iftars and majilis; of kite-flying on Green Monday and walking in the footsteps of St Paul and St Barnabas. The Arabic language or a muezzin calling people to prayer does not jar or offend us – rather they evoke the sounds and prayerful rhythms of warm places that were once home. The Byzantine interior of an Orthodox Church will embrace rather than overwhelm us. A few words of greeting or thanks learned in any one of our multicultural congregations now gives us an opportunity to connect with a stranger far from home who is amazed and pleased to be seen and acknowledged.
Living and ministering in the Diocese can be extremely challenging but equally rewarding. I can think of no other Diocese that offers a context in which such theological and cultural diversity can be encountered, and so our association with the Diocese is a blessing and a gift; and our minds, hearts and theology will have been irrevocably shaped by this experience.”
The service however was not simply a celebration of the present and the past. It was also a prayerful looking towards the future, with its challenges and questions:
“The Gospel reading reminds us as individuals and as a diocese that we need to be open to the regenerating, reforming new wine of the Holy Spirit. And this openness will be sacrificial and contentious because most of us want the security and comfort of “business as usual”.
Wherever the Holy Spirit brings new life, there will be a basic tension between continuity and transformation. We will wrestle with questions about what is essential in “the former things”6; what is valuable in the new, and how these can be blended into something recognisable and fit for purpose. New wine necessitates new wineskins - new internal structures, new policies and practices, in order to hold this precious Anglican space in the Middle East.”
With a delightful touch, at the end of this gathering, likely to be the first of several marking this Jubilee year, participants, some of whom had travelled thousands of miles to be present, were each offered a memento, an anniversary tile, crafted by Armenian potters in Jerusalem. It has been good to be able to celebrate with others this special time for this special Diocese, which, as Bishop Sean said, in concluding his sermon, acts as an “interlocutor between Eastern and Western Christian Traditions, and
between Islam and Christianity…We offer something incredibly rare and precious to the Anglican Communion and the wider world that counters disinformation about the Middle East and divisive rhetoric. It is possible to have positive interfaith and ecumenical relationships; it is possible for parishes to have 58 different nationalities in them all at one time; it is possible for streams of living water to flow in desert places.”
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All photos: Diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf