ESBVM

Over its history, the ESBVM has published a large number of pamphlets by respected theologians of the traditions that make up its membership. These are now being made available as a free-to-access online archive as downloadable PDF files and using the YUDU magazine publishing facility.

Recent additions to the archive include:

Fire and Spirit in Her Womb: Mary in the Poetry of St Ephrem, Jill Pinnock (Read online | Download as a PDF) (2003)
Concerning Recent Marian Apparitions, Jacques Cabaud (Read online | Download as a PDF) (2002)
The Betrothal and Marriage of Mary to Joseph, Bernard Orchard (Read online | Download as a PDF) (2001)
ARCIC I and II: An Anglican Perspective, Christopher Hill (Read online | Download as a PDF) (1998)
Rest and Light Perpetual: Prayer for the Departed in the Communion of Saints, David Chapman (Read online | Download as a PDF) (1996)

This is only a small selection and the full list can be seen on our Publications page. If the pamphlet you want is not yet available online, email the publications secretary and that title will be prioritized.

Over its history, the ESBVM has published a large number of pamphlets by respected theologians of the traditions that make up its membership. These are now being made available as a free-to-access online archive as downloadable PDF files and using the YUDU magazine publishing facility.

The sample titles that are available initially are:

Emerging voices in the World of Marian Theology, Marie Farrell (Read online | Download as a PDF ) (2008)
Mary, A Bridge of Unity, Sven-Eric Brod (Read online | Download as a PDF) (2007)
The origin and practice of the Salve Regina, John Desmond Miller (Read online | Download as a PDF) (2004)
Work in Progress: The Blessed Virgin Mary in the Anglican tradition, Richard Garrard (Read online | Download as a PDF) (2002)
Mary for Teilhard and de Lubac, Paul McPartlan (Read online | Download as a PDF) (1989)

This is only a small selection and the full list can be seen on our Publications page. If the pamphlet you want is not yet available online, email the publications secretary and that title will be prioritized.

On Friday February 22nd 2013 at 6.00pm, the Ecumenical Office of the Ecumenical Society of the
Blessed Virgin Mary will be sung at Pusey House, St Giles, Oxford by the Choir of Pusey House.

The preacher will be The Very Reverend Stephen Platt, Rector of the Russian Orthodox Parish of St Nicholas, Oxford.

All are welcome.

Click here to open a PDF poster for this event

There was a good presence of ESBVM members and other ecumenical guests at the celebration in Spanish Place of Solemn Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Hymn of the Annunciation of the Mother of God to mark forty years of Common Statements between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches and to pray for Unity on the feast of St Nicholas on 6th December 2012 .  We know ESBVM members would not  feel misled in the promotion of the occasion in our recent ESBVM Newsletter and on our website and will be very content to know that if Our Lady is duly and ecumenically honoured, that fulfils the task and purpose of ESBVM. New friends were made and outreach was achieved.

The original request was for  the possibility of using the Ecumenical Office of the Society to better promote attendance and an invitation to make it a joint occasion with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Coptic Orthodox Church to which the Ecumenical Society of the BVM readily agreed. In the event that use of the ESBVM Office did not happen.

Despite that change, ESBVM had its best publicity of the year for its 45th Anniversary of Foundation outside our own vehicles of news since it featured, prior to the change, on http://beta.rcdow.org.uk/events/ and so ESBVM’s anniversary was noted and some coverage of our existence and purpose secured. The Hon Gen Secretary is not aware of other publicity about the ESBVM’s jubilee but members are urged to let us know of any that they have noticed.

A notable and much appreciated sermon was given by His Grace Archbishop Kevin McDonald,  Archbishop Emeritus of Southwark and Catholic Co-Chairman of the Catholic-Oriental Orthodox Regional Forum with a response by His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom & Oriental Orthodox Co-Chairman of the Catholic-Oriental Orthodox Regional Forum, together with the presence of HG Bishop Vahan Hovhannesian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Great Britain, President of the Council of Oriental Orthodox Churches and HE Abba Seraphim, Metropolitan of Glastonbury, the British Orthodox Church. Archbishop Kevin conveyed his good wishes and congratulations to the ESBVM on its anniversary. He was a speaker at one of our earlier international congresses. Bishop Angaelos, one of our patrons, also wished to have his good wishes conveyed.

The Catholic- Oriental Orthodox Regional Forum expressed thanks to Father Christopher Colven, Rector of the Church of St James, Spanish Place  and a member of ESBVM for his welcome and for the hospitality of the Catholic Church of St James, Spanish Place, London W1 in hosting this Celebration of Vespers to mark more than forty years of theological dialogue towards unity between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

The Choir of St James’ Catholic Church, Spanish Place and the Choir of St Gregorios’ Indian Orthodox Church, Brockley supported the occasion beautifully  and  Pontifical Blessing was given by His Grace Bishop Vahan.

The respective websites of the two sponsoring bodies are given here for those not aware of them www.cbcew.org.uk  and www.orientalcounciluk.org

The kind footnote mention of the ESBVM [in the Order of Service actually used] expressing a greeting  to the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary which read:

We congratulate the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which marks its Forty-Fifth Anniversary in 2012, and we warmly acknowledge its support in making this Ecumenical Vespers the concluding event in their year of celebrations.www.esbvm.org.uk 

was deeply appreciated by the society and has been duly acknowledged, though in fact our anniversary year has a little longer to run concluding in the WOPFCU in January 2013.

The ESBVM web site is now linked to both Facebook and Twitter. Posts on the ESBVM web site are now Tweeted with a URL link and appear as posts on ESBVM’s Facebook page. If you are signed up to Twitter and follow ESBVM, you will receive a Tweet each time a new post appears here, and can reTweet it to a wider audience. If you are on Facebook, and press the Like ESBVM button, a summary of each post will appear in your newsfeed and can be ‘Liked’ to a wider audience.

Please ‘Like’ ESBVM on  here. If you do not have a Facebook account, sign up here.

Please follow ESBVM on Twitter here: Follow @esbvm. If you do not have a Twitter account, sign up here.

Fr Robert Byrne CO National Ecumenical Officer and Secretary to the Department for Dialogue and Unity at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has written to the Hon Gen Sec to arrange a celebration of ecumenical Vespers proposed by the Department of Dialogue and Unity and intended to be held with the Oriental Orthodox Communities.

The Vespers will take place during Advent on 6th Dec at 7.00pm at St James’s Spanish Place. Fr Christopher Colven, Parish Priest of St James’s who is a member of ESBVM, has generously offered the use of the church and choir.

Clearly, it is felt the event will be very valuable as a joint event of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Coptic Orthodox Church. Bishop Vahan Hovhanessian, President of the Council of Oriental Orthodox Churches in the UK, and Armenian Primate, is planning to attend as is Metropolitan Seraphim of the British Orthodox Church. Bishop Angaelos may attend and perhaps other Orthodox bishops. Archbishop Kevin McDonald emeritus Archbishop of Southwark is to attend.

It would be a great opportunity and moment to contribute as the ESBVM and an occasion at which the purpose and even existence of the ESBVM might become better known in the remaining weeks of the 45th Anniversary Year.

Members able to be present are urged to attend.

Click here for a poster to download / display advertizing this event.

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Fr Bill Mcloughlin OSM, Hon. General Secretary, writes:

The Hon Gen Secretary was presented to Pope Benedict XVI at the Papal Audience held at Castel Gandolfo on 8th Sept for the delegates of the Pontifical Marian International Academy [PAMI] Congress and conveyed the greetings and good wishes of the ESBVM. This was a simple instance of the esteem in which the society still stands in that it was included in the presentation of significant groups engaged in Marian work. A full report of the PAMI Congress and ESBVM participation will appear in the next ESBVM Newsletter.

 The discussion continues in the society about its future direction of effort. The Hon Gen Secretary invites continuing contributions from members as to what they would like to see happening in the future and most importantly what part they feel able to play in the implementation of their ideas. It is not enough to suggest to the Hon Gen Sec or other officers of the ESBVM what they might do. They are probably already doing as much as they can already. Nor is it enough to lament the poor presence of certain traditions in the membership or offer the statistics that suggest an imbalance in this regard. Extension and invitation to new membership is down to each one of us. The May 2012 meeting of the ESBVM Executive drew together such strands of common mind and fresh initiative as was possible and made recommendations to the Council, which met on 13th June 2012, with a strong indication of the need to simplify governance of the society with a reduction of administrative meetings where it is possible to do without them. Perhaps the wisest words have come from one of our moderators at the June Council of last year: “Not to do too much / but really to pray / to lead to preaching and writing and devotion.” Clearly among some of the veterans there is a seeming weariness and a view surfaces periodically among them that the society has outlived its purpose, which is not always a helpful contribution and certainly not one shared by all. Perhaps new minds and contributors will bring a refreshed approach. The new Editor’s comment in the last May issue indicates an alternative viewpoint and suggests fresh interest in the exchange among, for example, with Evangelicals who are beginning to show interest anew in Our Lady, and for us to draw in this interest would be a valuable part of the purpose and task of the society.

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Mr Peter McQuirk, one-time founder of our ESBVM Rome Branch, died last Wednesday, 24th October 2012 at St. Peter’s Residential home in at 2a Meadow Road, VAUXHALL, London SW8 1QH where the funeral will be take place on Friday 2nd November at 11 am. May he rest in peace.