A young male peregrine falcon that hatched at Salisbury Cathedral two years ago and became an internet star during the early days of the first Covid lockdown has spread his wings and reached the island of Guernsey, more than 100 miles away.Osmund, the only male of four chicks raised on the cathedral tower in spring 2020, was spotted on the coast of the Channel island and identified by his blue ring bearing the initials YK.According to the wildlife charity the RSPB, peregrines usually stay within 60 miles of their birthplace, so Osmund has proved to be something of an adventurer.Salisbury Cathedral said he was probably searching for his own territory and a mate. He is in his full adult plumage and ready to breed. Some peregrines do mate in the first year but most start breeding as two-year-olds.Ed Drewitt of the British Trust for Ornithology, who ringed Osmund, said: “Some Cornish peregrines have reached the French coast. However, I don’t know of any other birds, particularly from this area, flying to the Channel Islands.”Osmund was the first of the 2020 chicks to fledge – develop wing feathers large enough to fly. He was named after St Osmund, the first bishop of Salisbury, who built the original cathedral at Old Sarum, two miles north of the modern city.His three female siblings were named after individuals who played a significant role in the cathedral’s early history: Ela, Katherine and Honor, to mark the 800th anniversary of the building’s foundation.Seven hundred people took part in the public vote after the peregrine webcam became one of the unusual sources of joy and succour people turned to at the start of the Covid pandemic.Only two other peregrines have been spotted since fledging from the cathedral tower.Peter, who hatched in 2014, was shot near Stockbridge, Hampshire, in March 2017 and nursed for more than two months by the Hawk Conservancy Trust before being released back into the wild. He has since been nesting with his mate in a Hampshire quarry and has fledged his own chicks.The other peregrine spotted away from home was Aveline, a female that fledged in 2016 and was spotted in a Milton Keynes nature reserve in January 2017.More than half of the peregrines that fledge annually do not survive their first year and, despite being protected by law, are still persecuted.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury is visiting Ukraine with other faith leaders “to demonstrate solidarity and friendship with those affected by the war”.Lord Williams of Oystermouth joined figures such as the Minister General of the Franciscan Friars and the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain to comfort war victims and sustain morale.The visit coincides with reports that the Vatican was considering whether the Pope would fly to Israel for a meeting with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch.The Vatican is studying the possibility of extending the Pope’s trip to Lebanon in June so he can fly to Jerusalem to meet Patriarch Kirill, two sources told Reuters on Monday.Kirill, 75, the patriarch of Moscow, has backed Russia’s war in Ukraine.The initiative for the visit on which Williams, 71, is taking part came from Rabbi Dr Alon Goshen-Gottstein, the director and founder of the Elijah Interfaith Institute in Israel.Before a visit yesterday to Chernivtsi, close to Ukraine’s border with Romania, Williams told the Church Times that the participants wanted to ensure Ukrainians knew they were not forgotten. He said: “The purpose is a very modest one: we want to affirm our solidarity with victims of this appalling war, and express thanks for the courage shown by the Ukrainian people.“We also hope to learn a bit about conditions for refugees in the area we are visiting, and more generally about how people on the ground are viewing the situation.”Williams, a Russian speaker and an expert on Orthodoxy, had previously backed calls for the Russian Orthodox Church to be excluded from the World Council of Churches, because of its stance on the war in Ukraine.
Vigil for Peace 13th April - Diocese of EuropeAt the start of Lent many thousands of people across our diocese of Europe and the wider Church of England joined us for our vigil. We have held a vigil every Wednesday through Lent, and on Wednesday, in Holy Week, we hope to bring a wider group from across the Anglican Communion together once again. Wednesday 13th April at 17:00 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzXSYySFNF0 .
We continue through Holy Week and in our daily liturgies and prayers recall some of the events in the last week of Jesus’ life on earth. As the action slows down towards the end of the week we are invited to consider what it was like for Jesus’ closest friends, his mother and the wider group of ‘disciples’. For his closest friends – Jesus was acting very oddly and saying odd things about dying, and about his body being like the bread of their shared meal. The men in the group would all betray him – that is deny that they even knew him by running away in their fear. Judas didn’t live long enough to hear Jesus’ prayer for God’s forgiveness for all who ‘didn’t know what they were doing’. Jesus’ friends felt let down. Jesus felt let down. They were all headed towards a calamity they could only imagine. And it just wasn’t meant to be like that. We don’t need to look very far in order to see other calamities in our world which just shouldn’t be as they are. And like in that first Holy Week it feels as if there is very little we can actually do to make things any better. We are flying the Ukrainian flag at our Cathedral. We have a specific Prayer Station for the people of Ukraine and we pray for them at all daily and Sunday services. And aside from donating to the Disasters Emergency Committee there is nothing that we can do which will directly relieve the suffering in that land. However, it is from the people of Ukraine that WE gain great hope. They are people full of faith, faith in God, faith in the inherent goodness of humanity, faith in the strength of their communities, and yes, faith in their national identity. All of these certainties are being tested, just as they were tested for all who we remember in our Holy Week readings, music and prayers. What did it mean, and what does it mean, to be a disciple of Jesus? What did it mean, and what does it mean, to claim that the power of God is made manifest in weakness and vulnerability? And what did it mean, and what does it mean, for death to be transformed through the love of Jesus? Easter will happen, but before that comes Good Friday. As we continue through this Holy Week may we seek to encounter the vulnerability of Jesus as he prepared to die for the world and may we be renewed to celebrate the defeat and transformation of death. And may that give to us and to all people great hope. Dean Dianna
