Our church is St Ursula's. Worshippers from the older Christian traditions - Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Swiss Reformed - are used to churches bearing names. So we have the Johanneskirche, the Petrus- und Pauluskirche, the Dreifältigkeitskirche. In other denominations, churches tend to be named after the street or district where they stand and the tradition to which they belong - King's Road Baptist Church, for instance. At least this makes locating them easier for visitors!
The custom of naming churches is a very old one. It started with the practice of building churches over the tombs of martyrs. In time, most churches had their own "patron saint", to whom they were joined in a fellowship of prayer. Our patron saint is St Ursula, said to be a British princess who, along with eleven thousand companions, was massacred at Cologne while returning from a pilgrimage to Rome - if you do not know the reason for the dedication, look inside the front cover of this magazine.
There are good reasons why we do not formally call ourselves "the Berne English church". Although we are officially part of the Church of England, we have no monopoly of being English: indeed one of our blessings is our large and multinational church family. We certainly have no monopoly over holding our services in the English language - our Roman Catholic friends up the road at the Bruder Klaus church would feel excluded if we implied that we were the only place where English-speakers would feel at home worshipping - quite apart from the other churches around town where services are held in, or translated into, English!
There are also good reasons against calling ourselves "the Kirchenfeld Anglican church". The Church of England has her own distinctive emphases and customs, but regards herself as very much in the main tradition of Christian belief, worship and discipline. We have been fortunate in following "the middle way", in trying to avoid the extremism associated with some of the sects that have sprung up over the centuries. So we would not willingly give ourselves a label to stress the differences between ourselves and other churches.
Cynics will say that this is special pleading. The Church of England, they will say, has always been the national church "by law established", and its members cannot think of themselves as being designated by some special name. Perhaps this is true as well!
St Ursula's welcomes everyone who loves Jesus and who acknowledges him as Lord. (In fact, we welcome everyone, but we hope that they will grow in faith and love while they are among us!) We hope that fellow Christians from other traditions can find a home with us - everyone who is a full member of their own church is very welcome to share in the Eucharist and gather together around the Lord’s table. For in that way we can give effect to our Lord's prayer that we may all be one in unity with him and our heavenly Father.
HD