February 21, 2026
This month marks twenty-five years since the first Weekly Word was sent out in February 2001. When this column began, Europe stood at the dawn of a new millennium confident in integration, expanding eastwards, buoyed by peace. Few foresaw financial collapse, populist revolt, pandemic and the return of large-scale war to the continent. To write […]
February 14, 2026
The slogan ‘Never again’ evolved after World War Two rooted in the vow to prevent the recurrence of the Holocaust’s horrors. It has been broadened over time into a universal commitment against racism, discrimination, and violence, while also serving as a call for action in various human rights movements. But with the rise of populist […]
February 7, 2026
Europe is being transformed beyond recognition, hollowed out culturally and overrun by hordes of Muslim migrants in an irreversible process of civilisational decline. So prominent voices proclaim. In this telling, Europe’s decline is demographic and religious, driven by migration and the erosion of a once-Christian civilisation. But does this narrative hold up under scrutiny? Is […]
January 31, 2026
(this time hopefully with the photo!) Recently I mentioned fresh insights on the work of the 17th century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer, brought to light recently by a BBC art documentary maker, Andrew Graham-Dixon. His newly-published book, Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, offers a totally new interpretation of the spiritual meanings of the popular […]
January 24, 2026
The emergence of an isolationist-yet-imperial United States under a fascist and autocratic administration is not as ‘unAmerican’ as we might like to think. All our lives we have only ever known a relatively stable-albeit-imperfect pax americana based on respect for international law, sovereignty of nations, multilateralism, human rights and democracy. We have never experienced the […]
January 17, 2026
A year ago this week, the 47th president of the United States was inaugurated, supported by millions of Christians seeking stability, prosperity, moral renewal, or protection from forces they feared were eroding the nation they loved. A year later, many are wondering if the adminstration they got was what they voted for. Normally it would […]
January 10, 2026
Against a background of rapidly deteriorating international relations this week, we held a graduation ceremony in Amsterdam for two Schuman Centre masters degree graduates in Missional Leadership and European Studies. We reflected with the family, friends and colleagues of the graduates on why we should study at all, on what ‘missional’ meant, and on why […]
January 3, 2026
The New Year is an occasion to reflect and make resolutions – to search our souls, and ask ourselves if we are on the right path. Johannes Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance offers a quiet visual parable for this moment. In his new book about the Dutch master which I cited last week, Andrew Graham-Dixon […]
December 27, 2025
My Christmas reading has offered a surprising perspective of hope for Ukraine from a new book about the 17th century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer. Vermeer lived, worked and painted in the newly liberated Dutch Republic after an eighty-year struggle for sovereignty, cultural freedom and national identity against Spanish imperial rule. Andrew Graham-Dixon’s book describes in […]
December 20, 2025
Beyond the sentimental glitz, music and food, Christmas can be very unsettling. Now for the fourth time since Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, we are celebrating the Word of God becoming flesh as angels proclaimed peace on earth. So where is the peace? The idea of ‘immensity-confined’ in a human infant is itself mind-boggling and […]
December 13, 2025
‘Without justice’, wrote Augustine in City of God, ‘what are kingdoms but great bands of criminals?’ Recently the Vatican representative to the United Nations, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, reminded the General Assembly with these ancient words from the church father, adding that ‘no individual or group, regardless of his or her status, should claim the authority […]
December 6, 2025
Two sharply contrasting views of Europe surfaced this week, one from Washington, the other from Brussels. These two visions imply very different futures for Europe. And for the world. Both claim to defend values. Yet they arise from fundamentally different imaginations of what Europe is and what Europe ought to be. One was the US […]
