November 12, 2022
He was a soldier whose name derived from the Roman god of war, Mars. Yet for over sixteen centuries, his name has stood for mercy and compassion. Last night across Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands, processions of children carrying lanterns commemorated this man of compassion, singing songs and expecting rewards of sweets as they […]
November 5, 2022
Today is graduation day in Birmingham for the masters students completing our European studies programme, alongside other electives. Can you picture yourself in a gown and mortar board in the not-too-distant future? Most of those graduating today are already involved in some kind of ministry or professional work. Of course, the mortar board and the letters […]
October 29, 2022
Religion is toxic. Spirituality is cool. How often have we heard people say: ‘I’m not religious but I am spiritual’? Perhaps we even express it ourselves. Theologians like Karl Barth (‘religion is an inherently faithless endeavour’) and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (‘religionless Christianity’) also decried religion as a pale substitute for true spirituality. Abraham Kuyper therefore sounds […]
October 22, 2022
What makes a series of lectures – delivered by a Dutch clergyman late in the 19th century to an audience of a mere forty listeners in an American seminary – relevant to global readers in the 21st century? What did this man – with a ‘gift’ of alienating his most loyal supporters, branded as a […]
October 15, 2022
What a week! It started last Saturday with a huge bang and a ball of fire as part of the Kerch Bridge between Russia and Crimea blew up. A 70th birthday gift to President Putin from the Ukrainians? The Kremlin quickly circulated a story about a lorry blowing up, but closer inspection of video footage […]
October 8, 2022
Peter exhorts us always to be ready to give a reason for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15). So how could I refuse when I was asked to share my hope at the opening session of the Hope for Europe congress in Sarajevo this week? To be honest, neither the setting of the congress […]
October 1, 2022
Brother Andrew – known in his home country by his real name, Anne van de Bijl – was always an outlier, going against the stream. When Russian tanks headed west towards Prague in 1968, he headed east with a car full of Bibles. When communist regimes collapsed and everyone was focused on Central and Eastern […]
September 17, 2022
As the equinox approaches, the days are getting shorter, darker and cooler here in the northern hemisphere. Summer vacations are over. The new academic and political years have begun. What then is on the calendar for the Schuman Centre? • The Marriage Course: This week Romkje and I hosted the first of seven evening sessions […]
September 10, 2022
Perhaps you expected ‘Thank you Liz’ this week, following on from last week’s ‘Thank you Gorbi’. But there’s no shortage of media tributes to Britain’s truly exceptional monarch. So here’s another story which spanned over half her long reign. Last week closed a forty-year chapter which began with a meeting with squatters occupying an old […]
September 3, 2022
We must pause to jog our memories about the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev with his passing this week and his burial ceremony in Moscow today. For his was an essential role in the events that led to the fall of communism and the Soviet Union a generation ago – and consequently the reunification of Germany, […]
August 27, 2022
“(Russia) is in great measure composed of spoils which she has torn from surrounding nations. Her frontier provinces are filled with injured, discontented hostile populations … many of whom wait, with patience and desire, the blessed day of emancipation and revenge.” – The Economist This quote from the venerable British journal is dated 1854 – […]
August 20, 2022
Ever since Noah’s ark, ships and boats have always featured in God’s mission to rescue humanity. Ships carried Paul to Europe on his missionary trips, firstly to Greece, later to Malta and Rome. The completion of the Great Commission requires reaching all tribes and every people group, from the remotest reaches of the Amazon to […]
