September 20, 2025
Amsterdammers travelling on the tram through the ‘old-west’ part of town become familiar with streets named after poets, writers and activists including Bilderdijk, da Costa, de Clercq and van Lennep. Few however know that these are the names of an influential circle of friends who fathered a spiritual awakening in 19th century Amsterdam, the Réveil […]
September 13, 2025
Last week we attempted to tell the story of Amsterdam around events unfolding on the Dam over nine centuries. In the heart of the city, we went in search of the soul of the city – that which animated the city, gave it life, values and meaning. But there is a back story to Amsterdam’s […]
September 6, 2025
Today on the Dam Square in the heart of Amsterdam, various city churches are joining in a Jesus Celebration to mark Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary. For in 1275, Amsterdam was first officially recognised by the granting of toll privileges. A Jesus March, a boat parade through the canals with worshipping bands from different congregations, and a […]
September 2, 2025
In the last Weekly Word I promised – for those interested – to send these links and summaries of the writings of two Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church metropolitans, Andre Sheptytsky (1865-1944) and Sviatoslav Shevchuk (1970- ). I. A brief history of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) • Origins (10th–16th century): Christianity came to Kyivan […]
August 30, 2025
Despite the relative quiet of the skies over Kyiv last weekend, reminders were everywhere that Ukraine was a country under ruthless attack standing on the frontline of the global struggle for freedom. Billboards along the roads and notices in public toilets recruited for army regiments. Photo displays in public parks reminded passers-by of those killed […]
August 23, 2025
How much do we value the independence of our nation? Most of us in western nations take independence for granted. We’ve never known anything else. But tomorrow Ukrainians will be celebrating their 34th anniversary of breaking from the Soviet Union with deep gratitude. Gratitude to God, and for their loved ones who have given their […]
August 16, 2025
The disturbing spectre of two self-styled ‘strongmen’ meeting in Alaska to discuss the fate of Ukraine suggests they both want to turn the clock back to the pre-1848 world order. Trump and Putin seem to want to pull the world back toward a pre-1848 style of governance when constitutions were seen as dangerous concessions to […]
August 9, 2025
We humans are wired for the future. As Alexander Pope’s immortal line puts it: ‘hope springs eternal in the human breast’. Which resonates with Ecclesiastes 3:11: God has ‘set eternity in the human heart.’ We long for what we were made for: a world without pain, a reality without injustice, relationships without betrayal, creation without […]
August 2, 2025
Ukraine’s Struggle for Historical Sovereignty History is not merely a record of the past—it is a battleground of meaning. For Ukraine, the struggle over historical truth is more than academic. It is existential. Memory itself is a contested space—one where empires fight to control not only borders, but narratives. Where Stalin rewrote Ukraine’s past to […]
July 25, 2025
(The third in a series of four addressing the persistent Russian efforts to hijack Ukraine’s history.) If the Holodomor—the engineered famine of 1932–33—was Stalin’s attempt to break Ukraine’s body, then his campaign against Ukrainian culture, faith, and language was a calculated effort to annihilate its spirit. The deliberate, systematic erasure of a people’s soul was […]
July 20, 2025
(WeeklyWord extra: the second in a series of four on Ukraine’s hijacked history) By any measure, the Holodomor stands among the most horrifying atrocities of the 20th century. From 1932 to 1933, a man-made famine orchestrated by Stalin’s Soviet regime killed an estimated 3.5 to 5 million Ukrainians. It was not the result of drought […]
July 19, 2025
Escalated Russian aggression ‘emboldened by the silence and inaction of powerful global actors’, prompted leaders of Ukrainian faith networks to make ‘a desperate cry’ for support and solidarity to faith network leaders of churches and organisations in Europe and beyond during a Global Interfaith online meeting on Thursday*. Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant voices echoed the […]
