May 27, 2019
What would Victor Hugo have made of this weekend’s European elections? The great French author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables belonged to a long line of thinkers and visionaries stretching back to William Penn (who proposed a European Parliament as early as 1693), who foresaw the day when the nations of […]
May 22, 2019
What if the European Parliament got bogged down with the same kind of impasse we have seen recently in Westminster? This could be the outcome of this week’s European parliament elections, probably the most crucial in the forty years of the parliament’s existence. Much is at stake in this decisive phase of Europe’s future. Brexit […]
May 13, 2019
“Without its Christian identity, the European Union represents nothing more than a supranational bureaucratic framework from which an increasingly large number of European nation-states feel estranged.” In clear, direct language, the audience in the imposing Patriarchal Palace in Bucharest heard the former Romanian ambassador to the Vatican, Paris and Lisbon open this year’s State of […]
May 6, 2019
Thursday this week is Europe Day, May 9, a day to celebrate our belonging to a family of peoples which have lived together in peace for an unprecedented 74 years. With our Schuman Centre colleagues in Romania, we will hold a Europe Day Celebration in the Patriarchal Palace, Bucharest, on Thursday at 19.30. Dr Teodor […]
April 30, 2019
This last weekend was Easter, again – at least in Orthodox Europe and other Eastern Churches. And the Orthodox really know how to celebrate Easter in grand style. In Romania last week, I happened to be passing the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest after talking through logistics at the Patriarchal Palace where we will hold next […]
April 22, 2019
“The Christian faith is all about death… and resurrection!” That memorable take-away from Philip Jenkins’ excellent book on Europe, God’s Continent, continues to stir my hope for this part of our world which has been most shaped by the story of Jesus–and by its rejection. For the Easter message we have been commemorating this weekend […]
April 15, 2019
So, the Brexit argument is going to drag on for another six months – to Halloween, or Reformers Day, if you like. Will it be trick or treat? Will it lead to a new reformation of Britain? No-one knows right now. But I do wonder how much the Brexit referendum was shaped by the considerable […]
April 8, 2019
A spiritual faultline meandering from the Barents Sea in the north to the Mediterranean in the south has produced a tragic legacy in European history. To understand Europe today requires an awareness of the causes of this faultline and its repeated aggravations through the centuries. To heal this sad rupture is beyond the competence of […]
April 1, 2019
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance – Eccl. 3:4 It was a time to weep and mourn last Friday in Hagley Park, Christchurch, when the National Remembrance Service was held for the 50 victims of the white supremacy terror attack, which took place […]
March 25, 2019
Have you ever visited Romania? If not, let me warmly invite you to Bucharest this May 9 & 10, to participate in the State of Europe Forum. Every western European should sometime make the effort to visit eastern European countries to better understand our fellow Europeans. If so, then of course you will want to […]
March 18, 2019
The world suddenly shrunk on Friday. Events in a far-away peaceful corner of the world shocked the global community. Distant idyllic New Zealand–‘Godzone’–had been wrenched into a world of violence usually only experienced by Kiwis on their television screens. In a rare moment of international solidarity, both the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building […]
March 11, 2019
Europeans cannot get away from the cross. Although through familiarity we have become blind to the cross and the startling message it carries, it can be seen almost everywhere. Take a look around. We see it on many national flags, national sports clothing, as decorations around necks, on bikers’ leather jackets, on buildings, on church […]
