October 23, 2017
The Reformation, triggered 500 years ago next week by Martin Luther’s publication of objections to practices of his own Roman Catholic Church, is being commemorated in surprising places. In Budapest, capital of a predominantly Catholic Hungary, 95 square-shaped concrete tablets representing Luther’s 95 Theses have been laid in Calvin Square, each featuring a pair of […]
October 16, 2017
Something was puzzling the delegation of Ukrainian denominational leaders and politicians I met with last week in Strasbourg to consider the impact of 500 years of the Reformation. They were visiting the city as their president, Petro Poroshenko, was addressing the Council of Europe and unveiling a bronze monument to the ‘Heavenly Hundred’ who were […]
October 9, 2017
A very divided Spain is facing a serious constitutional crisis which could lead to the end of that nation as we know it. From a distance, it can be hard to know which side to support: the struggle of the ‘underdog’ Catalonia to free itself from ‘oppressive’ control from Madrid, or a ‘legitimate national parliamentary […]
October 2, 2017
Rowan Williams, the former Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking in The Netherlands on Monday warned about the failure of mass democracy, as the German election results signalled the return of neo-nazis to the Bundestag for the first time since World War Two. “I don’t believe we are on the verge of a resurgent fascism,” I […]
September 25, 2017
The Dutch have a saying that ‘God made the earth but the Dutch made Holland’. And not without reason. Their bold engineering projects have pushed back the sea to create space for farms, houses and cities. Yet The Netherlands is not the single-handed creation of the Dutch. Centuries of interaction with peoples far and near […]
September 18, 2017
Germany is expected to choose Angela Merkel for a fourth term of office as chancellor at the polls this weekend. The unknown factor is who will be her coalition partner(s): the Greens, the Liberals or the Socialists. To prepare for the elections, a church near Hamburg invited Romkje and myself this past weekend to talk […]
September 11, 2017
The two great European rivers, the Rhine and the Danube, have been a natural barrier across the continent through the centuries from the Black Sea to the North Sea. They formed the north-eastern frontier of the Roman empire, safeguarding ‘civilisation’ from ‘barbarism’, until its disintegration early in the fifth century. As guests of a group […]
September 4, 2017
What are we hoping for? and why? Followers of Jesus are people of hope, pregnant with the future. But what is it that we are expecting? As Tom Wright asks as he opens his book Surprised by hope: What are we waiting for? And why can we be confident about these expectations? In the meditation […]
August 28, 2017
For most Dutch people today, he is a forgotten figure. For others he is either despised or admired. Yet he was undoubtably one of the fathers of The Netherlands today. As educationalist, politician, prime minister, journalist and theologian, Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) has left an imprint on Dutch churches, schools, media and politics visible even a […]
August 21, 2017
Across the road from the YWAM centre De Poort on the Amsterdam harbourfront, and next door to the shipping museum, is the long red-brick former admiralty building. A large bronze plaque can be seen on the building from the windows of De Poort, where we held the Masterclass in European Studies earlier this month. Closer […]
August 14, 2017
What communication bridges can we find in our surroundings to engage with fellow Europeans about key life issues? Each year in our masterclass in Geneva, Brussels or Amsterdam–we have tried to discover connections of interest to the non-religious. ‘Paradox’ was our theme this year, as we wrote about last week and began exploring a few […]
August 8, 2017
Sounds of the preparation for the Pride Parade in Amsterdam drifted up to us from five storeys below. On our last day of the Masterclass in European Studies, we had gathered on Saturday morning in the prayer tower of the YWAM facility De Poort. Looking out on a magnificent city skyline encircling us, we could […]
