January 9, 2012
Last Friday was Epiphany, the day on the Church calendar marking the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus, and thus the revelation of the Christ to the Gentiles. A good day therefore for an ‘epiphany’–a revelation–about the new year. I was leading a group of students on a historical walk through old Amsterdam […]
December 19, 2011
George Frederick Handel could never have dreamed that his ‘Messiah’ would become a worldwide phenomenon, performed in thousands of concert halls, churches and auditoriums every Christmas, and enjoyed by millions more via radio, television and countless recordings. Europe may well have become the most secularised continent in the world but Advent still continues to draw […]
December 12, 2011
No one can safely predict what the long term fallout will be from last week’s European summit in Brussels. Some hail David Cameron’s ‘No’ to the EU as a heroic parallel to Henry VIII’s snub to Rome, endorsing the Reformation in England. Others fear Britain will have to re-learn the costly lesson of the sixties […]
December 5, 2011
Christians had a special responsibility in moments such as Europe’s current crisis, President Jerzy Buzek of the European Parliament told participants of the European Prayer Breakfast in Brussels last week. Today’s crisis was one of values, not economics, he added. Material development had not been accompanied by spiritual development. Yet competitiveness needed justice. Jobs needed […]
November 28, 2011
One of the signs of hope in a rather gloomy Europe is a growing grass-roots ecumenism of the heart. Never in the last millennium has there been so much positive interaction among Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox believers in Europe. The European landscape has been shaped since 1054 by the Great Schism between the Greek and […]
November 21, 2011
This week I read what the global ‘Occupy’ movement is really all about. It’s basically a global mourning for three iconic figures: Steve Jobs, Johnny Cash and Bob Hope. Their deaths have left us in a world with no Jobs, no Cash and no Hope! Okay, so maybe we need to dig a little deeper […]
November 14, 2011
Europe’s financial crises continued this past week, fueling further speculation about the breakup of the Eurozone, if not of the whole European Union. One sign carried by the ‘occupy’ protestors raised the pertinent question: is the game over? Back in 1992, the retiring president of the European Commission, Jacques Delors (pictured), challenged religious leaders […]
November 7, 2011
The world holds its breath as European leaders attempt to address the financial crises embroiling Greece, Italy and the Euro. For what happens in Europe affects the rest of the world. That is true in the spiritual sense too. And that makes Europe a most strategic mission field. Sometimes I hear of missionaries in Europe […]
October 31, 2011
Last week I went to hell and back. Well, close enough to get a glimpse. With a class of Pioneering and Leadership Development students, I drove out from Krakow to visit Auschwitz for the first time. I had been to Dachau many times on the Heritage Tour, and couldn’t imagine a worse place. But […]
October 24, 2011
My heart sank as I saw the speaking schedule. I was to lead a seminar at the Latvian Teachers Conference in Riga while the most important rugby match ever was to be played between New Zealand and France on the other side of the world!! Fortunately I would be able to follow the first half […]
October 19, 2011
Among the responses to this week’s ‘ww’ about the contribution the Copts have made to civilisation and Christianity in Europe was the following from a reader in Egypt: As a resident of Alexandria I am close to some of what happened during this annus horribilis for the Copts here in Egypt. I had and have […]
October 17, 2011
Europe owes an enormous debt to the Copts, a people who have been thrust into headlines recently by violence in Egypt. But for most of us Europeans, they and their ancient oriental church exist on the periphery of our awareness. Yet the Copts outnumber the Swiss. The Arab Spring in Egypt has turned nasty. Authorities […]
