May 9, 2011
Today is Europe’s birthday! And she’s only 61 years young. At least, that’s according to the decision of EU leaders meeting in Milan in 1985, when they decided to recognise this day as the birth of the movement that has led to the current EU. However, this birthday remains one of Europe’s best kept secrets. […]
May 2, 2011
The past few weeks in our office have been very intense with final preparations for the HOPE•II congress starting next Monday. Weekly Word has been hedged out by printer’s and other deadlines. However, those registered for the congress have for the past three weeks been receiving a Daily Hope meditation, written by Dr Thomas Schirrmacher […]
April 11, 2011
As we approach Easter, one of the greatest musical works ever composed will be performed by countless choirs and orchestras to sold-out audiences in churches and concert halls across Europe. For the performance of Johan Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion is one of the highlights of the European social calendar. In Holland, for example, leading […]
April 4, 2011
It’s kind of like a spiritual chaos theory. You burn a Koran in Florida and a violent storm erupts in Afghanistan, Pakistan or other Muslim lands. Or you publish a cartoon in Denmark, make a film in Holland or deliver a speech in Regensburg… Last week’s burning of the Koran in America was not the […]
March 28, 2011
One of my father’s books I brought back from New Zealand recently was a well-read and tattered volume he inherited fom his own father. I remember as a kid seeing the title in the family bookcase but doubt if I connected the name with the Wesleyan Chapel where I first went to kindergarten, as seen […]
March 21, 2011
The unprecedented uprisings across North Africa demonstrate the power of the new media like Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. The unrest has swept a wave of anxiety through non-democratic governments, causing them to shut down access to the new media, via which the people can vent pent-up frustrations at injustice and corruption. In Holland […]
March 14, 2011
The surrealistic scenes from Japan we have been watching on our screens, hard on the heels of the Christchurch disaster, seem simply apocalyptic–even from the ‘safe’ distance of Europe. Although the experts tell us there is no natural connection between the earthquakes of the last two weeks and the Shinmoedake volcano now erupting in the […]
March 7, 2011
One of the biggest challenges we face in Europe today is how to bring religious and secular Europeans together, with clashing systems of belief, into a cohesive and harmonious society. How can we shape a society that respects cultural and religious diversity yet promotes civic equality, social cohesion and a sense of the common good? […]
February 28, 2011
The whole nation of New Zealand is climbing out from under the rubble emotionally as Romkje and I return to Europe. Among the relatively small population of around four million spread over a land the length of Italy, almost everybody has family or friends affected by the devastating earthquake which shook the nation’s second largest […]
Warren Carter, convenor of the Hope for Europe prayer network, died in Salzburg hospital on February 14, six days after sustaining brain injuries in ski accident. While giving ski lessons to his son and other children, he slipped and hit his head against a concrete beam. Aged 59, he was father(-in-law) to Jonathan (13) and […]
February 21, 2011
The first decade of the new millennium has produced several cross-currents that are buffeting our world, overturning old orders and creating new realities. As we attempt to ‘understand the times and know what Israel should do’ in the coming decade, we are reminded that there is only one unshakeable kingdom, and that everything not based […]
February 14, 2011
Everybody knows its Valentine’s Day today, but who knows who Valentine was? And how did his name get linked with the global day of romantic celebration? Several martyred saints in ancient Rome were named Valentine. Little is actually known about the one whose feast day is February 14 except that he was buried on that […]
