April 19, 2025
Three years ago, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a mere three weeks old when a performance of Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion took on new dimensions of pathos for me. I wrote then that the parallel of the false accusations, lies and unjustified suffering inflicted on Jesus with the unjust suffering of millions of innocent […]
April 12, 2025
Some came from Balkan societies where war memories are still fresh. Others were studying in Bucha, Ukraine, where just three years ago over 500 civilians and prisoners of war were butchered by Russian invaders. They were among the mainly eastern and central Europe students attending a conference held in a Dutch monastery this week on […]
April 5, 2025
Germans, Poles and Ukrainians have had to work hard on forgiveness and reconciliation since World War Two. As a German now working in Poland, Fr. Manfred Deselaers has devoted much of his life to German-Polish reconciliation and Christian-Jewish dialogue at the Centre for Dialogue and Prayer in Auschwitz. From this experience, and in an effort ‘to […]
March 29, 2025
‘The monastic era is a page of European history best quickly skipped over.’ At least, that is the attitude of many protestants and evangelicals towards a movement that was dissolved by Protestant rulers like Henry VIII to make way for the Reformation. Monasteries were reputed to be places of corruption and hypocrisy, wealth and worldliness, […]
March 22, 2025
When global developments or personal difficulties cloud our perspectives, it helps to step back and reflect on our wondrous existence and God’s sustaining grace. We can easily lose sight of how much we are surrounded by wonders and improbabilites, and of how we are being constantly upheld by God’s sustaining grace. The beauty of flowers, […]
March 15, 2025
One of Amsterdam’s best kept secrets is how the city was first put on the European map in the 14th century through a miracle. While many Amsterdammers know nothing about this event, for Dutch Catholics it is no secret. In fact, tonight, after midnight, 7000 of them from all over the Netherlands will be walking […]
March 8, 2025
In twenty-four years of writing Weekly Word, this week’s edition is for me the saddest. The events of the past days and weeks are forcing us to face new realities. The America with which all post-war generations have grown up – symbolised by the Statue of Liberty welcoming the world’s ‘tired, poor, homeless, huddled masses […]
March 1, 2025
History really does matter. History gives us perspective and understanding on where we have come from, who we are and where we are going. History puts wise heads on young shoulders. The Bible takes history very seriously – unlike all other sacred writings. In fact, the Bible is the source of our western understanding of […]
February 22, 2025
Neville Chamberlain looked ominously down on us from his larger-than-life portrait above the mantelpiece in a posh London gentlemen’s club last Saturday. Chamberlain??!! Frankly I was already out of my comfort zone in the elite neighbourhood of Buckingham Palace. But I had agreed to attend a gathering of invited leaders from all continents discussing strategy […]
February 15, 2025
On behalf of the Polish Christian Forum and the European Evangelical Alliance prayer network, the Schuman Centre invites you participate in Warsaw with others from various backgrounds and disciplines across Europe in the STATE OF EUROPE FORUM on May 9th and 10th this year. Daily headlines declare unprecedented and alarming developments in world affairs so […]
February 8, 2025
How historians will view these last two weeks of chaos and turbulence following the inauguration of the new presidential regime in America is too early to say. What is already clear is that something unprecedented in US history is happening. What is not yet clear is if American institutions of democracy and law, and the […]
February 1, 2025
The list is long of prophets and spiritual leaders who dared to speak the truth to rulers who crossed God-ordained thresholds – often at great cost. Their examples should embolden us today to be ready to speak out, and not to bow to power like compliant chaplains, especially when those leaders claim to be defending […]
