June 11, 2018
In Holland they used to say: One Dutchman, a theologian, two Dutchmen, a congregation, three Dutchmen, a split. Optimists added: Four Dutchmen, a revival. Over the four decades I have lived in the Netherlands, much has changed. Just how much I discovered this past week when Romkje and I participated in a National Christian Forum […]
June 4, 2018
‘We cannot aim at anything less than the union of Europe as a whole.’ These emphatic words–we may be surprised to learn–were pronounced by Sir Winston Churchill at the Congress of Europe, held in The Hague in May, 1948. Representatives from many western European nations met together in the stately 13th century Ridderzaal (Hall of […]
May 28, 2018
Yesterday was Trinity Sunday on traditional church calendars, the first Sunday after Pentecost. For those of us from free church traditions, Trinitatis is not something we give much attention to. Much to our impoverishment. For a consciously Trinitarian approach to life and faith is essential for a balanced, all-rounded Christian lifestyle. And reflection on the […]
May 22, 2018
Pentecost reminds us that the end goal of God’s purposes in human history is the ingathering of a multi-lingual global church ‘from every tribe, language, people and nation’, as John writes in his Revelation (5:9). Pentecost saw the birth of this ‘rainbow’ church with the outpouring of the Spirit. Jews and converts, including Cretans and […]
May 14, 2018
Mothers in Europe are an endangered species. Maybe that sounds too hyperbolic. But when motherhood is no longer widely respected and birth rates are falling well below replacement rate, it seems that Europeans as a race have chosen to die out. Tomorrow’s Europe will be a continent of fewer and older people, an individualised and […]
May 7, 2018
Something is missing in our European calendars. Last Saturday evening the Dutch celebrated the end of World War Two with an open-air royal concert held on the Amstel River flowing through the heart of Amsterdam. It was a glorious balmy evening, and an appropriate commemoration proclaiming the message: Pass freedom on! Yet the end of […]
April 30, 2018
Two swallows don’t make a summer, says a Dutch proverb. Yet two recent Dutch books do perhaps signal a significant climate change concerning Christianity in Europe. One is written by the publisher of the successful spirituality magazine Happinez. As mentioned in an earlier weeklyword, Inez van Oord argues in her book Rebible that ‘we have […]
April 23, 2018
My visit last week to Kyiv in Ukraine was the first since the Maidan Revolution four years ago. Walking around Maidan (Independence) Square in the centre of Kyiv, I felt I was witnessing an unfinished drama still being played out on the historic border between east and west. Information boards and sculptures filled the square, […]
April 16, 2018
Where do we begin to help shape Europe’s future? Surely with our own children, suggest Laura and Elina, two of my Schuman associates. Shouldn’t we be encouraging our children to understand the Europe in which they are growing up? Shouldn’t we be equipping them to think about the kind of Europe they would like to […]
April 9, 2018
In exactly one month today it will be Europe Day, May 9. So what’s the big deal? you may ask, along with 99% of Europeans who could not tell you what that day stands for. But if you have been reading weekly words for any length of time, you will know my perspective that this […]
April 3, 2018
A television audience of over three million witnessed a double resurrection miracle via a modern rendition of The Passion story of Jesus played across the city of Amsterdam on the eve of Good Friday last week. Beginning atop the Amsterdam Tower on the north side of the IJ River, the storyline followed Jesus and his […]
March 26, 2018
With the approach of Easter, concert halls, cathedrals and churches all across Europe have been resonating with the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion, often considered the greatest musical work ever composed. Last Wednesday, March 21, Bach’s birthday was celebrated by radio programmes the world over (‘Happy Bach Day’) and by thousands of […]
