September 5, 2011
After booking a flight to New Zealand for probably my last visit with my ailing father, I ordered a BBC dvd series from the website of a secular Dutch newspaper to watch on my long journey. ‘Civilization’ by Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, which also appeared in book form earlier this year, is a sweeping, popular […]
August 29, 2011
A drive up through Denmark’s Jutland Peninsula a few days ago offered the opportunity to visit one of Europe’s most unique stone monuments. I was familiar with a copy of this stone on the Dom Square in Utrecht, Holland, a gift from the Danes to commemorate the 300th anniversary of that city’s university in 1936. […]
August 22, 2011
This is proving to be a full week of story-telling with weddings in Sweden and the Netherlands, plus a memorial service in Finland on Sunday. Such occasions are of course moments to share stories about individuals and families. And that stirs reflection on heritage, roots, identity and destiny–not only of the newly married or newly […]
August 15, 2011
Hitler despised Christianity because it was a ‘weak’ religion. Germany’s misfortune, he believed, was to have inherited a religion that preached love for one’s enemies. In the real world, 'only the fittest and the strongest survived'. Yet he, like many others throughout history, underestimated the strength of the way of Jesus. For one lesson to […]
August 8, 2011
Frank Buchman, who died 50 years ago this week, was a man whose active life was built on one thing: Guidance. This was one of many affectionate reminiscences recalled about the founder of the influential Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement – today known as Initiatives of Change – at a commemoration event in Switzerland on Sunday […]
August 1, 2011
Ramadan begins today for millions of Muslims around the world. And for millions of Christians, that means the start of the 20th edition of ‘30-days’ prayer for the Muslim world. Although initiated in 1993, this year is the 20th ’30-Days’ prayer season rather than the 19th, as Ramadan is based on the lunar, not the […]
July 25, 2011
Last week, Kalevi Lehtinen, one of Europe’s leading evangelists, passed away after a fall while jogging near his home in southern Germany. The son of a Finnish Olympic 5000 metre champion, Kalevi kept up his life-long habit of running right to the finish. Knocked unconscious by his fall, he was taken to Freiburg Hospital where […]
July 18, 2011
Three weeks ago, as we set out from Holland on the Heritage Tour, a document was presented in Geneva which, given what we would observe on the tour, can truly be called remarkable and historic. While our pilgrimage focused on those creative minorities faithful to the teachings and example of Jesus through the centuries, we […]
July 11, 2011
The 2011 Heritage Tour ended this weekend after a visit to Worms, famous for Luther’s trial, and a delightful drive along the Rhine where we encountered yet another outstanding woman who counselled and reprimanded popes and emperors– the formidable figure of Hildegard of Bingen. This gifted and prodigious abbess was the last of a number […]
July 4, 2011
Halfway through the Heritage Tour, our travelling band of modern-day pilgrims is enjoying a pause in our travel as we spend the weekend in Herrnhut. Reflecting on the many people, places and movements we have encountered over the past seven days, numerous women stand out in their significant contribution to history. • Brigid of Kildare […]
June 27, 2011
As we climbed the red-carpeted steps to enter the Parliamentary Palace in Bucharest, Romania, I had no inkling of the shocking realities I would learn about inside. Along with other delegates to a symposium on the freedom of conscience and faith, I passed through the security check to enter a cavernous lobby with marble pllars, […]
June 20, 2011
Europe could potentially show the world the way forward on one of the most pressing questions of our time: How do we live with differences, especially when these ideas are religious or ideological? That is the view of well-known speaker and author, Os Guinness who told his audience at the inaugural State of Europe Forum […]
