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 […]
October 10, 2011
Largely unnoticed on the continent, the English-speaking world has this year been celebrating the 400th anniversary of the most influential version of any book in its whole history: the King James Bible. Books published especially to coincide with this anniversary include–just to name three–The book of books, by Lord Melvyn Bragg, The book that made […]
October 3, 2011
The Kashmiri meal of lamb, spinach and rice was served in fry pans placed straight on the table in the restaurant in Bury Park, Luton. Across the table was my old friend Pete who had just given me a tour of what The Independent calls ‘the epicentre of the global clash of civilisations’. Luton is […]
September 26, 2011
The headlines in the pile of newspapers waiting on my return to Europe were remarkably similar to those when I left a month ago. Greece totters on the verge of bankrupcy. The Euro staggers under the weight of shaky economies including Greece, Italy and Spain, let alone the global financial climate. And the European Union […]
September 19, 2011
Exactly a week ago as I write this, Wyn Fountain, my dad, passed ‘through eternity’s gate’. This past week has been a rich, sometimes emotional but often joyful, farewell to our father who taught us many lessons about how to live. He taught us how to finish strongly. His last lesson was about how to […]
September 12, 2011
Vincent van Gogh, an artist widely misunderstood by secular critics, never abandoned his respect for the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ. He continued to the end to believe in the reward of an afterlife for those who had suffered the earthly journey of faith. A lithograph and a painting of an old man […]
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 […]
