August 5, 2002
Headlines in De Telegraaf last week screamed with bold, underlined letters: “Half city youth of foreign origin“. The opening paragraph explained that more than half of all children under the age of fifteen in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague was from foreign extraction, and that the proportion would increase in the coming years. Fear […]
July 29, 2002
Britain last week was in the grip of ‘Big Brother’ television – judging from the tabloid headlines and opportunistic books I saw on sale in the railway stations and airports, passing through on a quick visit. Until recent years, the term ‘Big Brother’ conjured up George Orwell’s famous novel. ‘1984’ was a futuristic scenario of […]
July 22, 2002
Phrases such as ‘good and evil’, ‘moral standards’ and ‘norms and values’ are sprinkled throughout the financial pages of the newspapers these days. The headline in the economic section of one of Holland’s leading papers this weekend read: “Capitalism has gone beyond good and evil”. Bookkeeping scandals in big business have provoked a great discussion […]
July 15, 2002
I was leafing through a book on ‘chaos theory’ in a library once, and discovered one of those yellow ‘post-it’-stickers marking a page in the middle. Scribbled on the sticker was: “Come back later – mind is beginning to boggle”. (‘Chaos theory’ is about the interconnectedness of everything, so that when a butterfly flaps its […]
July 8, 2002
Fold a map of Russia in two and right in the crease you’ll find Krasnoyarsk, deep in the heart of Siberia. From Holland, it is as far to the east as Chicago is to the west – six time zones away. Russia is truly huge! The very name Siberia conjures up images of gulags, isolation, […]
July 1, 2002
An amazing story about a town in Switzerland has come to my attention relating to Coptic Christianity. Two weeks ago, I wrote about Coptic influence on Europe. I referred to St Maurice as a “messenger to Switzerland where today a town bears his name”. Tom Bloomer wrote to suggest that St. Maurice was more than […]
June 24, 2002
Last week we described a trip out into Egypt’s western desert and discovered oases of spiritual life that inspired many dramatic conversions and transformations. We were left with the question, what was it about fourth century Coptic spirituality that was so attractive to our spiritual forefathers in Europe? Frankly, some of these early monks’ attempts […]
June 17, 2002
The giant pyramids faded away behind us as we headed out into Egypt’s western desert. Before us, huge advertising hoardings lined the four-lane highway from Cairo to Alexandria, signs of the all-pervasive globalisation. No signs however prepared us for the discovery we were soon to make about the surprising streams of spiritual life that had […]
June 10, 2002
“Eating soup with a fork is just like kissing,” said Corrie ten Boom one day over lunch . Surprised by this spontaneous remark from an old spinster, Romkje looked up from her bowl of soup. She saw the twinkle in Corrie’s eye and realised she was being tested for her sense of humour as the […]
June 3, 2002
After the busy-ness of HOPE.21 and my recent visit to the Caucasus, Romkje and I have just spent a couple of days of relaxation and reflection in the Dutch Alps (highest elevation, 327 metres). In other words, we were staying in the beautiful rolling countryside of Limburg, where Holland, Belgium and Germany meet. In a […]
May 27, 2002
Our crowded minibus hurtled towards the capital of Armenia when suddenly the snowy peaks of Mt Ararat loomed over the crest of the road. Excited chatter burst out among our fellow passengers returning home from Georgia. The clear weather made the mountain appear exceptionally close. Just 50 kilometres from the capital, the five kilometre high […]
May 20, 2002
You’re in good company if you’re not sure where Georgia is (no, not Jimmy Carter’s state, but the former Soviet Union republic in the Caucasus). Henry Kissinger had to ask the Soviet Union’s foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze the same question once. Shevardnadze, now Georgia’s president, is one of this small nation’s two most famous sons […]
