Weekly Word: 2007 Archives
Sometimes I think the Pope must be reading my mail! Recently I suggested in an editorial for HOPE magazine that a good companion volume to Benedict's book, Without Roots, would be Without Hope. The first book portrayed a Europe that...
When Liviu Mocan went to renew his driver’s license sometime after 9/11, the city official behind the desk began to panic. For the sculptor’s swarthy complexion and grey-flecked bushy beard gave him a remarkable resemblance to the world’s most wanted...
“As a climate scientist who has worked on this issue for several decades, first as head of the Met Office, and then as co-chair of scientific assessment for the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change, the impacts of global warming...
Can Tolerance and Christianity go together? Many outside the church view Christianity as the root cause of much intolerance in Europe, while many believers see tolerance as a mark of our relativistic society! How can those committed to Biblical absolutes...
Last week I had my chance to find out why churches in England have taken seriously the challenge of our spiritual age in ways not yet obvious elsewhere in Europe. A few weeks ago I shared how puzzled I was...
Question: If you and I had lived during the centuries of the African slave trade, would we have been among the minority of Christians who tried to do something to stop the inhumane and cruel trafficking of humans? Or would...
A Thugz Church?! Not in their wildest dreams had Youth for Christ workers in Rotterdam thought of a fellowship for ex-criminals when they set out to create a safe place for urban youth a few years ago. But last week...
We’re coming up to our annual puzzle event. This will be the third year we hold an event to help equip the church for the spiritual age in which we live. It's the Evangelism in a New Age consultation, in...
Think for a moment of how many types of prayer initiatives there have been in recent years. Right now, for example, we are in the middle of the Ramadan prayer season for the Muslim world. Has there ever been a...
Posters pasted around Dutch cities this month invite non-Muslims to join muslim families for the Iftar (evening) meal during Ramadan, after the sun has set. Today that is at 19.39 in Holland. The daily fast is slowly broken with a...
My wife and I joined the crowds thronging towards the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam on Saturday evening to celebrate 100 years of the pentecostal movement in The Netherlands. We looked forward to an inspiring concert by Sydney-based Hillsong United and...
Weekly Word resumes again after a summer break, during which I was involved in YWAM leadership events in Korea and India. Travel in that most populated region of the world offered perspectives on Europe I plan to share over the...
Strains of harp music wafted into my waking consciousness early this morning. Through half-opened eyes, I became aware of lush green fields and trees, and mountains enveloped in clouds. Perhaps I was in Heaven already? But no. This was the...
Seen from our outdoor classroom, the summer snow on the Bernese Alps sparkled against the cloudless azure sky. A vintage paddle steamer plied the pale blue waters of Lake Thun through a fleet of bobbing white sails. Faint sounds of...
'Now I understand why the French didn't want to acknowledge God in the EU constitution!' said Corrie as we emerged from the Reformation Museum in Geneva. 'All those terrible religious wars!' Corrie and her fellow travellers had been studying the...
One of the biggest surprise discoveries so far on this year's Heritage trip-and there have been several-was that of the vital and diverse Francke Foundations in the Eastern German city of Halle. I had taught about Halle for decades-as a...
Amsterdam was paying tribute this weekend to a woman whom one paper called a 'figurehead of goodness', as we started our four-week Summer School of European Studies in the city. In a funeral service carried on national television, attended by...
So, the powers-that-be have settled on a new European treaty that will not be called a constitution. Good. That means we are not forced to have a European constitution that ignores God and the Judaic-Christian heritage. What we do have...
When I was a teenager, my brother gave me for my birthday a book of fifty-five sermons by John Wesley. Now most teenagers would have thought such a gift to be a joke, and responded with: 'Just wait till your...
The oft-quoted saying-'In essentials, Unity; in non-essentials, Liberty; in all things, Charity'-has been attributed wrongly to various well-known historical figures, including St Augustine and melanchthon, Luther's colleague, and John Wesley. Last week I wrote about the Together for Europe event...
A growing ecumenism of the heart is clearly one of the signs of hope in Europe today. This was demonstrated most tangibly among the 2000 leaders from 240 European movements and communities who gathered in Stuttgart at Miteinander für Europa...
In the face of the torture and murder of three Christians this past month in Malatya, we must offer the Turkish people the same trust asked of them during the Reconciliation Walk, writes Matthew Hand, a specialist in Turkish history....
‘Mummy, did the world ever forgive Germany?’ asked Zsusanna’s eight-year-old son. He had been watching Discovery Channel programmes on the Second World War. ‘Yes, of course,’ his mother replied. ‘Then they’ll also forgive us Serbs, won’t they?’ he said with...
Europe needs three-dimensional people: rooted in the past, anticipating the future, yet living in the present. Such are People of Hope. For hope is founded on the past, focussed on the future and fleshed out in the present. Three-dimensional Europeans...
The sixth of a series from Paul’s time to today via the Moravian church, in preparation for the Festival of the Nations in Herrnhut, May 25-28, 2007 ‘The winds roared round about us, and whistled as distinctly as if it...
The fifth of a series from Paul’s time to today via the Moravian church, in preparation for the Festival of the Nations in Herrnhut, May 25-28, 2007 As the year 1727 opened, the little town of Herrnhut was a nest...
The fourth of a series from Paul’s time to today via the Moravian church, in preparation for the Festival of the Nations in Herrnhut, May 25-28, 2007 In the back streets of the small Dutch town of Naarden, twenty minutes'...
The third of a series from Paul's time to today via the Moravian church, in preparation for the Festival of the Nations in Herrnhut, May 25-28, 2007 The crowd packed into the Bethlehem Chapel listened in rapt silence to the...
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
KEYWORDS:
Here we go again! And we'd love you to come too! My wife Romkje and I will be hosting another 'Share the Heritage' Trip this summer, June 30 through to July 14. We'll travel by bus from Amsterdam to Geneva,...
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
KEYWORDS:
-----
KEYWORDS: