Chaplain's Letter
Next time you walk from the parsonage to the church have a careful look at the wall of the church just above the little circular part of the garden and just underneath the large "west" window, and you will see a rectangular stone tablet set into the brickwork. It has a carved inscription which reads as follows:-
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
This stone of Holy Trinity Church, was laid
by the Right Reverend Bishop Bury
of Northern and Central Europe
on the 9th November 1911
This foundation stone marks the beginning of the building of our church exactly one hundred years ago this month. The building of a new church was the dream of a small congregation of English speaking people who had been meeting for about thirty years for worship once a fortnight in the "Remonstrantsche kerk" and in other locations in the city like the "Marnixzaal" and the "Irene Hall". These services were led by visiting clergy from St Mary's Rotterdam, and by the chaplain from Christ Church Amsterdam, the Revd. J Chambers. The purchase of land and the building of a new church were made possible by the generosity of two families Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Bingham and Mr. and Mrs. J. Twiss Mr. Bingham came from England to take the post of director of the Hollandsche Rhijn Spoorweg Maatschappij, and Mr Twiss was British Vice Consul in Utrecht. The church was designed in a late neo-Gothic style by the Utrecht architect Peter Houtzagers, and took nearly a year to build. Services were started in the new building in November 1912, although there was as yet no parsonage or garden for coffee after worship! You must remember that the church was being built in what was then a new but elegant suburb of the ancient city at a time when Overvecht or Leidsche Rhijn were still fields and farmland. The really big event, the dedication of the new church, took place nearly a year after the first services, on the second of June 1913, and it is that event that we shall mark as the centenary of Holy Trinity in a couple of years time.
However we can't let the centenary of the laying of the foundation stone pass without having just a small celebration, to get us into the mood for our centenary in 2013. So on Sunday 13th November after our annual Remembrance day service at 10.30 we shall not hold our regular shared lunch, but we warmly invite you to come and give thanks for the laying of the foundation stone a hundred years ago, at a special service of Choral Evensong at 14.30, which will be followed by afternoon tea in the parsonage. And everyone really is welcome.
John de Wit
PRAYER CHAIN
If you have any requests for the prayer chain, or if you feel called to take part in this ministry, please contact Anne Miechielsen
BISHOP'S ADVENT APPEAL, 2011
My Advent Appeal this year is to support the work of the Friends of the Holy Land. This was established in 2009 to support the Christians in the Holy Land, and they work in close co-operation with the Christian Churches in the region and in the UK. The Friends of the Holy Land are entirely non-political and is carried out with the backing and blessing of Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops in England and Wales. The primary purpose of their work is to support Christians in the Holy Land, to enable them to maintain a minimum level of quality of life such that pressures to abandon their homeland are reduced. The Friends provide resources for small projects that make a big difference to Christians in the community, and the funds made available contribute to the sustainability of Christians (especially the most vulnerable) in the Holy Land.
The Friends objectives are as follows:
* To raise awareness of the challenges experienced by Christians in the Holy Land.
* To encourage prayer for their intentions.
* To generate and channel financial resources to provide a sustainable future.
* To encourage visits to the Holy Land to meet with local Christians.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has given his particular encouragement to support this initiative, which was launched at the General Synod last July, and I hope we may play our part in our giving this Advent as Christmas approaches and we celebrate again the coming of God among us in the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem. Further details may be found in the video which accompanied the Archbishop's address to the General Synod on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?y=dRM2aBM9_Q and in the accompanying newsletter from the Friends of the Holy Land which tells how you can support the Friends through this Advent Appeal. Please give generously as a response to the generosity of the God who loved us so much that at Bethlehem he came down to the lowest part of our need.
+GEOFFREY GIBRALTAR
From your editor.
I am not able to print out the newsletter for the Friends of the Holy Land here but if anyone would like a copy please contact the editor or Father John for a copy and we will be pleased to provide one.
Now from the Green Awareness Group.
E-Waste Revisited
Electrical and electronic equipment - and waste resulting from it - is part of daily life. In the previous article about WEEE a lot of information covered the duties of producers ( and distributors ). But users also have duties of care. Here is what the UKNetRegs Guidance advises businesses (and consumers may learn from it as well).
Before your business buys any new equipment, ask the following questions:
- Do you really need to buy a new product?
- Could you repair your existing unit?
- Can your existing device be upgraded?
- Could you buy refurbished equipment from another business (a friend)?
- If you must buy new equipment, look for a product that has been designed for easy recycling, uses resources efficiently, eg it has a low energy rating, has a low impact on the environment, eg it is made from recycled materials. This is, of course, sound advice, but I wonder whether I would be able to think of it during the nerve-wrecking process of buying new computer equipment.
Dealing with hazardous WEEE
It is useful to know that some waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is classified as hazardous waste. This includes WEEE that contains hazardous components or substances such as:
- polychlorinated biphenyls, eg in capacitors
- ozone-depleting substances, eg in fridges and freezers
- asbestos
- fluorescent tubes
- nickel cadmium batteries
- cathode ray tubes, eg in some televisions and older computer monitors
You must store waste safely and securely to prevent pollution, keep different types of hazardous waste separate, and hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste separate.
Businesses must make sure that if WEEE contains hazardous substances it is treated at an approved authorised treatment facility that is authorised to accept hazardous waste.
WEEE environmental legislation
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations SI 2006/3289. Aims to reduce the amount of WEEE sent to landfill. Places responsibilities on businesses that produce, supply, sell and use electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and those that handle WEEE.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations SI 2007/3454. Amends 2006/3289 to encourage prioritising reuse of whole appliances in the WEEE system.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations SI 2009/2957. Amends 2006/3289 by improving the producer compliance scheme
approval process and reducing the administrative burden on business by simplifying the data reporting requirements and the evidence system.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations SI 2009/3216. Corrects a defect in 2009/2957 by requiring producers of EEE for domestic use to report details quarterly, and annually for all other EEE.
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations SI 2010/1155. Makes changes to definitions and realigns two dates in 2006/3289.
The New Directive is due for the Second Reading in a few weeks'time. If all goes well, it may be ready for publication in 2012.
Henny for the Green Awareness Group
Now Cynthia would like to give us all a message.
Thank You All So Much.My heartfelt thanks to one and all who gave their support to me when I had my operation on 1st September . Words cannot express enough how much I appreciate the loving concern shown to me through your prayers, telephone calls, cards and visits. I am recuperating slowly. I feel really blessed.
With my love to you and Gods Blessings,
Cynthia van Riet.
Wikileaks for Choirs IX: Men in cassocks
I suppose you know the feeling that you wish you were somebody else. In choirs everything is supposed to be stage managed by the Director of Music. This was why I was looking forward to do some exciting stuff at the annual Music & Flower Festival. I was about to go under cover in the best place - according to a reliable source- to find out about the goings on in Holy Trinity and catch the latest gossip. I wondered how a reporter of a tabloid newspaper would have reported on this festival: "Anglican equivalent of singing nun performs during Music & Flower Festival?."Like the novelist George Orwell in a Parisian hotel back in the late 1920s, I had volunteered to be a dishwasher. In the kitchen I met a charming lady who seemed to have been toiling away for hours. Being undercover, I tried chit chat first before I went in for the crucial questions. But she said: "I am not so much into social talk". Had she been the editor of the News of the World the conversation that followed would have had an entirely different character. Before I knew it, I said reassuringly: "Don't fret yourself. Me neither. I only write about it". "So, you are Arnold, " said the lady at once, who turned out to be the current editor of Holy Trinity Newsletter. She and I got on very well with each other. But she was rather like Mother Theresa than Rebecca Brooks, so there was no sensational story to make. What's more, I had blown my cover before I knew it. As I had time to look around I realized that from the kitchen I was only left with a view on the hedge. I could only gather from the noise what happened outside. Nothing remarkable happened or was said during my shift, except when the place was dead silent because most visitors had gone inside church for a recital. It was the kind of silence when everyone sits in front of the telly for an exciting match as if Boris Johnson was fighting in the opening boxing match for the 2012 Olympic Games. When I heard that the performers of this recital had taken on the technically difficult Bach and Beethoven, I realized that this match was not in the light weight category. When visitors returned to the garden I could hear that they had a run for their money and the dirty plates and cups were soon brought in again.
Weeks later I stumbled on another cover. After an Evensong in the old catholic cathedral I only had a few minutes to spare before the rehearsal of another choir. I sat on a bench at a bus stop only a few yards from the cathedral not far from Utrecht's biggest shopping centre Hoog Catharijne . The bench was usually occupied by some tramp begging you for money to pay his bus fare. As I hastily ate my chicken sandwich I noticed that people watched me with smirking faces from their cars waiting at the traffic lights. I had carried a large shopping bag with me which contained my cassock and my scores. The moment I rummaged through its contents some folk eagerly anticipated I was going to pull a white rabbit out of my hat. I got stuck in with the act and suddenly held my cassock up in the air. "What on earth is he doing," bus stop fearing the tabloid headline: "Chorister caught dealing in stolen cassocks". I discovered that holding a cassock up in the air will get you noticed, let alone wear one. Some weeks later we were invited to a big open air party for someone's 50th birthday in Brabant not far from the Belgian border. The birthday boy came from an extended and musical family and the evening progressed into a friendly musical competition. He was media obsessed himself - even pursuing a career on television. One after another relative took the stage and did a performance. There was even a band, the local Dubliners, who sang in a dialect they believed no one from up north could understand. Then there were professional musicians from Amsterdam.
A week before I had received the party's invitation with the announcement of my performance as a Gregorian singer. I wondered why he had not checked with me first. Why not Anglican singer? Was this his idea of some kind of joke? He had not expected that I would rise to the challenge. I supposed that there was no harm in having a bit of a laugh myself. After some performances I quietly slipped away and put on my cassock. Then I took the stage where a guitarist playing the blues looked startled and simply stopped playing. People nudged each other and murmured: "Who on earth is this?" Yes, men in cassocks are as easily spotted as a rhinoceros on the South Pole. I had become father John Gerard sent out on a mission by the Bishop of Utrecht to find someone for the leading role in the RAI Uno costume drama "Pope Adrian: the Utrecht Pope". I spoke in a strong local dialect to beat them at their own game. So they watched and listened. I showed them a portrait of this 16th century Pope who bore an uncanny resemblance to the birthday boy and sang him a song to the tune of a well known Anglican chant with interesting Gregorian variations. Fortunately there wasn't a reporter from a tabloid around with the following headline in mind: "Bad hoax! The man who pretended to be a priest". Whatever appetite for sensationalism I may have harboured it was definitely gone now.
Arnold
CTC CHILDRENS' TRINITY CLUB CORNER
Hi there! Now in the depths of Autumn, nights considerably drawing in; 'kachel aan'; and we, like all of nature are preparing for the Winter ahead of us, with cosy candlelight inside and the bare trees, resting land and possibly frost outside. And very soon the coming of Sinter Klaas to delight the younger children and the important period of Advent beginning later this month - the looking-forward time for Christmas - and the celebration of our Saviour come among us. A busy, stimulating time for all and certainly for the children and team leaders of CTC and the Teenage Group - not to forget the crèche!
Gonny, CTC's new team leader reports that all is going well; numbers of children can vary quite widely between 4 and 8 to 12 children of different age groups also. In October CTC was concentrating on the Parables in St Matthew's Gospel; The Parable of the Sower, The Parable of the Weeds, the Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast, the Parable of the Weeds Explained, The Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl, the Parable of the Net, the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, the Parable of the Two Sons, the Parable of the Tenants, the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, the Parable of the Ten Virgins and the Parable of the Talents - to name them all! Plenty to go at and no doubt the reason Jesus so often taught in parables will no longer be a puzzle for the children at the end of these sessions.
Pam reports; "It was great to welcome some new members to the Teenage Group in September - there are 9 young people in the group, and we expect a few more might also join us this autumn". Pam is also planning for a handover of the leadership of this group. A new leadership team is preparing to take over from her in January, and we hope to introduce the new team in a newsletter soon.
Well that's about it for this month except to ask for your prayers for our children and team leaders of CTC, Pam and Co. of the Teemage Group, littlest ones and Mums of the crèche.
SYNOD 2011
Now, where did I leave you? Ah yes, in the leafy suburbs of Brussels, practicing my schoolboy French. This year, however, we were back to a Flemish area: Leuven. Well, not actually in Leuven; very much in the outskirts. So much so, that the main road to the new venue (La Foresta) was a dirt track!
We were staying in a vast complex, part of which was a Franciscan house. The building boasted 4 floors around a huge quadrangle, most of one side of which was the chapel. Perhaps you remember comments on the chapel in Antwerp: "not heated up since the last Ice Age" was I think the way Jamie put it. Let me tell you, in comparison with La Foresta, Antwerp was positively tropical!
Synod had an unusual batting order this year since Bishop Geoffrey could only stay for the first night, so after dinner and a brief session introducing the new face of ICS, a short summary from Fr Mark Collinson (Amsterdam) of the conference "New Wine in Europe" and a concise report on the state of play in Luweero, we went straight into Synod Eucharist. This was where the unfortunate acoustics of the chapel did their worst and at times, Bishop Geoffrey, usually a clear speaker, was difficult to understand.
Mind you, the whole complex was prone to excessive reverberation and the slightest noise on the corridors, or in the bedrooms for that matter, echoed around the place. This was fine at 7 in the evening, but not a lot of fun after midnight!
Morning prayer as a start to the day was superceded this year with Holy Communion. The chapel seemed even colder in the early morning hours and I, for one, was mightily glad to get into the relative warmth of the dining room (also full of echoes!). That being said, getting into the dining room presented a bit of a problem since we had to queue up for everything and hand in our meal tickets (we also had to queue to get out and we lost about 10 to 15 minutes each time).
The first major session was about mission in northwest Europe and one of the guest speakers (Bishop Graham Cray) spoke to the topic. As an introduction, Fr Robert Innes (Brussels) looked at the demographics of Anglicans in Belgium, related to the location of chaplaincies; generally speaking, the two line up well enough although there is space for new church plants. Fr Mark looked briefly at the situation in the Netherlands and came to much the same conclusion although he pointed out that our numbers are increasing and this is not being matched by a proportionate increase in church plants.
Bishop Graham looked at the situation in Britain where the parish system is still the mainstay, although he recognized the need for a 'mixed economy' of parish churches working together with network churches across a wider area: principled diversity; one size does not fit all. The same principle applies in Europe. The ecclesial community needs basically to have four characteristics: it needs to be a missionary community, an incarnational community, a disciple making community and it must also be a changing community, responding afresh to each new challenge. As Bishop Graham put it, "God goes ahead of the church, surprising it constantly". He summed up our role as a mission shaped church by saying that: "we are to be a sign, instrument and foretaste of the peace and joy of God's reign". After coffee, we split into working groups to discuss the implications of what Bishop Graham had said in our own situation. Each group reported its discussions and findings to Synod in a plenary session and Bishop Graham drew things together and concluded by pointing out that we are part of the church in Europe and not intruders. After lunch we looked at the Anglican Covenant, a document drawn up in an attempt to bring order to the potential chaos threatening the Anglican Communion by such things as the role of women in the ordained ministry and the place of same sex relationships in general, and of course the place of homosexual clergy and potential clergy. The Venerable Patrick Curran, Archdeacon of the East, coordinated this part of Synod. The Covenant document is long and in places confusingly pseudo legal. Basically, the Anglican Communion is a grouping of autonomous regional bodies, none of which needs to sign up to the Covenant -failing to sign up in no way alters that body's Anglican status. Any body can, at any time, withdraw from the Covenant without repercussions and if a signatory fails to heed the advice of the rest of the communion and proceeds to act independently in a controversial matter, the Covenant makes provisions for 'relational' consequences. The last draft of the Covenant is about maintaining relationships with each other and aims to invite consultation before potentially controversial decisions are made. In the future it is possible that other, currently non-Anglican ecclesial bodies, may sign up to the Covenant and join the Anglican Communion. After tea we once again split into working groups which reported back to a plenary session. There was a feeling that the Covenant was perhaps an ineffective document since those who have been divisive may not take the sanctions that it proposes very seriously. Archdeacon Curran concluded that one very positive consequence of the Covenant would be that when/if signatories decide to go their separate ways, they would do so knowing exactly why and after sufficient discussion. Although the Covenant had already been accepted by Diocesan Synod, all Archidiaconal Synods in the Diocese were also required to vote on it. Our Synod voted to approve it. Synod Dinner was held that evening and proved to be a fairly emotional event since we officially bade farewell to Fr John as Archdeacon. The applause from the standing ovation was thunderous and protracted, and well deserved!
The last sessions of Synod were involved with business and included a further tribute to Fr John by the representatives from the Netherlands.
It had been an intensive, but instructive and very useful Synod and a splendid opportunity for the Archdeaconry to thank Fr John for all his work, efforts and compassion during his term of office.
Harry
From the editor
I want to share with you a little more about the Mothers Union this month.
Recently a friend asked me But I thought the Mothers Union was only for women?
It would appear so from the name but in no way are men barred from joining in the activities. There are so many lone fathers and house-husbands now they are actively encouraged to join and share their experiences with the mothers.
The regular magazine I receive about the M.U. always includes information for both parents and often gives advice how to approach family problems in life from both mother and father angle. There was recently an article about why Homer Simpson is actually a great role model for fathers. The way he is there for his children in a way some fathers have great difficulty with. He gets involved in his childrens lives and often we see the family sitting down to a meal together and sharing their daily experiences, everyone having the chance to give their view however trivial. It has been shown in various studies that children are more likely to develop as mature, responsible adults if they have a father figure in their lives.
Both sons and daughters need a father as no one can help a young boy be like a man like a dad can and a girl whose father is a good role model is better able to choose a good spouse for herself. Jesus taught us to pray to God as Our Father because his love for us is paralleled to the way fathers should love their children. It is a high calling ,but a real privilege..
Homer Simpson is shown as a father who is able to give his children what they need more than anything else, time and attention, he cares and tries to understand who his children are and why they do what they do.
It is true that mothers have enormous influence in setting the conditions whereby the man aspires to be who they deep down want to be. Most men truly want to be present, to show the way , to care and be honest .Many have been enticed into a better future by a woman who believes in them, believed the best and did not give up.
So this is my thought for the month. Fathers are a very valuable member of the family and the Mothers Union embraces them with open arms.
Judy Miller.
In Search of Lost Time
I was feeling very guilty. You see, I had decided to take a flight to England on a Monday morning. That meant that I would have to miss the gym. Since one of the reasons (not the major one I hasten to add) for my visit was to buy 25 metres of curtain material, I was going to need excess baggage facilities. At first I thought: 'you can't take it with you when you go - fly business class'. Then a little voice at the back of my head, one I usually ignore, piped up: 'if I can't take it with me, I'm not going, so there!'. Perhaps the little voice spoke a grain of reason, so I investigated cheaper options and came up with Jet2.com. This seemed to have several advantages. In the first place, it is a Leeds-Bradford based budget carrier (I was flying to L-B) and in the second place, for an extra fee I could book excess baggage up to 30 kilos. The fee wasn't small, but the total cost was substantially less than a KLM business class ticket. OK, so I wouldn't get a tray of plastic food and a free drink, but for such a short flight, that was no drawback.
But once again, not only do I begin a paragraph with a preposition but - you guessed - I digress! Budget airlines and East European outfits all leave from gates somewhere near Eindhoven. Well, the walk down to H6 seemed long enough to get me to Eindhoven and more than compensated for what I missed in the gym. Before I booked with Jet2, I checked out their reviews on the web. The reports ranged from 'excellent' to 'go with a proper airline'. So I was curious to see what my experience would be.
The first positive mark came when the flight was called on time. The second was finding a clean and reasonably modern plane at the top of the steps - flights from H pier are denied an air bridge so it's collars up, brave the elements and head for the stairs nearest your seat. Not even a mystery bus tour to get you to the middle of the field!
I don't know if you are familiar with the video clip 'Yorkshire Airlines'. If not, it's well worth looking up on the Internet. Yorkshire Airlines features two-class transport: working class and for those with more brass than sense, Alan Bennett Class! Jet2 is Yorkshire Airlines for real, but without the two-class system! I had the time of my life, particularly when the space-waiter while doing the safety demonstration announced that 'there are life-jackets under your seat in case us comes down in the water'! All announcements were made in a variously broad Yorkshire accent and at something approaching the speed of light. Now I come from that part of the world, and I had trouble following some of it, so I dread to think how the Dutch passengers managed! Having said all that, we left on time and arrived slightly early after a perfectly adequate flight. I began to wonder what the return journey would be like.
I had gone back to Lancashire for several reasons: the curtain material, the need to get back to my roots after the traumas of the past year and, most important of all, to be around my brother and his wife as they dealt with the fact that he has recently had a malignant tumour removed from his forearm. He needed a re-excision and they wanted to take out the so-called sentinel node, all of which required a general anaesthetic and he was understandably anxious about that since
our father died as a result of a general. Mind you, that was 20 years ago and he was a sick man, so I personally had no fears for my brother. But I wanted to be there to offer what support and information that I could, and simply to be with them as they faced this situation. Of course all went well. Not only did he survive the anaesthesia, he got away with much less pain than even I had anticipated. He'll be fine.
It was an interesting, and sobering experience being back in the surroundings of my youth. I walked past my parents' old house and looked up at the bedroom where I had drawn my first breath; we visited a Jacobean house where I had once sung with the Burnley Lieder Group; we walked in the fields I had played in as a boy and it was all the same, and yet all very different. Some things were totally changed: a church I used to visit at choir events has been replaced by a large roundabout, shops where I went with my mother had either gone, or were selling something quite alien to that part of the world. Of course, there is a large Asian population in Lancashire and some streets could have been transported from somewhere in Pakistan, selling the most wonderful, but utterly non-British goods. As I looked at the changes and searched for the memories, I realised that it was not only the town and the shops that had changed; I had changed too, and quite completely. I could never find what Marcel Proust searched for, because the 'lost times' were exactly that: lost. Having come to that conclusion I was better able to enjoy my time and to look for more interesting, and perhaps even entertaining changes to Burnley society.
One thing that disappointed me was the drop in the apparent level of literacy, amusingly illustrated in an obscene piece of graffiti: they missed out the 'c'! I was pleased to be greeted in a very old fashioned Lancashire way by one middle-aged couple who responded to my 'good morning' with an archaic 'ow do'. I had forgotten the tendency to omit consonants in some situations whereby 'isn't it' becomes 'in i'. At times like that, I really felt at home again.
A less appealing observation was the state young people get into on a Saturday evening. We went out for dinner with our cousin Alison who lives in the very respectable town of Clitheroe, I mean, they even have a Tory MP there! As we left the restaurant we ran into hoards of young people, a lot of them tipsy and some blind drunk, on their way to the next public house. I have seen scenes like that on the TV, in big cities, but I never expected to run into them in sleepy little Clitheroe. My second thought was that money can't be all that tight after all.
All too soon, the time came for my departure. The check-in with Jet2 was totally a traumatic and my 30 kilos of baggage raised not an eyebrow. The departure lounge had ineffective (or no) air-conditioning, but that was the only drawback. The return flight left on time and once again, I was greeted by the Air Dorises of Jet2 and off we went. Sometimes, you know, 'lost times' really need to stay lost! Harry.
Services at Holy Trinity Church, Utrecht
Previous Newsletters
Jan '11 | Feb '11 | Mar '11 | Apr '11 | May '11 | Jun '11 | Jul '11 | Aug '11 | Sep '11 | Oct '11 | Nov '11 | Dec '10