Chaplain’s Letter
BBC radio recently broadcast a programme about how the smart phone is changing people’s lives. According to the programme extreme examples of smart phone mania are people reading messages during dinner parties, or leaving their phones on all night to answer calls while they are asleep, or taking their work phones on holiday. I suspect that some smart phone people even send messages during church sermons. Which reminds me of a really funny poster I spotted outside an Utrecht church the other day. It showed someone in pyjamas looking very tired and had the memorable slogan which roughly translates as “If you can’t sleep at night – why not come and listen to one of our Sermons? Here on Sunday at 10.00!”
Anyway to get back to smart phones. I myself have a semi-smart phone which gets me onto the internet, and I have found this a wonderful aid to prayer. The Church of England gets a lot of things wrong, but one thing they have got right is their website. I have discovered that you can get morning and evening prayer for the day on your semi-smart phone, and can pray morning prayer on an early train to Belgium or evening prayer sitting at a café in Utrecht. All you need to do is to bookmark the following web address http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/join-us-in-daily-prayer.aspx press the buttons, and you’re up and running in no time. Of course smart phones like any other bit of technology need to be kept in their place. These things make good servants, but bad masters. People do not have to be enslaved by their phones – you just have to have the courage to turn it off, and the wisdom to realise that no-one, not even you, is indispensable. Jesus always sought to release people from the things that harassed and enslaved them and always wanted to point them in the direction of the things that really matter. Perhaps Matthew 7.25-34 is a good text for anyone whose life is being driven by their mobile phone.
Having just written my usual piece for the Newsletter reminds me of how relentless the deadlines are when you have to produce a monthly Newsletter. Ever since I came to Holy Trinity and even before I came, Harry Barrowclough has faithfully ensured that we have a monthly Newsletter full of interesting articles. Writing and editing to deadlines is always hard work and easily taken for granted. Which is why I want to take this opportunity of thanking Harry for doing this job so faithfully and so well for so long.. May I also take this opportunity of thanking Judy Miller for taking the job on and we all wish her well . John de Wit.
New Spring Festival
It was made clear at the last AGM that the Music and Flower Festival in its current form would not continue beyond this year. Subsequently Kim v d Kaaij-Ong made a suggestion (initially to the Green Awareness Group) that we should replace it with an International Food Festival. Church Council enthusiastically approved of the suggestion so now the idea needs to be developed. The plan, as it now stands, (and I stress that nothing is set in concrete and all suggestions will be considered) is to have several stands in the garden each of which serves one (or possibly more) dish(es) from any of the countries represented by our congregation. Some should be savoury main courses, some desserts and some beverages. As a very rough guide just to get you thinking we could include hamburgers from USA, cakes and scones from England and ginger beer from Lesotho. The idea would be for one person to choose a dish from their country (or somewhere with which they have associations) and get together a small group of people to help. The group would then prepare a large quantity of the dish at home, possibly cook or heat up the dish using a barbeque or portable cooker in the garden and then serve it for sale to the general public. Some trestles and party tents are available from the church but detailed requirements would have to be arranged and some groups would need to provide their own cooking facilities, tables, tents etc. The day would begin about 11am, expect to peak around lunchtime and end around 4pm. While all the cooking and eating was going on there would be informal music performances going on in the garden (or possibly in the hall with the windows open) – thinking along the lines of guitars, singing etc. Other cultural activities could also take place. It really depends on whatever you, as a congregation, would like to provide. The objective of the day would be more as an outreach activity than as a fund raiser so prices should cover costs but otherwise be affordable. The date chosen is the Saturday prior to Trinity Sunday (ie. Saturday 2nd June 2012). Folks who, for whatever reason, cannot be present on the day could still assist greatly with publicity and planning.
I ask everyone to think about what they can offer in terms of assistance. Such a day can only take place if many people are eager and willing to participate. It should be fun for members of the public and helpers alike. If it is left to only a few regulars to do all the work then the event will not take place. However with enthusiasm from the entire congregation (and a little luck with the weather) it should be a great day for everyone.
There will be a sign up sheet in the parsonage and more details will follow as soon as there is sufficient interest.
Sheila
WikiLeaks for Choirs Part VI: boot camp for choirs
Usually the holiday season is for choristers the time to enjoy quality time with the ones you love and to recharge your batteries before you start afresh. The choristers from the Wallonian church have their holidays from June until September and by October almost everybody has returned from their holidays. Other choirs start afresh towards the end of August, because there apparently “is so much to do”. So as early as late August two years ago I found myself sweating through music for Christmas. It reminds me of fire alarm drills at school: not yet the real thing, but preparing for such event.
Sometimes church choirs can turn into travel agents with some enthusiastic choir masters proposing far too exotic destinations. But it is usually the minister who arranges these stays abroad by phoning an old pal of his and upgrading his bunch of talented choristers to almost King’s College standards! An unassuming minister, like the current pastor of the Wallonian church, arranged a long weekend for the choir in La Rochelle early May. But there was no need to exaggerate her choir’s performances, because most of the protestant churches in France do not value a longstanding choral tradition at all! So she settled for getting to know the choristers in a more relaxed atmosphere and for catching up with old friends of acquaintances in the local church there.
The well-known reasons given for these boot camps for choirs are to increase the fellowship with each other and of to praise almighty God. What’s more such boot camps provide ample opportunity to brush up your singing skills and apply these under different circumstances. While the acoustics in Holy Trinity Church are very befitting of an average parish church, the choir performs in much grander settings during boot camp where the acoustics transport us to English cathedrals. The Wallonian choir however is used to good acoustics. The acoustics in their Romanesque church give any hymn of good Protestant stock a whiff of Hildegard von Bingen or Palestrina.
Boot camps are also an excuse for gluttons among us to sample the delights abroad, such as Worcester sauce, shepherd´s pie or French wine. Some years ago I went with the Wallonian choir to a pretty village in the Alsace. It nearly compared to the welcome the Americans must have received during the liberation of French villages in 1944. For three nights we wined and dined together with 40 or 60 people in several halls with food and drink provided by the locals. We lodged in local people’s homes. Saturday evening we had a “culte de rencontre” – a get together of choirs before a joint Sunday morning service. With Holy Trinity choir things were somewhat different. In the years 2006, 2008 and 2010 the choir sang in the abbey church of Sherborne in rural Dorset with cathedral like proportions. We came there to take over the services from the regular choir of Sherborne, which was modeled on the cathedral choirs. We lodged in the local girl’s school and had the kitchen staff at our disposal. Although food seemed a side issue here, it helped to create a good atmosphere. Because of our group accommodation we hardly had the chance to meet the locals except for the kind clergy and volunteers we met in church. The shopkeepers on the High Street –especially the tearooms -knew very well that we were a visiting choir, but they hardly could be expected to close shop and come up for Evensong! We once placed bets on how many people would attend Evensong on a particular day. One chorister said sarcastically: “Two people!” The other said optimistically: “No, twelve people.” And finally two others said “nine” which turned out to be the correct number.
In Sherborne fate seemed to throw many an obstacle in our way, enough to make an outsider superstitious or to check your medical or travel insurance. How else can you explain that during our first stay our organist was absent because of a bruised hand, the second time an alto was absent because of a multiple fractured ankle and that the third time the wife of the choir master had to be admitted to a local hospital? Perhaps it was partly because of these mishaps that clergy, volunteers, choristers and supporters bonded so well with each other.
Far less eventful was my stay in Portsmouth back in 2000. Here I sang with a bunch of English cathedral music enthusiasts in Portsmouth cathedral. These are choristers of the Anglican choirs of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg and they sing in an English cathedral every year for a week or so with such long rehearsal hours that it allows for precious little leisure time. This can’t compare at all to my stay in Paris with the Wallonian choir last year! We only had rehearsals in the morning and most of the afternoon off. This left enough time to sample the local atmosphere and to see some interesting sites on the way before joining each other for dinner in a Parisian restaurant.
On one of my visits in the Achterhoek a friend’s daughter told us that the local village church was available during some weekends to any choir free of charge. She hinted that it was something for Holy Trinity choir. “Why go to England,” she said wryly. I wondered whether any of the aforementioned choirs would be interested to take up on this idea. I could not quite imagine my fellow choristers to pitch up their tents and to sample the local beer in the nearest pub. Why? Perhaps it is not English or French enough? As for myself I thought: “Indeed, why go to England in this time of austerity?”
Arnold
New Editor
Let me introduce myself. My name is Judy and I am married to Chris and we have three children, a daughter of 25 a daughter of 23 and a son of 21. We are all English and moved out of England in 1983 when my husband had the chance to work in Brussels.
We came to the Netherlands to Leersum in 1989 and straight away started worshipping at Holy Trinity. My husband became the church treasurer shortly after we joined and we saw the retirement of Rev. Douglas Beukes and the renovation of the parsonage. When the children were at junior school we noticed that their Dutch was not progressing fast enough so we decided to worship locally in Leersum to help this
. Since they have all progressed on to their own life I have been drawn back to Holy Trinity and now feel I would like to take a more active part in the life of the church. When Father John approached me with the request for a native English speaker to help with the church magazine I felt a door was opening to me and that I should not refuse.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Harry sincerely for all that he has done in editing the newsletter for the last 8 years and feel somewhat nervous in taking over the reins. But with your support and sending in your contributions on time we can continue to publish regularly. Please be patient while I learn how to edit to Harrys standard and I will try to learn from your comments and advice.
Judy Miller.
CTC CHILDRENS TRINITY CLUB CORNER
Hi there! Here we are zooming into September, the Summer holidays behind us – certainly for the children – and many things starting up for the new season. Schools in our area of Utrecht have already gone back and CTC is already in full swing – since the 2nd week of August to be precise. We hope the children have had a really refreshing holiday period and ready to return to the rhythm of school, maybe the big adjustment of a new school or a new class and making new friends! Hopefully CTC will keep on expanding and draw new children to our midst in these coming months and certainly there are quite a few potential CTCers judging by the babes making their presence felt. Talking of babies it’s worth mentioning that the CRECHE is now really up and running and taking shape – more news on the crèche following next month.
Big news this month is that Danielle Los after many years as leading force of Sunday School/CTC is handing over the baton to Gonny Eiklelenboom, already a CTC leader whose profile appeared in an earlier edition of the Newsletter. Gonny, an experienced teacher by profession, will be glad to have the support of the rest of the team; Danielle, Ingrid, Kirsten, Jan and Edwin in future and may we ask for your prayers for the CTC Team and the children as they begin again and that they may be blessed, grow in faith, and have lots of fun together. Fortunately Danielle is remaining as part of the team and it seems like the end of an era, in which her own children have been a vital core of the Sunday School, and to think that Danielle’s oldest child, Megan (whom I also remember from about the age of 4) is now 18! Well done indeed Danielle – for all those faithful years of shepherding the little – and growing flock.
And following on from this piece of news, as you may have noticed above – there is a new member of the CTC Team. May we introduce Kirsten Postma as a new childrens’leader for CTC and wish her a happy and blessed time in this important work with the children. As mother of 5 children (very well behaved children) Kirsten has plenty of experience in teaching and guiding.
CALLING YOUNG PEOPLE from the age of 11/12 onwards; the Teenage Group run by Pam will be kicking off on the second Sunday of September! So please note this somewhere handy!!
So just to round up the beginning dates for you:
* 14th August – CTC begins – children from 3/4 up to 11
* 11th September – Teenage group for young people from 11/12 onwards
* CRECHE beginning same time as CTC
That’s about it for now – more news next month about the Bible topics the children are involved with.
Nicky – with excuses for falling behind with birthday cards!!
And from our Student Pastor
At the Music and Flower Festival we had a real journalist-to-be in our midst! Student Heleen Wiemans emailed me to ask if she could come to see the event and interview Fr. John. We thought you might like to read the result of this interview: a lovely article written by Heleen. (Annelies)
The person behind chaplain De Wit
By Heleen Wiemans
You probably see him every Sunday when you go to church, but what do you really know about your chaplain? I interviewed chaplain De Wit about his past, his view on faith and his concerns about the fact that less and less people go to church anymore. He’s a great speaker whose words certainly are worth hearing!
How did you become a priest?
That’s a long story, it goes back many years. I was born and raised in England, but my parents are Dutch. I went to English schools, and English university. I had a career in art history and I worked in the Ashmolean museum in Oxford for a short while, looking after wonderful prints and drawings. But I also grew up in a Christian family, so there was always a possibility that I might be ordained. Then my life changed quite dramatically. I was engaged to be married and while I was away on a long study tour, my fiancée died in car accident. When something like that happens you ask the big questions, like: ‘what is life for?’, ‘does God exist?’, ‘what am I supposed to do now?’. Anyway, a year or two later I went through the ‘selection’, to become a chaplain. Then I trained for the ministry, that took another three years, and then I started my on-the-job
training as a curate, so it takes about six or seven years to become a priest. That was many years ago, since then I've been a priest, mainly in Birmingham and then eight years ago I came here. I served in various churches in the Birmingham area.
When did you decide to move to Holland?
About ten years ago I saw an advert for a chaplaincy job here and I found it interesting. I couldn't apply for it, because I was raising lots of money for an extension to the church I was serving at the time. I thought the job would be very nice for somebody else. And then a year later I saw the same job advertised. I wondered what was wrong with it! Anyway I checked it
out, and they just hadn’t been able to find anybody, so then I came here in 2004.
Do you like The Netherlands so far?
Well, you have to get used to The Netherlands, don’t you? You have to get used to the directness, the Dutch are very straightforward; at least you know where you are. If they have criticism, they say it straight at you, whereas an English person would talk around it. I don’t know which I prefer actually. I used to say ‘the English stab you in the back and the Dutch stab you in the front!’
Does it worry you that people are less religious nowadays than they were in the past?
Yes, of course. I would love everybody to come to know Christ, to come to know God. It worries me, but it doesn’t keep me up at night.
I think there is recognition that faith is part of the package of being a human being. Actually, no one lives a faith-free life. If you’re an atheist, that’s actually a statement to belief as well, it’s not proven. You actually can’t go through life without some kind of faith.
Have you ever questioned your faith?
Well occasionally I do, occasionally I wonder, but then I usually come back to ask ‘what are the alternatives?’ I see Christianity as a source of people beginning to learn that they’re loved and learning how to love. So what would you put in it’s place? We have a very sad world. You don’t have to look down the newspaper very far to see that there is actually a lack of love in this very secular world. I don’t say that love is unique to Christians, but what I am saying is that it is deeply part of the Christian message. I think people have to learn what love really is. It’s not just romantic love, or sexual love, but it also has to do with self-giving love, with sacrificial love. Those are the sorts of deep types of love that actually sustain human society. You see that every fourth of May. So there is actually quite a lot in the Christian message. I think people often reject the Christian message because they don’t actually grasp it.
Everybody has faith, because it’s part of being human. The real question is what have you got faith in? But everybody is a believer, even the people who say I’m not a believer in anything, you are a believer in something. So coming back to the question you asked, do I have doubt? Yes. But when I face those doubts, I come back to this basic question. ‘If it isn’t that, than what is it?’
Holy Trinity Utrecht greets students!
Although you will probably read this after the fact, it is good to know that for the first time HTU was present at the ‘Utrechtse Introductie Tijd’ (or ‘UIT’), an event especially hosted for newly enrolled students. 15-18 August, around 3,500 first year students explored Utrecht and everything the city has to offer. As church we participate in IPSU, the Utrecht student chaplaincy. IPSU hosted an ‘open church’ in the Janskerk, which is right in the middle of the city. Students were invited to come in, sit down for some tea or coffee and eat some goodies. For some of them, this might be the first time they visited a church!
These days provided a chance to present ourselves as student chaplaincy and churches. More important, however, we hope that we gave students a positive experience of what church and faith can mean for them.
As I’m writing this article the week before, I cannot give you a report of what happened. That will probably be in the next edition of the Newsletter. But I do want to thank you for your support, prayers and practical help. Many thanks to all who baked something or came to help out in the Janskerk! Your response to my request for help was very encouraging.
I hope that you will keep on praying for Holy Trinity’s student ministry and for all the (international) students as they start their classes and studies again.
For those of you who are students themselves, please check out the activities planned for this autumn! You can find them on the website of this church (www.holytrinityutrecht.nl) or the student chaplaincy (www.ipsu.nl) or on Facebook (search for Holy Trinity Anglican Church Utrecht)!
Coming up: Student Lunch
Starting again on 28 August, after the service. Students and graduates will get together to meet each other, swap summer stories, eat, drink, make
merry
and generally have a great time! You’re all warmly invited!
After coffee we meet in the church hall or (when the weather is good) in the Wilhelminapark.
Please bring some food to share (we’d love to taste something from your
home country) and fun games/circus tricks/shenanigans you might want to play! Everyone is welcome, so please bring friends/family/pets/any others!
See you on 28th August!
Please let us know if you’re coming through phone or email or sign up on Facebook!
With every blessing, Annelies van de Steeg (student pastor).
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
Tear Here
A biscuit pack can bring great cheer,
But therein lies a trap –
You pull just where it says ‘tear here’
And they all land in your lap…..
By Nigel Beeton
FORCE OF HABIT
Habit is a curious thing, although often comforting in the familiarity it engenders, it can also be raw and uncompromising. Take sportspeople (in these days of political correctness I would be lambasted if I were brazen enough to speak of ‘sportsmen’!); as a breed they seem singularly prone to habits. These can range from variously curious routines they indulge in before performing, to items of clothing they consider to be ‘lucky’. How many footballers refuse to take to the field unless they are wearing their ‘lucky’ socks, or whatever item of clothing they have imbued with the supernatural ability to influence the course of nature. Mind you, the thought of a supernatural sock kind of blows your mind! As some of you may know, I spent my summer break in England, to be more precise, most of it in Ascot. Now I just managed to miss the chaos surrounding the last day of Royal Ascot during which a modest driveway within walking distance of the racecourse can be rented out as a parking space for phenomenal amounts of money.
Talking of the price of driveway rental, where I was staying in Ascot was one of those 1960s developments where council flats and privately owned townhouses were built cheek by jowl, no doubt in some well-intended attempt to achieve a form of egalitarianism. Then along came the redoubtable Mrs. Thatcher who sold off council housing. Again, a well-intended move to get less well-off people onto the housing ladder. But people, being people, saw the chance to make a quick buck, certainly in relatively chic areas like Ascot, so they rented out their flats. My pal lives in what is technically a two-bedroomed flat, however the whole thing would fit into my lounge. Now I must admit that I have a large lounge, but even so, it seems to be a bit of nonsense to charge between 750 to 850 pounds per calendar month for something that small. And of course what was intended to be ‘mixed’ housing is now exclusively inhabited by the so-called middle class.
I might have missed the disruption of Royal Ascot, but I was immediately plunged into blanket TV coverage of Wimbledon. To be honest, of all the sports available, tennis was the only one that in any way interested me. I even tried (abortively I hasten to add) to play it as a youth, but I was simply no good. Which reminds me of a summer’s evening in 1965 when a school friend of mine was hosting two Americans via the Experiment in International Living. Incidentally, my first trip to the States two years later was organised by that same group of people. In any case, I seem to be digressing in the middle of a digression so let me get back to the summer’s evening. Being bored (I suspect) the Americans suggested that we all go up to the local park where there were tennis courts and play a round of doubles. I pointed out that I couldn’t play tennis. They took this to be an example of typical British modesty, whereas I was telling the plain, unvarnished truth. This dawned on them after the second attempt to get me to return a serve. Frustrated, but displaying admirable sympathy for my inability, one of the Americans came over to me, suggested I hold the racket in front of my eyes: ‘and just stop the balls from hitting your face!’. However, even though I am hopeless at the game, being quite unable to judge the length of my arm, plus a racket, I thoroughly enjoy watching it. Which was just as well while I was in Ascot. (You see, I do manage to get the threads back together in the end!) Watching in on TV is infinitely preferable in my mind to trying to get into Wimbledon itself. For a start, you don’t have to worry about what to wear. British summer weather being what it is, I reckon you need to take a hold-all with tee-shirt and shorts, a summer jacket, a thicker jacket, probably thermal underwear and a sou’wester as well for good measure! Then there are those poor souls who can’t afford to pay for a seat but, in keeping with tradition, which is just another form of habit when all’s said and done, like to camp out on what is currently called ‘Henderson Hill’ although, now that he seems to have inherited Henderson’s ability to just miss out on winning Wimbledon, perhaps it will soon become the Murray Mound! In any case, I watched a lot of tennis and I began to latch on to some of the habits. Take Raphael Nadal for example. Not only does he inevitably strip off his shirt at the end of a successful match, but his routine before serving is always the same. First he scratches his backside, then he rubs his nose and finally tucks his hair under his sweatband, first above the left ear, and then the right. I suppose it’s vaguely like making the sign of the cross: backside, nose, left ear, right ear – and then he serves!
On a more serious note, however, the distinction between habit and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) can be a fine one and then it’s no longer amusing. A friend of mine’s mother only had a mild form of OCD, but it effectively crippled her. Being convinced that malignant powers were permeating her house with noxious gasses via the water supply, she insisted on stuffing corks into all the taps, and she would never use a pan unless she had scalded it at least twice. And there are far worse examples than hers.
Some habits, of course, are excellent and extremely useful. I am in the habit of leaving my keys and my mobile phone in the same place every time I come into the house, so I always know where they are, except of course, when my routine gets interrupted by an escaping cat or something of that ilk and then I can find my keys (often after an extensive and frequently frustrating search) in the most peculiar places. Mind you, that is as nothing in comparison with a friend of mine who lost his wallet, only to find it months later in the freezer! Having a routine also means that you tend not to forget things; although, it also means that anybody who knows you well enough can pretty accurately predict where you are liable to be when you are in your routine. And so it was that, in days gone by in Amsterdam, our attempts during Saturday shopping to avoid a very dear friend who knew us too well were always thwarted since he knew that we had to be in one of only about three places during the course of the morning.
And now, even though it’s well over six months since he passed from my care into that of the Lord’s, before I turn over to go to sleep each evening, I still say ‘goodnight’ to Jamie. Force of habit – sad isn’t it!
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