Posts from 2016

Faith Thoughts: Thanksgiving

Faith Thoughts are sent in by Dr. Elisabeth Leembruggen from Holy Trinity Utrecht. It is the time of year in many cultures in which we give thanks. Some cultures create national holidays for the occasion: Thanksgiving Day in Canada & America. Other days are informal such as the five Australian harvest festivals which are celebrated throughout the Continent which include Lavender, Hops, Appel & Grape festivals. In Europe, we have Dutch and German harvest festivals…

Advent – A time to Praise

This month’s chaplaincy article is by the Rev Grant Crowe, Amersfoort & Zwolle chaplain Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: 68 ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel because he has come to his people and redeemed them. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), 71 salvation from…

Quicksand of Questions

This contribution is from Ruth Alkema who contributes articles regularly both at Holy Trinity and Jeruzalemkerk in Utrecht. To write or not to write.. that’s the question. And then what to write, that’s another question. And silly enough, these questions can make me miserable. However much I enjoy writing, when these questions grip me, I start thinking that whatever I do is bound to become a total flop anyway, and that it was really wrong…

Faith Thoughts: God Knows

Faith Thoughts are sent in by Dr Elisabeth Leembruggen from Holy Trinity Utrecht “I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11) We live in a land of expats. Most expats have chosen to “remove themselves from their homelands” as the OED puts it. The expat life is largely a life of choice—for love of that special…

Anglicanism: A Gift in Christ – Part 2: The Medieval Church

The first night of the Anglicanism course was on the Church’s history and structures and given in five parts. The notes from that talk will be featured in the Newsletter over the next few months. – by David Phillips, chaplain of Holy Trinity Utrecht.   (see also Part 1: An Ancient Church  and  Part 3: A Reformed Church)   A Scholarly Church One of the characteristics of the Church of England has been and continues to be its…

More Weddings!!

This month’s chaplaincy article is by Sam van Leer, Groningen Chaplain One the special, unexpected delights of ministering in Groningen, a university city whose population is therefore comparatively young, is that we of Grace Church have experienced many weddings in the last year. In fact, since the summer of 2015, we have had a total of 6 member-couples getting married (4 in greater Groningen, one in England and one in Romania), and there are more…

Speaking, Listening and Prayer

This contribution is from Ruth Alkema who contributes articles regularly both at Holy Trinity and Jeruzalemkerk in Utrecht. A long time ago, I worked for Rijkswaterstaat, on a project for measuring the depths of rivers. For that, I was on a little ship where they had this old fashioned type of phone where only one person can speak at a time. So you had to speak your message or question as complete and clear as…

Alexandra Leaving…

Saturday night (19 November) is our next Prayer and Praise service.  The worship in this service will be led by our Gospel band and Fr. David will give a talk about ‘The Mystical Marriage in Song of Songs & Leonard Cohen: The consumation of love in Christ.” This is also a tribute to the great singer Leonard Cohen who passed away last week and is very well known for his deeply spiritual songs.  We will…