Dear friends,

On Sunday we will observe All Saints’ Day. This is a necessarily difficult day in the year as we bring to memory those who have died over the last year. I thought I would like to mention that in my newsletter today, since I believe a day like this calls for some preparation. Perhaps you would like to slow down, light a candle, and bring to memory those whom you have lost over the past year. How do they live on in our world through your memories? 

Perhaps you would like to extend your list beyond your personal circle – deliberately remembering those who have died in war; those who took a stand for what they believe in; refugees dying at sea or in trying to reach a safer destination (a full list of their names will also be read at 15:00 on Sunday in the Mozes en Aäronkerk); femicide; those who suffered terrible and sometimes preventable illnesses; addiction. All Saints’ Day calls us to open our hearts to remember them all…..

Dear friends,

This week helped me to think about thinking. 

On Monday, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend an event on AI’s impact in primary education. The renowned educator and researcher Timothy Cook (not the guy from Apple) was the presenter. His research reveals a significant negative correlation between frequent AI tool usage and critical thinking abilities. He started the conversation by telling us about zebra mussels. A strange place to start a conversation on AI, I thought. Zebra mussels, as he explained, are a nuisance where he used to live in New York, just as they are in Amsterdam. You might have passed a canal where someone tries tirelessly to scrape them off the hull of a boat. These mussels are not bad in themselves. In fact, they are excellent water filters. An adult zebra mussel can filter 1 to 10 litres of water per day, removing massive amounts of phytoplankton. They are so good at their job that they make it very hard for other consumers to enjoy their share of plankton. The result is that they heavily disrupt freshwater ecosystems by acting as hyper-efficient filter feeders. Cook was questioning whether we shouldn’t think about AI in the same way – as hyper-efficient in one task, but destructive to the ecosystem around it. 

Dear friends,

We don’t often talk about money – especially not when it is about giving to the church. And often for good reason. Perhaps, like me, you have been part of a church community in the past where that was all they spoke about. Accompanied by the regular emotionally manipulative charges, these messages often leave a bitter taste in our mouths and a guilty feeling in our hearts. 

When the Bible speaks about money, especially in relation to giving to the community, it does so from a far more redemptive place. All things belong to God, we read on the first pages of the Bible. It doesn’t start from a place of managing limited resources. Instead, from the start, the Bible underlines the generosity and abundance of God. It is exactly because God gives so abundantly that we are called to manage these resources responsibly and for the benefit of all.

I love the stories about…

Dear friends,

You might know the old joke. A man entered a Reformed church and spoke to the minister. “Father, my dog is ill. Could you do a blessing for the poor creature?” The minister replied, “No, we cannot have a service for an animal in the Reformed church. But there is a Catholic church down the road. Maybe they will do something for the animal.” The man answered, “Minister, but do you think they will accept a donation of €1500 to bless a Presbyterian dog?” The minister exclaimed, “My goodness! Why didn’t you tell me that dog was Presbyterian? Of course we can do the service here in our church!”

Indeed, we are not used to having “a Blessing of the Animals” in the Reformed tradition. Yet, this is exactly what happens in many churches across the world on the 4th of October. It is linked to the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the environment. Recently, this day has grown in ecumenical significance as it marks the end of the Season of Creation. That it is linked to the life of St Francis is certainly worth celebrating. Francis was known for talking to animals – long before the days of Dr. Dolittle! 

As John Feister writes in Franciscan Media, Francis once came across a flock of birds near the town of Bevagna. Apparently…

Dear Friends,

In their book Leading Worship for Workers, Matthew Kaemingk and Kathryn Roelofs tell the beautiful apocryphal story of Pope Gregory the Great:

“It was the sixth century and Pope Gregory himself was going to be presiding over the local Mass. This was a big deal and the townspeople knew it. They gathered together in reverence and nervous anticipation. As the people processed down the aisle, a woman joined the line and made her way to the front. When it was her turn to kneel, the great pontiff declared that this is ‘the body of Christ, broken for you.’ The woman looked down at the bread and cracked a smile. And then—according to some reports—the woman burst out in uncontrollable laughter.

Naturally, this was upsetting to everyone involved. After all, this was the pope and he was holding the body of Christ. Here—at the most special, most holy moment of Christian worship—a woman was laughing hysterically. 

Having calmed down, the woman had to offer some sort of explanation for her outburst. Collecting herself, the woman replied that the loaf of bread resting in the pope’s hands was actually her bread. She had made it herself, in her little kitchen, with her little oven. Right there in the hands of the pope was the work of her hands. 

This is the body of Christ, given for you. 

Here at the Lord’s Table…

Dear Friends,

The medieval mystic Meister Eckhart said that if the only prayer we ever said was “thank you”, that would be enough. Have you considered practising gratefulness today? Perhaps it’s a good idea to pause for a moment, look around you, and thank God for the gifts of grace you notice: the sunlight, your breath, your home or office, your family, good health, or whatever comes to mind. 

Diana Butler Bass writes how grace and gratitude share the same root word: gratus/gratia in Latin and charis in Greek. Grace and gratitude are indistinguishable. When God’s gracious gifts flow into our lives, and we…

Dear friends,

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit the famous organ builders, Flentrop’s factory, on our annual Kerkenpad. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew very little about how an organ is constructed, but, oh my, was I impressed. We basically immersed ourselves in a sacred world of artistry and slow creativity which is growing scarcer and scarcer in our fast-paced world of artificial (un)intelligence. It is hard to explain, though. The organ is made up of a complex series of many thousands of mechanical operations in order to produce those colourful sounds. I couldn’t wrap my head around the immense skill set these organ builders need to have. From wood joinery to artisan-level soldering. Nothing gets mass-produced. In fact, quite the opposite is true. In some cases, a slower process is preferred even though the modern process would be cheaper, better-sounding, and less time-consuming. The workers on the floor were all laser-focused. One person was carefully placing felt pads on the (beautiful handmade wood) windchest with tweezers. Another person, pictured here, was busy assembling what I believe is called the roller board. When asked how long he would take to complete this task, he simply said that he had been working on this board for two weeks now. After they receive the metalwork from the blacksmith, they soak tiny leather bits (all punched out by hand) in a solution before placing them in those tiny holes. It wasn’t only the technical skill that impressed me, though. If you look around the work floor, you can easily see the labour of love put into working there. Their workspace is….

Dear friends,

On Sunday, we enter the Season of Creation in the Christian liturgical year. It runs from the 1st of September to the 4th of October. We kick things off with the Feast of Creation, also known as Creation Day. As the website of the ecumenical Feast of Creation highlights, this Sunday is rooted in an ancient liturgical tradition, but it has gained much popularity across Christian traditions since 1989. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Dimitrios I, invited “the entire Christian world to offer every year on this day prayers and supplications to the Maker of all, both as thanksgiving for the great gift of Creation and as petitions for its protection and salvation.” The shared hope is to celebrate more intentionally God’s act of Creation as a foundational mystery of faith. 

The feast invites us to contemplate the great mystery of Creation first and foremost through a Christological lens. Therefore, it is entirely fitting that our readings for this Sunday reflect that mystery: Genesis 1:1–2:3 and John 1:1–5. Both Genesis and John begin with the words “in the beginning”. Both give witness to God’s loving act of creation. John specifically invites us to understand Christ’s role in this creation drama. It is exciting stuff, to be honest, and I cannot wait to dive into the details on Sunday.

For now, I thought….

Dear Friends,

“No human being can be unaffected by Jolene,” said Nelson Mandela. As one person on Substack reminded me this week, Mandela requested that Dolly Parton’s Jolene be played over the prison loudspeakers when he was on Robben Island. And he’s right, you know. Dolly Parton was a powerhouse of a person and loved by so many. But it wasn’t obvious. In fact, she was beloved exactly because she didn’t pretend to be anyone she was not. As Mary Towsend wrote this week, it is hard to imagine how the “tacky” country style we now know so well – the fringe, the stylised leaves, flowers and animals on the boots, hats, guitars and epaulettes – could inspire so many people from so many different political, cultural and economic backgrounds at once. We might even want to conclude that “it wasn’t God who made honky-tonk angels”.

But seriously: why is that? Why did Dolly inspire so many people? I think Towsend gives a good answer:

“Dolly Parton is not simply a good person, or a beautiful poetess; she is both beautiful and good, in a way the philosophy of character strives to explain but can’t always illustrate convincingly. Usually, our heroes disappoint us with flaws or scandal, or our admiration and interest wanes and we move on to the next person to admire. But the more I come to learn about Dolly, the stronger my feelings become.” 

See, Dolly didn’t just sing and wear her shiny suit….

Dear Friends,

On Sunday, we will be ordaining new elders in our congregation – a joyous occasion in the life of any congregation and one that we are particularly excited about. Officially, the Church of Scotland describes the role of an elder as being “one of the spiritual offices of the church and is concerned with the oversight and pastoral work of a congregation”. In fact, the word that is used to describe our denomination, “Presbyterian”, is a translation of the Greek word presbyteros, meaning “elder”. We place a certain weight on the role of eldership in our congregations. No wonder appointing elders takes such a long time! We as a congregation discerned, nominated, and conversed until we could finally welcome these individuals, who will give guidance to our congregation over the coming years.