25 October

Dear Friends,

I came across a quote by Harvey Cox this week that says: “Future historians will record the twentieth century as that century in which the whole world became one immense city.” As we look forward to celebrating Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary this weekend, it raises an important question for a church in the city: what does it mean to celebrate our city? With its long and often complex history, with stories of the good, the bad and the ugly, what are we really celebrating?

Perhaps you do not live in Amsterdam, which is true for many in our congregation, but the question remains just as valid.

This week—while preparing for my sermon, of course—I watched the NPO series Het Verhaal van Amsterdam. We can, I think, be rightly sceptical of a four-part documentary that tries to capture such a long and deep history. It certainly shows the familiar, rosy overview of the city that we all know well. Yet, one does get the sense, as the series aims to show, that Amsterdam has always been a city of migrants and passers-by: people coming and going. No one, they suggest, can claim to be a “real Amsterdammer”.

There is a certain comfort in that, isn’t there? Our true identity lies in our strangeness. Not in owning the city, but in belonging to a community of people who, for this moment in time, live here together, each adding our own uniqueness to this diverse place.

Before I get ahead of myself for Sunday, let me simply ask again: what would you like to celebrate about this city?

For a bit of Friday fun, I’ve included a photo from my very first visit to Amsterdam, back in 2013.

Marius Louw