Dear Friends,

MINISTER’S THOUGHTS:

Moira and I would like to thank everyone who has made us so welcome since our arrival in Amsterdam - we can hardly believe it was only last week as the manse already seems like home!

A special thanks to Sies Plokker who met us at the airport and showed us how to use the bus.

Dear Friends,

As of this week Rev Dr George Whyte will be our locum minister. Originally from Barrhead in East Renfrewshire, George Whyte was ordained as an elder at the age of 21 and studied science and then divinity at the University of Glasgow, with a year as a police officer in between. Dr Whyte was ordained as minister of Kilchrenan and Dalvich with Muckairn in Argyll in 1981. He also served churches in Glasgow and Edinburgh…..

Dear Friends,

MINISTER’s THOUGHT

This is our last Sunday with you and Judith and I have loved every minute of being part of the ERC. Thank you for your wonderful kindness to us. And how fitting to end our brief visit on Harvest Sunday, when we are thankful for all of God’s goodness.

I would have loved more time here with you, but we will leave with such a harvest of thanksgiving for the joy we’ve shared among you. We will pray that you will have greater and greater …

Dear Friends,

MINISTER’S THOUGHT

You know, sometimes I wish I could get a mirror with a better view. It's not that I think I'm horrible, it's just that I think I'm not what I should be. Maybe you feel the same? Maybe our entire congregation is made up of people who are not terribly happy about who they are, and who are very aware that they have a lot of shortcomings.

The bad news …

Dear Friends

MINISTER’S THOUGHTS

Everybody wants to be loved. I want to be loved. And I think I’ve learned the secret of how to be loved - it's at the heart of our faith and it is really simple, so simple that anyone can achieve it. Are you ready to hear it?

The secret of being loved is…

Dear Friends,

This Sunday is such a special day for us in the congregation as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. This symbolic meal has provided spiritual strength for so many Christians over the centuries – and we all need our faith strengthened. After all, there is so much that's wrong in life, and I would imagine that at some point we have all felt that God ought to do something about it. Well, someone once told me…..

Dear Friends,

What a privilege to serve the very ancient English Reformed Church here in Amsterdam!  There is a real sense of God’s unfailing care just by being in a building which has been home for centuries with a congregation that is so very strong and vibrant.  My six weeks with you will be like a drop in the ocean in the life of the…

New Locum minister: Rev Alan Sorensen

We welcome Alan and his wife Judith in our midst. Alan will be…

Over the North porch of Chartres cathedral is a relief sculpture of rare beauty carved way back in the fourteenth century. It shows Adam and Christ meeting- Adam the fallen and Christ who raises the fallen. Adam kneels at Christ’s feet. His head rests on…

Dear friends,

Freedom Meal

If you ever visit Holy Trinity Church in Clapham, South London, you will be shown the table where William Wilberforce wrote a very important document. Wilberforce, a devout Christian and Member of Parliament, at that table wrote the first draft of the legislation which was eventually passed by the House of Commons to bring an…