Dear Friends,

One of the advantages (and also disadvantages) of being in temporary exile from your home country is the opportunity to look at it through different eyes. This certainly has been the case in the eight weeks I've been away from Great Britain, and I can't say that the view from abroad has been very attractive. It is almost an embarrassment to hear British politicians speaking of 'America, Britain and the E.U.' as if they were all the same size. Even worse is listening to the self-congratulatory rhetoric of Britain being 'world-beating' when neither dealing with pandemic nor withdrawing from Afghanistan show the United Kingdom in a very flattering light.

Dear Friends,
For me, one of the delights about being here in the summer has always been the freedom to choose passages on which to preach. The rest of the year, I follow the three year lectionary (calendar of readings); but because I am nearly always in Amsterdam on the same weeks, I change my habit.

Dear Friends,

I realise that my temporary title of 'locum' is not a word common in English or Dutch. That's because it is Latin, and mostly used in the worlds of medicine or religion where a doctor or pastor has retired or gone on leave, and someone else replaces them. You might also not be accustomed to the title 'Interim Moderator' but it will be used from time to time in respect of Revd Eric Foggitt, a previous member of the ERC who is currently minister in Brussels. This is also a temporary appointment.

Dear Friends,

One of the novelties about living in the church's manse is the variety of telephone calls from people who have no connection with the congregation, but who somehow regard the church as the source of help. Last week a woman phoned to ask where she could purchase a rosary – quite an unusual request for a protestant pastor to deal with.

Dear Friends,

What an unusual time in the world's history we are living through. It is not just the global pandemic which I refer to but a interesting clash of priorities this last week. On the one hand we have evidence of the disastrous results of climate change in Western Europe, Western Canada and the USA, Sub-Saharan African and Henan Province in China; and on the other we have a billionaire spending ten minutes in a rocket to initiate an era in space tourism to be promoted by the unaccountable trinity of Bezos, Musk and Branson. No wonder the Hebrew prophets continually exposed how the pursuit of wealth and power always comes at a cost to the earth and its weary people.

Dear Friends,

It was a great delight for me last Sunday to be leading live worship face to face with a real congregation for the first time in twenty months. Zoom has great advantages, but it cannot replace the immediacy and the sense of occasion which happens when people gather in the same place to worship God.

Dear Friends,

It is a great pleasure to be among you again, and this year for the months of July and August. But it is also a sad occasion as this marks the end of Lance's ministry in the English Reformed Church. I was glad to be invited to share in his last service, but sorry that I could not stay for the picnic. I was last in the church and first out on Sunday, as I had promised the Dutch authorities to keep back from close contact until I had had a Covid Test. This happened on Tuesday and the result was negative. But the very kind representative of the GGD who phoned the good news to me, suggested that I should not do much mixing for another ten days.

Dear Friends,

I feel very sad to be writing this last weekly letter to you and making preparations for my last service on Sunday. I keep thinking how different it would be if we were not in pandemic and if we were just planning a normal, unrestricted morning service. I am delighted though that there is a gathering after the service outside in the Begijnhof (weather permitting) and I do hope that this will be a good time of fellowship and of being together, in some cases maybe for the first time for a long while. For details please see the website.

Dear Friends,

As you can imagine, Sally and I have been preparing for our move and for the second time in 7 years have been 'downsizing' - i.e. getting rid of stuff. Having to pack up all our possessions to transport them back to the UK provides an opportunity to dispose of excess baggage - things we no longer need, especially when the flat we will be moving into in London is considerably smaller than our spacious apartment here. It's a good discipline. The Bible features people on the move: the Israelites in the desert, the disciples on the road, Paul travelling round the ancient world to evangelise.

Dear Friends,

Greetings to you once more at the end of week in which quite a bit of my time has gone into preparing for a return to church this Sunday of at least a limited congregation. It's frustrating that numbers continue to have to be kept down - but a joy nevertheless to anticipate some 'live' fellowship and seeing one another face to face. We are working hard to make sure that as many of you as possible can attend as often as possible in the next three weeks and we're taking this one week at a time. Early next week I will be contacting those who have applied for seats next Sunday, June 27th, and letting you know if you will be able to come.