A 9/11 commemorative service to remember

My reflection on a 9/11 commemorative service was posted this morning on the Reformed Journal blog…

On 9/11 last year I was living in the Hague and serving a congregation founded several decades ago by Reformed Church in America pastors. My background is Christian Reformed, not RCA, but I took some pride in the work of those pastors, which has borne a great deal of fruit over the years.

The name of the church is the American Protestant Church in the Hague (APCH.nl), but the day when Americans comprised a majority of members is long past. Today the congregation has members from a few dozen countries, and seeing such a diverse congregation on Sunday mornings was always (and pleasantly) astonishing to me. Still, the name endures – that word “American” – as well as the impression it creates.

To have the word “American” in the church name, to my surprise, turned out to be (mostly) a good thing. In my first weeks, for example, a refugee family from Ukraine began to worship with us – a mom, dad, and three teenage children. They told me they came the first Sunday because they had a favorable view of Americans, the result of our support in their war with Russia. (I would like to think they continued to worship with us for other reasons.) Others, to my surprise, found their way to us not because of our support for the war in Ukraine, but because of other good work our country has done around the world. Frankly, I was glad to hear so much good will expressed toward our country.

As the interim pastor of a church with the word “American” in its name, I was invited to do a few unexpected things throughout the year, like participating in a 9/11 commemoration organized for American expats. [read more]