July 2016

(nr. 156)

MAGAZINE OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN HAARLEM

Church The English-speaking church community meets at

the Old Catholic Cathedral of St. Anna & St. Mary

Kinderhuissingel 74, 2013 AV HAARLEM

Website: www.anglican-church-haarlem.nl

Priest-in-charge Vacant

Reader Jaap Theunisz, Tel: 023 537 4242 Rijksstraatweg 541/3, 2025 DE HAARLEM e-mail: j.theunisz@gmail.com

Warden Jaap Theunisz

Secretary & Jaap Theunisz

Webmaster

Treasurer Renger Afman, Tel: 023 526 2295 e-mail: renger.afman@gmail.com

Council Member John Scott

Council Member Veronica Schafer

Organist & Martin van Bleek, Tel: 023 542 2133 Choirmaster

Lifeline Editor Philip Whittaker, Tel: 0341 45 3507 e-mail: phwhittaker@cs.com

The English-speaking church community in Haarlem is part of the Anglican-Diocese of

Europe and seeks to serve all English speaking people in the wider Haarlem area.

All payments, donations, general, missions, subscriptions to Lifeline (minimum to

cover costs 12.50/year), please to:

Bank nr: NL87 INGB 0000 5776 41, Church of England Haarlem

indicating purpose of payment (donation, mission, Lifeline, etc.)

Lifeline contains the official Haarlem chaplaincy news and various articles. However,

the views expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the Chaplaincy or the Editor.

Recent issues of Lifeline can be found on http://www.anglican-church-haarlem.nl/category/all/lifelines/

mailto:j.theunisz@gmail.com

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Chaplaincy letter:

On the first Sunday of July we celebrated the feast day of St

Thomas the Apostle. It was a joyful Eucharist, with a lot of

music, as it was the last choir service before the summer, and

with a number of young guests from America who happened

to join us for worship. Not so joyful is the fact that you, as

Anglican Church Haarlem, enter into a new period without

your own priest.

As dedicated members of this congregation, some of you

might feel somewhat disappointed or disillusioned. At times,

it can be a struggle to make sense of why it is important to be

a member of a church community. Sometimes it seems more

helpful to our personal spiritual life if we could be Christians

on our own! But having to live with the realities of

congregational life and its tensions, and having to live with

the church as an institution, is part of our identity as

Christians. Jesus is not the founder of a religion of individual

spirituality. From the very start of his ministry, he called

apostles to be with him (Mark 3.14).

As I said in my sermon on this feast of St Thomas: the very

fact that Jesus called twelve apostles parallel to the twelve

tribes of Israel is a clear indication that Jesus really wanted

a people; he wanted us as a church. When we sometimes

struggle with the church, it may be a comfort to us that Jesus

already struggled with his apostles and that they quarrelled

among each other. Nevertheless, Jesus wants us like his

apostles to be with him. Let that be our comfort and the

basic reason for going to church and dedicating ourselves to

the wellbeing of this congregation.

Fr Mattijs Ploeger

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Fundraising activities As our driving ambition is still to have our own resident part-time chaplain we need to replenish our finances. For this purpose we have formed a fundraising group that consists of Veronique Ruiz, Francis Gordon, John Scott and Martin van Bleek and Gert Dammer. The group has met a few times already to discuss the various ways of raising money for our church funds. We are approaching this task with enthusiasm as we believe in the future of Haarlem Church!

Apart from approaching all our givers personally we will also be organising some special events - raising money can also be fun!

The first event will be a parish evening on Saturday evening 8 October see below - an evening of fun together with the express purpose to raise money.

We are also working on a few musical events with the choir, such as a sponsored hymn/anthem singing afternoon/evening.

The Christmas Bring and Buy will of course be another moment where we can raise money. For this purpose we are thinking of having our own Christmas card of the church and perhaps notelets. The profits of the sale will go to our church funds.

These are just a few of the ideas we are working on and we will keep you informed of our progress. In the meantime we hope you will continue to support Haarlem Church financially and pray for the future of our church.

The Fundraising group

From the Fun(d)raising Committee: Save the Date

8 October 2016, 19.30-22.00h Community Room St. Anna & St. Marys Church Haarlem

Bingo-Quiz night with incredible prizes!

Heres how it works:

19.30h walk in with coffee, 20.00h the game is on. We provide the bingo-cards, quiz-questions and prizes You bring yourself and friends Incredible prizes for the winners Cost covering charge for drinks only Hat round to raise some extra funds for social activities, etc.

If we have fun this could become a tradition Its up to us all! We will be looking for volunteers for providing snacks, moving tables and chairs, serving, washing-up; the works. Please let Francis or Veronique know what youre up for .

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Music Matters

On 4 June a sizeable group of our own choir and the Anglican Singers travelled to Gent for the Archdeaconry Choral Festival. The festival was held at the Elisabeth Kerk, where the church of St. Johns, Gent moved to in January of this year. The service was a Choral Evensong and also celebrated the 200

th anniversary of St. Johns in Gent. Alistair Warwick,

coordinator for the RSCM in Scotland, conducted the service, and the Revd. Stephen Murray and our Archdeacon Canon Meurig Williams presided over the service. We had a choir of 100 plus! The Gent congregation did a fantastic job both with making us feel welcome and feeding us all!

Sunday July 3 was our last Choral Sunday before the holidays. We sang two anthems that we will also be singing during our week at Wells with the European Cathedral Singers: Justorum animae by Gabriel Jackson and the communion motet O sacrum Convivium by Thomas Tallis.

The choir will be back on Sunday 21st August for our own service followed

by our annual Choral Evensong in the St, Bavo Church on the Grote Markt. Do join us for that service!

If you are in the UK on holiday, the European Cathedral Singers will be singing the services in Wells Cathedral from Monday 8 to Sunday 14 August. Mon-Wed will be Choral Evensongs and Thursday will be our day off. We are planning a trip on the historical West Somerset Railway, a trip with an historical steam train! I can still remember watching the shunting of the carriages at the bottom of the hill from my grandmothers house in Nottingham when I was a little boy.

Friday and Saturday we will sing Choral Evensongs and on Sunday we will sing a Choral Eucharist in the morning, followed by Matins and then our final Evensong in the afternoon. So do come and see us if you are in the neighbourhood!

From September onwards we should be back to normal with our choral services.

On 18 September we will have our joint Harvest Festival with the Old Catholic congregation followed by the Harvest tea.

Have a very good holiday and thank you for your continued support!

Martin van Bleek, Organist and choirmaster

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In Memoriam

Julie Ann van Bleek - Stafford (Nottingham 18 February 1930 Haarlem 11 May 2016)

After several years of diminishing mental health, Julie passed peacefully away with her loved ones around her,

in Overspaarne where she had been so lovingly cared for. Her funeral service and cremation were held on 19 May.

To all who had worshipped in Haarlem, Julie had been a smiling, helpful and loving example of English gentleness.

And during the last years of her dementia, her determined gentle smile remained as a symbol of her sweet nature and her

steadfast faith.

Julie and Gerrit met through letter exchange at their respective schools in England and The Netherlands, eventually meeting

and later married in Nottingham on 19 May 1954. During the first years of their marriage they lived in The Hague,

and after Martin was born in 1956 they moved to Haarlem, where they started attending the Anglican church. In 1959

Mandy was born, and in 1963 the family moved to Ambachtstraat.

Julie sang in Haarlem Church choir for many years, and was on the Church Council for more than 30 years, of which secretary

for 14 years and church warden for 8 years. Julie had also been active in visiting the sick, arranging cards for

special occasions and welcoming and entertaining visitors.

Julie was an accomplished painter of water-colours, and even had a fling at acting, including in a film about

Corry ten Boom, Hiding Place, with Mary Brunt.

Our deep condolences go out to the Van Bleek family and friends.

May Julie rest in peace and awake to a joyful resurrection.

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From Ms Miscellaneous

Good neighbours and distant friends

The last two weeks or so I had suffered from bad toothache. My dentist told

me it wasnt possible for me to be in such pain; he had only replaced a small

filling and had come nowhere near root canals or nerves. Nevertheless any

eating or drinking was