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Fourteen churches in this town form the Church in Abingdon, familiarly known as the CiA. Eleven mem- bers, representing five different church congregations, made up the group which was invited by our twin town of Sint Niklaas in Belgium, as part of their year- long celebrations to mark the 800th anniversary since the settlement became a parish.


Our visit was titled by our hosts as ‘European Twin- ning at Pentecost’. The Abingdon contingent met guests from Lucca, Argentan and Schongau; these towns also being twinned with Sint Niklaas.


We travelled in a 17-seater mini- bus ably driven by Astrid Nielsen- Schuurmanns, a member of Peach- croft Community Church. We were blessed with fine weather through- out our four night visit.


On our arrival we were welcomed at the Town Hall by the mayor, and then our hosts took us to visit two asylum centres in the town. The first was a self help project set up by a volunteer organisation which supports illegal refugees while they are struggling to obtain documenta- tion. The second is run by the Bel- gian Red Cross, which has acquired a former secondary school building where legal refugees are housed until they can find work and be- come established. Following these visits, we were taken to ‘De Springplank’ – a food bank and rehabilitation centre for needy residents, run by volunteers with EU sup- port.


July/August 2017


CiA Twinning Visit to Sint Niklaas at Pentecost Elizabeth Simpson


visitors were invited to use the headphones and listen to the debate in our own language.


The purpose of Church twinning is to share our experi- ences of worship and to develop friendships with Christians in our twin towns. The Belgians and the French in particular, are impressed that the thirteen churches in Abingdon, though very varied, work to- gether to reach out to the people of the town through such initiatives as, the Food Bank, 35 Ock Street, Street Pastors, the Passion Play, the Gospel Choir, the Archway Foundation and other shared meetings, talks, discussion groups.


We were taken to visit three churches in Brussels; the Ortho- dox Church, the Armenian Church and the Anglican Church of The Holy Trinity where we learnt that the history of the Eng- lish Church in Brussels had been recorded in a booklet by our own Roger Cox, who, with his fam- ily, worshipped there when working in Brussels.


visiting the European Parliament


On the Saturday we visited churches in Sint Niklaas, among them the two Evangelical churches. One of the very excit- ing developments for our Roman Catholic hosts and organisers, was making contact with the Protestant churches in their town, which for them has led to


new contacts and understandings.


One of the many highlights of the long weekend was a visit to the European Parliament in Brussels, where we were received and shown round most graciously by a young secretary of one of the MEPs for Sint Niklaas. During our visit, there were several gentle jokes about what we were losing by voting to leave the EU.


We were taken into the main Debating Chamber where we sat and listened to a debate which had been set up for us on the theme of the future of the European Un- ion. The two speakers each spoke to their viewpoint. The two angles were ‘Can Europe be Christian in a multi-cultural society?’ and ‘Can Europe be multi- cultural given its long history of Christian roots?’ The outcome for both stances was - Yes, it had to be possi- ble, with respect and sensitivity, though recognising there were many problems and difficulties to be over- come. The debate was conducted in Dutch and we, the


We attended an Ecumenical Pentecost Vigil Service led by the young people on Saturday evening in the ‘Old Church’ of Sint Niklaas and on Sunday morning we all attended our hosts’ places of worship, apart from a contingent who represented our visit at the evangelical churches.


Within all of this we were taken to the Mercator Mu- seum, where we saw many precious maps made by Gerarde Mercator in the sixteenth century, and were given an excellent exposition of the various maps and of the life and times of Mercator – a man way ahead of his time and whose work is still relevant today.


We also found time to visit a recreational park on Sun- day afternoon before returning to Sint Niklaas to enjoy a farewell BBQ; accompanied by live music and speeches in which all the visitors and their hosts ex- pressed great pleasure in making new friends, meeting old friends and in truly celebrating our one-ness in Christ.


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