Denominations - What's the difference?

“Why do Catholic believers pray to Mary?”  This was just one of the questions that we came up with as we evaluated the weekend whilst sitting in the Taverne restaurant on a boulevard at Port Louise in Brussels. It had been a busy weekend. Within 48 hours we had visited a Catholic bible study and prayer time, a service at the Antwerp International Protestant Church where we heard a testimony from a lady working to free prostitutes from human trafficking, a meeting with youth in Zaamslag to plan the next MeetPoint and a Christmas carol service at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Brussels.

At the restaurant table our conversation diverged into many questions and gave us food for thought about worship styles and even the concept of denominations.

'De Grijze Kat' or 'The Grey Cat'' is a Catholic group doing community work in Antwerp as well as meeting together for times of fellowship. We joined them for their weekly bible study and dinner. None of interns have a Roman Catholic background, so this was probably the most thought provoking group we visited. I realised that I was perfectly aware of Catholic traditions such as, crossing oneself when entering or leaving the worship area, using rosary beads and saying Hail Mary's. However, I had no idea why they performed such rituals and where these traditions stemmed from.

We discussed our opinions about the various experiences, covering a wide array of topics including whether or not it was moral to pray to Mary, and if salvation is achieved through faith alone or if faith must be supplemented with works. Furthermore, I became aware that I had lots of questions. Why do they say the Hail Mary ten times? Why is the Lord's prayer cut short? Why do they pray to Saints? Questions we as Protestants couldn’t answer.

Within our group our standpoints spanned from being strongly against Catholic traditions, to being apathetic towards their ways, to being indifferent about denominations as they all worship the same God. I personally realised that I should not judge Catholic traditions until I understand why they do them, and only then when I grasp their Theological perspective can I truly decide my own. Thus we think it would be beneficial to learn more about Catholicism as this will help us build bridges to the Catholic Community.

A naive and stereotypical view of Catholics would be that they are strict, cold and closed off. However, from my time there, I can say they were very kind-hearted, warm and hospitable. It was evident that everyone was unconditionally welcome, as I sat opposite Syrian refugees at the dinner table. Furthermore, Catholicism certainly doesn't prevent its followers from enjoying themselves as the evening unfolded into a sing-a-long, resulting in me dancing with an 81 year old man to a rousing chorus of 'My Bonnie lies over the Ocean'.

The two Protestant services felt more familiar to me and I was thrilled to finally attend a traditional carol service in Brussels, a custom in N.I. that I was most certainly missing. Additionally, much to my delight, we were provided with some homely festive treats such as shortbread and mulled wine after the service. Having been in Anglican and Evangelical churches before I'm accustomed to their ways however I realised that I’m rarely in a Catholic environment.

Don't get me wrong, I don’t have any resentment towards Catholicism I simply know very little about their practices. However, what I do know is that every person in each of these churches was seeking the same God. Thus whilst I find denominational differences interesting it is not a viable reason for conflict within the church. Ultimately the church is one body, that of Christ, and whilst we all do different things, Christ is at the head, and that is the most important thing. 

Sophie

Brigita's introduction to Atlantic Bridge

NETHERLANDS: I am Brigita, I’m an 18 year old girl who is tired from studying sciences in high school and bored of everyday life. After high school graduation, I decided to take a gap year. So here my journey begins. It's my first time being in a foreign country, away from my home town of Panevėžys in Lithuania, without any escort. It is a bit scary! My trip here took 30 hours and I had to take 2 buses (I had to change the bus!  How did I not get lost?). But God didn't leave me! I had a safe and fun journey to Holland.

I was surprised by all the narrow streets and old houses. It is like you are living in the 19th century. I came to  Kruiningen were I am living now. When I went to discover the town, I didn’t see many people, just a few. It was so strange. Also, I saw a lot of cyclists. It was even weirder to see that they were cycling without helmets and brightly coloured vests. In our country you would get a  fine immediately. Straight away  I was enthralled by the people, the friendly atmosphere and the garbage sorting as well as the environment protection. It is necessary to mention that I lived in a big city surrounded by green areas, but here in Kruiningen I don’t see a lot of trees and I already miss my city. However, I can enjoy the marvellous sight of the sea. It makes you feel like you are at home and don’t want to go back.

CZECH REPUBLIC:  Early morning we started our day trip to Czech Republic. Me, Sophie, John and the musician from the USA. The nightfall, we arrived at our destination. Together  with Sophie  I went to one English teacher ‘s home. She was so cute and open that we talked until midnight about the schools, educational systems, teachers profession. Anyhow,  I dreamed of becoming a teacher. It is interesting  to try to get everything about this specialty. Towards morning, we visited the school where this teacher is working and  gave a few lessons about Atlantic Bridge organization and our homelands. True, it was not boring, because Jason played a few songs. Thus we visited other schools. One of them was a century age old, and with its own zoo! Incomparable! The hardest task was to introduce myself and my country. The beginning is always difficult. In general, the first few weeks in the Netherlands was like a nightmare in that I couldn’t understand the  fast speaking  people . But a small step forward, and little by little it becomes clear. And so we visited religious communities as well.  All the  trip  time we was surrounded by breath-taking views.  Around the valleys, woods,  huge heaven and enormous stones. I was spellbound by the magnificent Czech mountains whose  my  homeland hasn’t got.  Also, surprised by the magnificent architecture, the flamboyance and beauty of the buildings. The most exciting  thing was to take a ride through the streets, which recalls the happy roller coaster. By the way, we not only watched the mountains through the car glass, we  climbed into one of the mountain with cab-car and '' touched '' the top :).  Among  other  things, we visited  in other type of a place, which poses painful flashbacks. Yes, it  is a concentration camp. Frightened and begin to evaluate their own lives more than anything else.( issigasti ir pradedi vertinti sava gyvybe labiau uz viska.)
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GERMAN:   And here we are in Germany. It is as large as  the Czech Republic.  The  first tour in the Dresden city ... like from the music  history lessons :)  I felt I was back in the 18 or 19 century. There was  the  Antique and royal buildings in the city centre. As well as horse-drawn carriages, the churches. You can feel the royal atmosphere and the majesty in here. We were on a visit in one church and there we met a youth group. Probably in my life I have never seen more friendly youngsters. School students surprised us as well as their friendly meeting. Even a goodbye  by musical performances!

Czech Republic & Germany - first insights

Hello, I am Sándor, one of the EVS-interns with Atlantic Bridge this year. 

My EVS with Atlantic Bridge started a little bit different; I joined the group later in the Czech Republic, but before I was going to meet them, I decided to visit Prague, because I hadn’t been in that country before. One thing I recognized at the first moment: The city had a much deeper religious history than Budapest or I don’t really know, I did not expect to experience this in just two days. I thought that is why we are exactly in this country; if somewhere, here we could find people who would like to get to know other’s beliefs, so I was really looking forward to meet the group. 

On Thursday afternoon they were waiting for me and then everything speeded up: in an hour I was sitting at a table for dinner, we prayed and I got a question whether I am a member of any church or not and when I said, I was not, our host offered to help, jokingly, to solve “this little problem”. “we have here at home water, so if you would like… he said” That was the “deep water” how we say it in Hungarian and I think I could not have prepared for that, it was so far from me. And then no stops: little villages in the Czech Republic I had probably never visited or even heard about. Everywhere we put our feet, we were welcomed, which was really amazing. It was a kind of self-evident hospitality from people I have never met before.

In our one week long trip we visited local schools and did presentations about our organization where I had the same feeling, although it was really difficult to involve the pupils, compared to the Germans we met in our trip later. Of course it did not mean we could not arouse their interest, but it was harder. If there was a wall between west and east: in Hungary I experienced the same here. Personally the most meaningful experience I had on our trip was in Dresden when Timo hosted me. He and his housemates were Christians from a Mennonite church. We had a really open, but at the same time deep conversation about our personal faith. It was something I have never had before. 

Sándor

Trip to the Czech Republic

After only 6 days in the Netherlands I was heading off again, this time to the Czech Republic, a country I'd never been to before and knew very little about. So the interns along with John and NY musician Jason Harrod set off on our first tour of the year. Living in N. Ireland if I want to travel abroad I have to get on a plane, so the 12 hour car journey that followed was certainly an experience . . .

Day one of school talks had limited success, but it was definitely a learning curve. I learned that Czech people are very reserved and reluctant to talk to or even look at people who they don't know. This is the polar opposite to N.Ireland where you say hello to virtually every person you pass on the street, whether you know them or not. I also discovered that the Czech Republic is largely atheistic and despite our presentations and videos being filled with pictures of crosses and churches only one boy during the entire week caught on to the fact that we are a Christian organisation. Finally I learned that Ireland/the UK seem to be the only place in Europe where school uniforms are worn, everywhere else students just wear what they want; it's kinda weird.

Our success in schools picked up, as already during our second day of giving talks we acquired a long list of pupils interested in receiving information about Atlantic Bridge. Therefore we're confident that we'll have a Czech team come to our Europe Week, which is being planned for the end of June 2017.

Highlights of the trip include a school which had a zoo and let me hold a chameleon, visiting a concentration camp in Terezin and going up Mount Jested and eating some pretty epic pancakes in the restaurant 1012 metres up.

Overall my first time in the Czech Republic was great. All of my host families were very welcoming and I met lots of lovely people. It was definitely an exciting way to kick off the beginning of my year with Atlantic Bridge.

Sophie

Meeting the Mayor of Reimerswaal

ew EVS-team

On Thursday November 3, the new EVS-Intern team was welcomed at the Reimerswaal Municipality represented by Mayor Piet Zoon and youth worker Stefan Koeman. Finding out what is going on in the township of Reimerswaal with it seven villages and total population of about 22.000 people, helps us build better bridges.

Irish girl in a Dutch world

Hi, my name is Sophie and I come from a small place in Northern Ireland called Whitehead. It's on the coast and quite pretty but I decided that after finishing school I wanted to take a gap year and move to a different country to experience a new culture, meet new people and challenge myself. So now I live in De Vierslag in another small town called Kruiningen where I work with Atlantic Bridge. I've only been here for a couple of days but already I've talked to lots of new people, explored the town and planned talks for when we go to speak in schools amongst other fun activities.

Immediately I noticed how different Dutch life is compared to life back home. The language is completely different for a start. The Germanic language sounds alien to me hence in my first few days I've smiled through many a conversation I didn't understand a word of, so the sooner I learn some Dutch the better! Another observation is how flat the country is compared to Northern Ireland where there is a hill everywhere you look. Since the land is so flat the Dutch cycle everywhere so you can't walk down the street without being passed by a cyclist. Also the Dutch have an obsession with coffee. They will take any and every opportunity they get to socialize over a cup of the stuff as it is seen as an integral part of every day life. This is a somewhat awkward custom for a girl like me who doesn't like any form of hot drink, but still, I can appreciate the concept behind it.

Furthermore I can tell it's going to be a year of new experience for me. On my second day here I had mussels, which I've never had before but was told I must try since they are the speciality of a neighbouring town. I've also been adjusting to living away from home for the first time and all the cooking and cleaning I have to do, as well as learning to live with new people who have different upbringings, beliefs and ways of life to my own.

But before I get too settled in the Netherlands we're heading off to the Czech Republic and East Germany with New York musician Jason Harrod. We will be going into schools, churches and events speaking about Atlantic Bridge, our home country as well as the topic of building bridges internationally. It will be an exciting way to begin our year together and I'm looking forward to meeting new people, talking to lots of students in schools and seeing more of Europe.

Introducing the new EVS-Intern team

A new EVS-Intern team started in October. They are Brigita (Lithuania), Sophie (Northern Ireland),  and Sándor (Hungary).They started their year with Atlantic Bridge a bit different from the usual. Soon after their arrival they went on tour with musician Jason Harrod to the Czech Republic and the former German Democratic Republic.Each of them will introduce themselves and share their adventures with interested readers. 

Farewell from Christina

After a year internship with Atlantic Bridge Christina D'Onofrio wrote this about her final week with the Grey Cat, a Flemish youth organisation in Antwerp.

A couple weeks ago, my work with the Grijze Kat Catholic charity in Antwerp, Belgium, came to a close.  As an ambassador of Atlantic Bridge, I set out to build a bridge between our organization in the predominantly protestant Netherlands, and De Grijze Kat in predominantly Catholic Belgium.  This task was not free of challenges. The biggest of which being a language barrier.  I learned a very small amount of Dutch while I was here, but Flemish, the dialect spoken in Antwerp, can be difficult for even native Dutch speakers to understand.  All of the games, activities, and teaching strategies I had learned in undergrad had to be completely revamped to accommodate mostly non-verbal communication.  But we made it happen. With hand gestures and the longest game of charades in history, plus plenty of good humor, we got to know each other.

I went once or twice every month to do a program with these kids. We played games, made crafts, talked about things that were important (with the help of some wonderful teenage translators, of course), and cultivated friendships. My kids even cheered me on the rare occasions that I made contact with a football, what I’ve gotten in the habit of calling a soccer ball.  It has been wonderful.
The culminating event of the year was a weeklong camp. Our theme was Joseph, King of Dreams. We talked about siblinghood and jealousy, the gifts we were given, and our hopes and dreams of what to do with those gifts. We made dream catchers and our own tie-dye technicolored dream t-shirts. We slept in tents and went on hikes.  We sang songs and walked like Egyptians. We even had the opportunity to go sing for a local nursing home.  We had a bonfire and displayed those gifts in a camp talent show. We hugged and laughed and ran and communicated in so many ways. Many children at the camp came from immigrant families and spoke a good amount of English. But even those that did not speak English tried hard to include me in their games. We could always stand to learn from the generosity of children.

That is one thing that I really learned this year. The universality of love and belonging, the language of laughter, and the communal experiences that bind us all together. Thank you for that, my little grey cats.

Looking at Each other from the Inside Out: Our 4 ^th Meetpoint

Christina D'Onofrio

                On April 24 ^th , 2016, we had our fourth measuring point. The statement and theme of this measurement point was "Inside or outside, where do you look." We Began the measuring point with a youth service. Reverend Jan Verlinden gift a sermon on both Zacchaeus and the legendary Susan Boyole, who was made ​​famous after her performance on Brittan's Got Talent. Most people know the story of Zacchaeus. Little guy, up in a tree, rejected by society for both his appearance and actions. Rejected by everyone, that is, except Jesus. Susan Boyole was similarly rejected for her less-then-conventional appearance and her quirky mannerisms. She then Proceeded to win the love and adoration of the judges and audience with an outstanding vocal performance. The motif was clear: do not judge a book by it's cover.

                But as I spoke to the teenagers Throughout the event, it Became so much more.    We spoke about the dangers of judging people, not Because They May have some secret talent or May one day be favored by God, but Because They are human. And Such ashes, They deserve to be complexly imagined. My favorite author, John Green, talks about imagining or at eachother complexly. This Means understanding thatthere are so many aspects that'll make up who we are and what we do. We can not be Categorized or defined so simply. All of us containerization multitudes.

                Axis part of the measuring point, I had the privilege of writing and performing my first collaborative poem with 17 year old Monica Dieleman. We started each stanza with "You know who I am." We then Talked about each character from the outside perspective, followed by the or at juxtaposing inside perspective. We ended the poem with the line "So who is it That you know? Do you see me?" My goal as a youth worker is to be printable to say yes. I see you. I understand there's so much to you that i can not know. But I am here to learn all that I can. I am willing to catch whatever glimpse of the inside you are willing to show me. I see you. 

As experienced by Christina D'Onofrio

After months of preparation, we came together with over 70 teens and youth leaders to participate in the 2016 Atlantic Bridge Heritage Hunt in Antwerp.  Antwerp is a city rich with spiritual history.  Saints and statues line the streets between cathedrals and sanctuaries.  Our goal was to bring this history to life.

We created three different routes. I took charge of route one. After some unexpected road blocks we found our way to our first stop, the De Brabantse Olijfberg. This is the oldest Protestant church in Belgium. Protestants are in the minority in this country, juxtaposing the great majority in the neighboring Netherlands.  There we met Hans Neels who shared some of the struggle between these two groups in the past.  From there we made our way to the oldest Catholic Church in the city, De Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal. We told stories of the painter, Peter Paul Rubens. Although he is known as a great Flemish painter, he was actually German.  We talked about coming to this city as a stranger, and the effects of immigration today. 

We had more stops along the way, but my favorite was the statue of Lode Zeilins. This statue outside of the Sint Andries Kerk is of 44 year old Lode who was killed by a bomb during World War II. Inscribed on the bottom is the phrase “Mother, why do we live?” I talked about De Grijze Kat taking in children effected by the war in the 1940’s, children who may have lost mothers like Lode. The shadows cast by war are still visible here, over half a century later.  How lucky I feel to have never witnessed war on American soil. It is easy to make policies about refugees when you have never seen war. It’s easy to walk away when you do not know their stories. It is important to know their stories. It is important to know that people are still living in the violence that we only see the residue of decades later, and how history repeats itself. And how we are called to love. We are always called to love.