St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht

St. Martin's Cathedral in the Dutch city of Utrecht contains several references to one Willibrord, an English monk and missionary who died in 739. He is credited with bringing the gospel to the heathen Frisians. Little is known about his early life, though he had connections to Ripon Cathedral. That an Englishman should have brought the good news of Jesus Christ to lost Europeans is encouraging, though I suspect that the roles now need reversing.

Holland suffers from the same things as Britain: secular wokeism, imported false religion and general, spiritual malaise. Nevertheless, it has a great Christian heritage, of which this Cathedral is a stately, visual reminder. In its cloister, which I found rather delightful with its flowers and essential Willibrord statue, I found some old rope holding together one of the windows.

On closer inspection, it turned out not to be rope at all, but part of the original stone carving. This was likely a mason’s joke, but it offers a valuable lesson. The Church in the West is certainly weak and it appears to be dying under pressure from the three aforementioned foes. Weak it certainly is, but not dying, for the Lord Jesus said that He will build His church and that hell’s gates would not prevail against it. It looks like it is falling apart and collapsing around us, but there is One holding it together whose hands and fingers are even stronger than rope and rock.

My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. Psalm 31:15