Great nations are marked by justice, not mere strength. They respect truth rather than propaganda. They cultivate responsibility alongside freedom. They produce citizens who understand that rights and duties belong together.

Pastor Anatoly Kaluzhny recounts the destruction he found when he arrived at his church after receiving an early morning warning of a Russian attack. “I also saw God’s mercy: our worship centre and sanctuary, though significantly damaged, remained standing”.

New Life Church's Sunday School classrooms wrecked, mobile dental clinic for refugees hit, humanitarian aid vehicles affected. After the attack on 2 June, pastor Anatoly Kalushny is appealing for support to rebuild the site.

No one was killed, and on Sunday, members of the church began clearing the rubble from the building. “Even a large fire cannot burn down what is built on the solid rock of faith,” say the church leaders in the town near Kharkiv, east of Ukraine.

Canals in Amsterdam overflow with boats crammed with orange-clad merrymakers. Music fills streets festooned with orange flags. Children sell old toys and homemade cakes. The old story of the Dutch triumph of freedom over Spanish imperial tyranny carries contemporary relevance.

“This is a deliberate attack on people of faith, those who gathered peacefully to pray”, the embassy of Ukraine in the U.S. said in a public statement.

Corrie Ten Boom and her sister Betsie demonstrated that the ability to love and forgive when surrounded by hatred is a form of freedom no tyrant can touch. For the sisters, inner freedom became a form of spiritual resistance.

Suspended in the vast blackness, our planet appeared not as a battleground of competing powers, but as a delicate, radiant sphere—fragile yet hospitable and astonishingly alive. 

The Swiss Evangelical Alliance helped coordinate the accomodation of around 1,000 refugees. Such actions “have generally had a positive impact on the refugees social, linguistic, cultural and professional integration”, says the Swiss Federal Council.

Christianity functions as culture rather than discipleship. The faith becomes a symbol of belonging rather than a call to transformation.

The Romanesque plaque from Verona captures a paradox in bronze: apparent weakness revealing hidden strength, violence confronted by steadfast love, history opened toward redemption.

Ukraine is becoming a laboratory of ethics for the global church. Historian Yaroslav Hrytsak says absolute pacifism can become morally irresponsible in the face of violent tyranny.

Sadly, when both Moscow and Washington talk ‘peace’ but do war, and trust between allies has been eroded by bellicose behaviour, we have a new reality to face.

The European Evangelical Alliance invites believers throughout Europe to remain faithful in intercession until peace, justice, and restoration are fully realized.

The program Live On explores what it means to continue living when a son, brother, husband, or loved one does not return home. Where can people find the strength to go on after such loss, or to help others carry their pain?

Four years of war leave families broken. Music expresses the feelings of many people's souls.

Will Europe remember the story that formed it? Not as a tool of exclusion, nor as nostalgic conservatism, but as the living source of reconciliation, renewal and hope.

“If we don’t register, they’ll come to every service and stop it”, says the pastor of one of the churches after being interrogated by Russian police in the occupied Luhansk region.

Christian organisations provide aid in the midst of great hardship. “Many people have been without heating for almost the entire month”, says Mariana Laskava from Kyiv.

“We reject any misuse of Christian faith or church authority to legitimize violence, aggression, or domination”, says the European Evangelical Alliance in a new statement.

Normally it would be none of my business, as a European, to comment on American politics. Unfortunately, it has become our business too.

Johannes Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance offers a quiet visual parable for this moment. As we face yet another new year of war, polarisation and distrust, we need reflection which goes beyond personal self-improvement.

The European Evangelical Alliance calls on Christians to pray for Europe at the start of the new year. By Peter Artman and Robbert-Jan Perk.

The emergence of the Dutch Republic birthed many features of the modern era. What might Ukraine’s victory over Russian tyranny and oppression mean for our future?

Now for the fourth time since Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, we are celebrating the Word of God becoming flesh as angels proclaimed peace on earth. So where is the peace?