AWC Going Dutch Nov 2018

Thanksgiving Day Service
by Roberta Enschede, Coordinator
We hope you will join us at the historic
Pieterskerk on Thanksgiving morning. A
Catholic priest, Protestant and Anglican
ministers, a rabbi and a cantor will conduct
a non-denominational service. Bring your
Dutch friends and friends from all nations
and beliefs. This is a service for everyone
and everyone is welcome!
Thanksgiving in the Pieterskerk in Leiden
is unique. In that church, the Pilgrims recorded
their births, marriages and deaths.
Their Minister John Robinson was once interred
there. They lived in its surroundings
from 1609 to 1620. Some of their descendants
still live in Leiden. In fact, the Koet
family are the only non-Americans who are
members of the Mayflower Society. Ria
Koet is Dutch and a direct descendant of
Moses Fletcher, a signer of the Mayflower
Compact. She will talk about what the
Pilgrim’s story means to her and her family.
There will be music and hymns we love
to sing. Coincidentally, a hymn familiar to
most Americans, “We Gather Together” is
originally the Dutch hymn, Wilt Heden Nu
Treden.” Mayor Henri Lenferink of Leiden
will welcome the congregation and the
Honorable Shawn Crowley, the US Chargé
D’Affaires will share his thoughts. The
Scouts of all ages will Present the Colors
and “Little Pilgrims” will walk with them.
JAKK, the American School chorale group
will sing and, for the first time, the ASH
String Ensemble will play during the offering.
A young student will speak of his
memories and a small child will share her
Children’s Prayer on Thanksgiving.
In Leiden, one feels how inextricably the
values of the American nation are linked
with the Netherlands. The story of a group
of English dissenters who were welcomed
I felt a respect and veneration upon entering the church at Leiden.
26 GOING DUTCH
~ Abigail Adams
there and able to live and worship freely
and even publish at a time when freedom
of religion and the press were certainly not
the norm, is a Dutch story, an American
story and a story of all nations that aspire
to be free today.
On the occasion of the first visit of a sitting
American President to the Netherlands,
the Pieterskerk was the chosen site for
President George H.W. Bush to speak. The
Bush family traces their ancestry to Francis
Cooke, also a signer of the Mayflower
Compact and a Leiden pilgrim. President
photo credit to Pieterskerk Leiden
Barack Obama has family roots in Leiden
too —the Blossom family who sailed on the
second Mayflower in 1628.
Some historians speculate that the idea
of Thanksgiving after a winter of hunger
might have come from Leiden. After the
Hunger Time in 1574, when the Spanish
Siege was lifted, there was a Service of
Thanksgiving in the Pieterskerk that continued
year after year. Though the Pilgrims
were Separatists and did not worship there,
perhaps after that first harvest and their
hunger winter, they remembered the stories
of the Hunger Time in Leiden and were
familiar with the service of thanks in the
Pieterskerk.
by Greetje Engelsman
You won’t forget Thanksgiving in Leiden.
We hope you will join us.
COOKIES
Please bring some cookies for coffee after
the service.
CAR POOL if possible!
(Unless you have a Permit from the
Pieterserk, you will be ticketed if you park
in the area in front of the church!)
Thursday, November 22
11 a.m.
Pieterskerk, Leiden
FREE
Information: oarinnl@yahoo.com
Sponsored by OAR – Overseas Americans Remember
Thanksgiving Day Lunch
Each year, Overseas Americans Remember
(OAR) hosts a wonderful non-denominational
Thanksgiving Ceremony at the
Pieterskerk in Leiden, where our Pilgrim
story began. Please see the article on
the facing page, by Roberta Enschede,
Coordinator for OAR.
We will meet at Starbucks in Den Haag
Cenraal Station at 9:45 a.m., to travel to
Leiden Centraal Station by train (bring your
O.V. Chipcard). In Leiden, the group will
walk from the station to the Pieterskerk to
listen to the Thanksgiving ceremony. The
church opens at 10 a.m., and the ceremony
begins at 11 a.m.
After the ceremony, we will have lunch at
the Koetshuis de Burcht. This restaurant sits
at the base of a historic castle ruin, built in
the 11th century. It was a coach house from
1657, until being opened as a restaurant in
1981. For more information, please contact
Greetje Engelsman at awcthehague.
newcomers@gmail.com.
Thursday, November 22
9:45 a.m. – Meet at Starbucks in Den
Haag Centraal Station
11 a.m. – Ceremony begins
FREE Ceremony (Lunch at own
expense)
Registration/Cancellation Deadline:
November 20
Sign up on GroupSpaces
NOVEMBER 2018 27