Pieterskerk, Leiden
Thanksgiving Day Service - November 23rd
OAR - OVERSEAS AMERICANS REMEMBER
Signup is not required, you can certainly join last minute.
Date: Thursday, November 23rd
Time: 11am - 12pm
Location: Pieterskerk, Kloksteeg 16, 2311 SL Leiden
If you plan to take the train, meet in front of Starbucks at Den Haag Central Station at 9:45 am. Contact Melissa Crijns at 06-1964-1962 for train schedule details.
“Without Leyden, there would be no Plymouth.”
Please join us on Thanksgiving morning at the historic Pieterskerk for the annual non-denominational Thanksgiving Day Service. There will be a Catholic priest, Protestant ministers, a rabbi and a cantor. Our Dutch friends and friends from All nations and of All faiths are welcome. This is a service for everyone!
Thanksgiving at the Pieterskerk in Leiden is unique. The PIlgrima lived in its
surroundings from 1609 to 1620. Some of the descendants of Moses Fletcher, a Leiden Pilgrim and subsequently a signer of the Mayflower Compact, still live there.
Ria Koet, his direct descendant, will tell the story of her family.
On July 17th 1989, during 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. Standing in the resplendent Pieterskerk, he said,
“And it was from this place the Pilgrims set their course for a
New World. In their search for liberty, they took with them
lessons learned here of freedom and tolerance.”
The Bush family trace their ancestry to Francis Cooke, a signer of the Mayflower
Compact and a Leiden pilgrim. A total of nine American Presidents are
descendants of the Leiden Pilgrims including John and John Quincy Adams and
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Teddy Roosevelt.
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 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 and the story of all nations that aspire to be free.
Leiden Alderman Julius Terpstra will welcome everyone and the Honorable Shefali Razdan Duggal, US Ambassador to the Netherlands will share her thoughts. The congregation will sing familiar hymns. Coincidentally, one of them, “We Gather Together,” is Dutch and familiar to Dutch people as “Wilt Heden Nu Treden.” The vocal group, JAKK and the Band of the American School will be there, as will the Scouts and “The Little Pilgrims.” You won’t forget Thanksgiving in Leiden! Come.
Sponsored by: OAR - Overseas Americans Remember
Information: oarinnl@yahoo.com tel: 0654253650
CAR POOL, if possible (or join us on the train)
Please bring some COOKIES for coffee time after the service!