Landscape contribution: €750 for Stevens Church
We were able to transfer €750 last week to the Nijmegen Stevenskerk as a contribution to the maintenance of the church. We saved the money from donations pilgrims give us for the starter kits: our landscape contribution.
Hospitality
For eight years now, the Stevens Church has been offering hospitality as the start and end point of the Walk of Wisdom. We are happy about that!
The church has stood for 750 years in the heart of the city, atop a hill. For years, the church has been much more than just a spiritual living room, but also an important public building. A Nijmegen native reportedly only feels at home when he sees the Stevenstoren from afar. Or as stated in the city’s unofficial national anthem:
“Though I must curl, Barefoot goan
I want to remember St. Steven one more time.”
(Graodus fan Nimwegen)
The church has nailed a 2.2-meter-tall statue of our symbol Pilgrim against the interior wall near the entrance. This is where pilgrims like to have their photos taken after their 136-kilometer trek. Volunteers from St. Thomas Church welcome the pilgrims. So as a thank you for this hospitality, we like to give something back each year by remitting a portion of our landscape contribution to the church.
Different kind of visitor
Nice to report: staff at St. Thomas Church tell us that they are happy with us at the church, too. The pilgrims are a different kind of audience than the tourists and day-trippers who outnumber the church today. After days of walking in nature, pilgrims bring a very different experience of the world inside. More connected to their feelings and their environment. An experience that fits well with the main spiritual function of St. Thomas Church. Beautiful is that!
Stevens Church: two personal favorites
The Stevenskerk has a particularly diverse calendar of events and also hosts the Four Day Festivities or Radboud University. There is a weekly (ecumenical) church celebration. There is a silence chapel and the church’s volunteers are happy to tell visitors about the building’s rich history. The traces of the 1566 Iconoclasm can still literally be seen there.
Two of my own favorites: (1) a stone cat, high on a church buttress – a mason’s tribute to the stray cats that lived in the church after the bombing of WWII. (2) a beautiful medieval fresco of a female saint with a beard!
Start looking for it…. Or unwind in the building with a cup of coffee or tea at the Stammtisch. More: here.
