October 31, 2025
Feature
Have Mercy on Us
Herman de Jong rides a Bach aria and his own experiences
to a place of lament, repentance and joy.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, when, with a great artillery of suspicious, black-and-white, theological wordplay, we gloss over the precious precedent of your long suffering and mankind’s.
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Recently Posted Stories
by Herman de Jong
A tale of deconstruction: He is alone. The dyke is still wrapped in morning mist and the sheep that keep looming up are standing motionless, except for one pleading lamb
This story is about three daddies and their firstborn babies. It happened at the first AACS Conference held at Niagara Christian College. It is better not to mention names.
we always gave . . . ach, ja . . .to so many good Christian causes. On New Year’s Day he’d get the shoebox and dump it all on the table . . . all the good Christian causes.
Once in Canada, Dirk Bult quickly climbed the social, church and Christian associations ladders. In all areas, he rose far above the average immigrant. His well-founded opinions were valued on the boards of Christian organizations. At church meetings, he tested the church council against the principles of the Reformed world view.
Recent Posts
by Henry J. de Jong
Wilderness Windows (10/24/2025) I like to imagine what it was like then — my neighbourhood, or ravine-riven Toronto, or the Sarnia savannah. It would be nice, just once, to hike through old woods from the lake shore to the escarpment or High Park to Forest Hill, or along the beach from Centennial to Bright’s Grove, and see nothing… …
Nikolaikirche (10/14/2025) Nicholai Church in Leipzig was the beating heart of East Germany’s Monday demonstrations that led to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 some 36 years ago …
Vennekerk 2023 (4/25/2025) This is the story of our van der Laan reunion worship service, the summer of 2023, in the now abandoned Vennekerk, the church where my parents came of age. …
Another Good Friday (4/18/2025) Herman de Jong’s prose story of “A Good Friday” has been with me for as long as he’s been gone — twenty-one years now. I wish I had known it before then, just as I wish I could have talked to him about it. …
Welcome to Middledom (2/25/2025) I’ve committed to buckling down for a while to translate and reissue the collected works of Herman de Jong in an accessible format and adding in what family histories I have. …
I am Indigenous (6/16/2024) The parallels between indigenous peoples, like those from Canada or northern Holland, are significant. …
City on a Hill (4/11/2024) I can never relive the experience of Amiens Cathedral, even after all the time I spent in its cavernous space that summer of 2023. …
Full Circle (4/28/2023) My father had no idea of his Reformed lineage; that his granddaughter would become a pastor and that he had generations of ‘dominees’ in his family. …
Young and Old Alike (8/10/2020) It was 50 years ago this month that the Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) held its first Family Conference in Niagara, Ontario, on the August long weekend. …
The Nature of Things (1/23/2017) The photographs in this exhibition of objects from my mother’s home are equally happy accidents, revealing the nature of things …Recently Featured Memoirs
by Ordinary and Extraordinary People
On the occasion of Justin & Laura’s wedding, July 5, 2025, we remember Harm & Dina’s marriage 91 years ago.
On the eightieth anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands, Harry van der Laan looks back with the eyes of a child.
Second World War: 1939-1945
In September 1939 the second World War started. I remember that many people were recruited for the army, the number of unemployed started to decline sharply and the economy picked up so at first we didn’t worry much about the war. We were confident that Holland could stay out of the war. I remember there […]
Poems and Prose
by Herman de Jong
Sunday Morning
sit still! how could i have sat still
when all the colours of the rainbow
quite unexpectedly began to
wiggle through the church?
November
The road between Orangeville and Listowel
stretched ahead of me, endlessly. A fine drizzle obscured