St. Stephen's Church

Three months ago, I linked to a drone shot of a church in The Netherlands known colloquially as Steven's Church. That post is here. I said there that I would one day come back and say why this church, and this footage of it, is meaningful to me. Now is a good time to try to explain it.

To begin, I again highlight the drone shot.



To grasp how this footage first made me feel, I need to tell a story about myself. I have never been drawn to music. In fact, even in my youth I rarely had records or tapes or even listened to the radio. Although there was a short period where I listened to country music when I was in Los Angeles as a boy in film school. But even that passed.

But a year ago, I had a strange experience. I saw a YouTube video of Amira Willighagen, and it was life-changing. I was so moved and affected, though I did not even understand the words she sang, that I began to hunt down all her songs. And eventually I studied her life, and even applied to join a fan site. Amira was still a young girl when I discovered her. She was 15. Having been discovered as a prodigy when she was only 9 years old, when I first heard of her she had just ended a whirlwind period of international stage appearances. And had recently moved with her mother and brother to South Africa. I was so moved by her music I thought of going to Europe to attend a concert, and began to study when and where I might see her.

Finally, I learned that, after a long absence from Europe, she would appear for a series of Christmas concerts in the Netherlands and Belgium. I literally considered going, but in the end I was too chicken. But knowing she would perform for Christmas, I waited and hunted the internet for the first peak of this rare appearance.

Now since Amira was a small girl, she had a tradition of appearing at St. Stephen's Church at Christmas, and singing with the Nijmegen Royal Men's Choir. Her concert with them was planned for December 15, but, unusually, this year it would not be televised. It was a private engagement for ticket holders only. No cameras would be allowed. Now as I studied and learned all this, I found out she would be at two other concerts that would be filmed. So while no one could see the St. Stephen's Church concert, others would be available on Christmas day. These concerts were all shot in the days leading up to Christmas - Dec. 1 in Turnhout, Belgium, Dec. 9 in the Hague, Dec. 15th in Nijmegen, and Dec. 16th in Dreumel.

I then learned that I would be seeing a concert by her in Dreumel on Christmas morning, filmed by a Dutch TV station, and I could hardly wait. I marked my calendar. And as the day approached and I waited, I stumbled upon the drone footage -- a beautiful art film of the interior of St. Stephens Church, taken by a filmmaker by the name of John Beckmann with his aerial drone on the very morning of Amira's concert with the Nijmegen Men's Choir. I did not yet understand that this was a different concert venue than the one that would be televised, and so I thought it was the church I would be seeing. Thus it was, for me, unbelievably exciting to see, a build up of tension to the moment she would perform that was nearly unbearable. Only hours after the drone footage was done, in fact, Amira did appear there, though hidden from cameras. It has never been seen.

But then I woke on Christmas morning, and there was the full concert by Amira at Dreumel, that had been filmed on the 16th.



And this was the concert I watched breathlessly Christmas morning. It was the best Christmas I ever had, alone at my computer on the morning of Dec. 25, 2019.

And now here are my thoughts.

St. Stephen's Church is in Nijmegen, the city of Amira's birth and the oldest city in The Netherlands. St. Stephen's Church is itself the oldest Church in the Netherlands. That concert with the Men's Choir, where cameras were not allowed, occurred on December 15, 2019, which was the third Sunday of Advent. This day has immense spiritual significance in the Christian Church, signifying the advent in three senses, the last being the awaited and anticipated imminent return of Christ. Just two weeks later, after these halls fell silent, on Dec 31, 2019, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province.[source] Three months later, churches all over the Christian world, both in the East and the West, would fall silent -- as if it had been the last Christmas. Amira herself remains in strict lockdown in her home in Potchefstroom, South Africa along with her mother and brother.

It is now as if the world is holding its collective breath, much as I did in those anxious days leading up to Christmas to hear Amira sing. The halls are empty like in the drone shot.

The above two photos are from the St. Stephen's Church concert that was not recorded.

Below you see crowds at the moment they are let into the church in Dreumel the following night (the concert portrayed above in the video).

Here is Amira singing at the Hague.

And here is Amira and another girl named Marjolien, performing for a series of Nursing Homes for Christmas.

The Nijmegen Royal Men's Choir has long had a genuine affection for Amira, as this photo taken right after a Christmas concert at St Peter Canisius Church, Nijmegen in December 2015 clearly shows. Click to enlarge for full effect.