By creating a place for learning and understanding, Mozes-en-Aaronkerk, encourages the progression of people in the work place and in their lives. We facilitate continuing education courses, training for the unemployed and organize meetings for people with AIDS and other long-lasting or fatal illnesses. 

The Mozeshuis, which is located next to the church, is an Education Center for Adults. We organize courses for unemployed people there, to help them to apply for jobs. We also teach them and many others, basic computer skills. There is also a regular programme for people who have retired from work; we provide a course, which prepares them for their new lives after many years of work. We also offer courses for women giving them the necessary skills for working in a business environment. From 1987 onwards the Moses house has organized meetings for people with AIDS and other long-lasting or fatal illnesses. We have published some books about this topic--one in English, which is called ‘Future with Aids'. In summer there is a summer school; in winter, a winter academy. Both offer four-week programmes on social issues. This involves speeches and discussions, but also trips in Amsterdam, to places where people normally don't go. 

The history of this church, Mozes-en-Aaronkerk, goes back to the "Alteratie" when secret churches sprang up everywhere, since Catholics no longer dared to hold services in public. In 1641 Father Boelenzs purchased the Moses and Aaron House in Jodenbreestraat and converted it into a church. In the course of time the church was enlarged, and it was consecrated in 1841, after its transformation into its present neo- Classical form by a Belgian architect. Today the Moses and Aaron Church is no longer a house of God but a youth club where yoga is taught, tea dispensed and sitar concerts given. There are still times, however, when foreign workers threatened with deportation come here in search of a secret refuge.

Location

Amsterdam, Netherlands