Eighteen of us gathered for lunch in St Paul’s, then settled in the lounge to listen to Canon Graeme Pringle talk about the “Cross of Nails”. He began by detailing the waves of the “Moonlight Sonata” air raid on Coventry during the awful night of 14-15 November 1940, and showed us what the city looked like the following day. He also showed us a picture of what the Provost of the Cathedral scrawled on the broken wall behind the altar: “Father forgive” (now more impressive in gold lettering) – and explained how powerful these words became, not just in Coventry and around the UK, but also in Germany and many other countries. He had more photos of the original ‘cross of nails’ which the Provost made out of three long nails from the destroyed building, and set up on the altar. This symbol is now integrated into the logo of the Diocese of Coventry. We learned of the development of the Community of Cross of Nails, which has become a network of 260 organisations in 45 countries on five continents. Most of the partners are in Germany, the UK, Ireland and the USA. The Coventry Diocese has on its staff a Canon for Reconciliation Ministry – a full time post, which was filled by Justin Welby, our current Archbishop of Canterbury, when he was based at Coventry Cathedral. He still wears a cross of nails – as you can see in the photo of him with Desmond Tutu. Graeme shared with us the ‘Litany of reconciliation’, prayed regularly by the Community. And emphasised how a focus on reconciliation is a key priority for people and churches in Coventry today. What a very moving and informative talk.
MIRTH 