THE Dean of Coventry, the Very Revd John Witcombe, has described standing within the ruins of Coventry Cathedral with the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on Friday, as “a precious moment”.
The cathedral was destroyed in a German bombing raid in 1940, by which 568 people were killed and 4300 homes were destroyed.
Mr Steinmeier’s state visit to the UK was the primary by a German president in 27 years, and included a royal carriage ride through the streets of Windsor, and a banquet at Windsor Castle. The President met the Dean five years ago, at a service on the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, in Berlin, to which he had been invited to introduce the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation.
The litany, written by Canon Joseph Poole in 1958, is prayed within the cathedral every weekday at noon and throughout the world by the Community of the Cross of Nails: a worldwide network of churches, peace-building, and reconciliation bodies. Provost Richard Howard had inscribed the words “Father, forgive” on the wall of the ruined cathedral, above a cross on the altar which is fabricated from charred roof timbers.
The President and his wife, Elke Büdenbender, had expressed a robust desire to go to Coventry; so this was “the fulfilment of a hope for all us to welcome him to the cathedral”, the Dean told the Church Times on Friday.
“To stand within the ruins with any of our many German visitors is a poignant experience, but especially so with the President. As he laid a wreath on the altar, formed of stones from the rubble of the destroyed cathedral, marking a moment of memory for the destruction wrought on our city, it was a precious moment.”
The party went directly from the altar to the Choir of Survivors sculpture by Helmut Heinze, gifted from the Frauenkirche Foundation, in Dresden, in 2012. “This sculpture serves as a memorial to those killed in Dresden, uniting us in remembrance of the loss suffered on all sides in war — an indication of reconciliation,” the Dean said.
The President and his party went on to go to the brand new cathedral, and viewed one in every of the unique crosses formed from nails which fell from the burning roof on the night of the bombing. Replicas of those crosses are actually made in a jail workshop in Würzburg, in Germany, and are presented to recent members of the Cross of Nails.
A brief service of reconciliation included prayers offered from a wide range of faith traditions. The Dean said: “I led the Lord’s Prayer within the German language — something I’ve chosen to do at major festivals and other significant occasions, as an indication of the reconciliation won for us in Christ, which unites us in prayer for a greater future for all.”
He described Coventry and Dresden at that service as “sharing a story shaped by destruction, rebuilding and courageous friendship. Yet our gathering stands for greater than the bond between two cities.
“It speaks of the enduring partnership between the United Kingdom and Germany — nations which have walked through the devastations of war, embraced reconciliation, and now stand side by side as advocates for peace in Europe and internationally.”
