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July
I love wandering around towns and cities, looking
for the unusual, soaking up the atmosphere and discovering something
of the history of the place. What I don’t always do is take
the normal tourist trail – I’d rather remain incognito
and ‘go native’. But with a short time to enjoy a visit
to Nuremberg, a group of us took the two-hour walk around the old
part of the city. I say ‘old’ but in fact 90% of this
medieval city was destroyed by allied bombing in the 2nd World War.
Our guide, born and raised in Nuremberg handled the
pain of the past with great sensitivity, mentioning in passing the
tragedy of Coventry, which was the first UK city to suffer a similar
fate through German bombing.
Post war, the city fathers lovingly rebuilt the most important of
the medieval buildings and recreated their history for future generations
to appreciate. A new city, built with due regard for the past, has
grown up alongside the old. It was and still is a beautiful place.
One abiding memory of our tour took place in the parish Church of
St Sebaldus. Attached to a column was a small cross made out of
3 nails, a gift from Coventry and one of a set of crosses sent to
other towns and cities where religious buildings had suffered similar
destruction. Each week, this gift is the centre of a simple service
of reconciliation; remembering the anger and hatred that divides
nation from nation and race from race; indifference to the plight
of homeless and refugees; envy of the welfare and happiness of others
and the pride that leads us to trust in ourselves and not in God.
The liturgy displayed nearby asks both for forgiveness and also
the capacity to forgive.
It struck me that it is a beautiful thing to look not just to the
terrors and errors of the past but to appreciate that the danger
is always there. That such a conflagration could happen in the future
is always a possibility because we are just as human and those who
gathered on the parade grounds at Nuremberg, or those who ordered
the firebombing of Dresden. We are all subject to the same emotions
and prejudices.
The gift of that small cross as a symbol of hope, and the way it
has been embraced with such enthusiasm reminds me that we often
carry around hatred and prejudice as a burden, when we should in
fact be seeking a release through reconciliation, between ourselves
and others, and between ourselves and God.
That cross also reminds me that all are created equal in the eyes
of God. It is only mankind that makes distinctions.
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