The Community of the Cross of Nails: Its story and template for Hope

Truth + Forgiveness = Reconciliation

I have been involved with the Community of the Cross of Nails for over 25 years: currently I serve as the President of the CCN-North America. Its story began on the night of the 14^th of November, 1940 in the city of Coventry, England.   Its medieval cathedral was destroyed by the bombs of the German Luftwaffe that also destroyed much of the city.  In the midst of the rubble, a priest took three large roofing nails forged in the Middle Ages and bound them with wire. In the terrible aftermath that followed, Provost Howard wrote "Father Forgive" on the smoke-blackened wall of the sanctuary, leading the people of the city away from a feeling of bitterness and revenge.  After the war a new cathedral emerged alongside the ruins, and Coventry began a ministry of peace and reconciliation with Germany.  Crosses of nails were presented to Kiel, Dresden and Berlin, cities shattered by Allied bombing. In October I will attend a meeting of the German CCN: my second visit to Germany to see the work of healing that goes on decades after the war.   

Today the cross of nails is a powerful and inspirational symbol worldwide of reconciliation and peace, worn by the new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and South Africa's Desmond Tutu.  The Community of the Cross of Nails is a network of people throughout the world.     

The call to forgive and reconcile is never easy and is truly life-long. But this much we know: Jesus called on us to love our enemies and to seek forgiveness from the God who forgives us.  It can be an unhappy process at times leading to unsatisfying conclusions: it is not always accompanied by a "warm and gentle" feeling but rather a dry sense of acceptance.  

In this post-modern world of terrorist attacks, mass-killings, political divide and stalemate, finger-pointing, road-rage and instantaneous communication making it easier to spread both information and misinformation, there can be in all of us a very human impulse to lash out and seek revenge and retaliation. Christ shows us a different way.