28 March 2025

When my younger son and I were in Leipzig following in the footsteps of JS Bach, we visited the Nikolaikirche. There we saw a Nail Cross on the altar which had been sent to the church by Coventry Cathedral. It was part of their ministry of reconciliation which developed after their cathedral was destroyed in 1940.

Roof nails were combined to make this cross. It has been replicated many times and sent to various parts of the world. The Nikolaikirche was one of the key places where young people gathered together to protest about communist oppression. They were instrumental in bringing down the Berlin Wall.

We saw the original Nail Cross in the new Coventry Cathedral built at right angles to the ruin. It has its own cross of burnt embers which fell from the roof in the shape of a cross. It was placed in the destroyed chancel by Provost Howard who chalked the two words, ‘Father Forgive’ on the wall.

They were later engraved  in gold letters. The provost did not write the words of Jesus, ‘Father forgive them.’ but ‘Father forgive.’ He was acknowledging that it wasn’t just the enemy who needed forgiveness. We needed it too.

Six weeks later, he was invited to broadcast a Christmas message from the ruins of the cathedral. He was accompanied by the cathedral choir who sang the medieval, ‘Coventry Carol’. It appears in the collection of Mystery Plays from the city.  In his broadcast, the Provost made a courageous statement.   

‘What we want to tell the world is this: that with Christ born again in our hearts today, we are trying, hard as it may be, to banish all thoughts of revenge; we are bracing ourselves to finish the tremendous job of saving the world from tyranny and cruelty; we are going to try to make a kinder, simpler — a more Christ-like sort of world in the days beyond this strife.’