Cross of Nails
Volmoed is part of the Community of the Cross of Nails. It is an ecumenical international network of centres committed to reconciliation based on forgiveness. It is the oldest Christian network dedicated to reconciliation in the world.
Its foundation goes back to the night of the 14 November 1940 when Coventry Cathedral in the UK was bombed. The Cathedral was bombed by the German air force and the shocked citizens of Coventry gazed with horror on their ruined city and cathedral. Five hundred and forty people died, nearly two thousand houses were destroyed, the city centre was left in ruins, and the fourteenth century cathedral was destroyed by fire, only the tower and the outside walls were standing.
It would have been so easy to call for vengeance, for German cities to be destroyed in the same way as Coventry, to hate the German people for what that had done.
But instead, due to the visionary Provost Richard Howard, a different message was preached. He wrote the words “Father forgive” on the smoke blackened wall of the sanctuary of the ruined cathedral – meaning not “Father forgive them” but “Father forgive us all” – we are all guilty of hurting our brothers and sisters, and of marring the image of God in us.
In the days after the bombing, the first “cross of nails” was made from medieval nails that had fallen from the roof of the cathedral. Since then, the cross of nails has become the symbol of the cathedral and its ministry.
At Christmas 1940, Provost Richard Howard addressed the United Kingdom calling for forgiveness and the rebuilding of links with Germany when the war was over. He incurred strong opposition as the people of England were still hurting from repeated bombing attacks from the Luftwaffe.
After the war, crosses of nails were presented to Kiel and Dresden, cities in Germany that had been shattered by Allied bombing raids. Partnerships between Coventry and German cities were quickly established with young people from Coventry traveling to Dresden to help rebuild the Deaconess Hospital which had been destroyed by British bombers and a group of Germans coming to Coventry to build the vestry of the Cathedral.
Out of the ashes and destruction of war grew a new trust and friendship between two countries that in the past were bitter enemies – the process of reconciliation had begun.
Today there are 220 centres in over 60 different countries.
All centres pray regularly the Litany of Reconciliation, most but not all do this on Friday at noon.
Volmoed was presented with a Cross of Nails on Monday 16 April 2001. It is framed and hangs in the Chapel.