Day 36 - Reconciliation
- Congregational Federation
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
The Bethlehem Carol sheet has been around for as long as I can remember. Literally. It was first produced in 1954 by the then Bible Lands Society to mark the centenary of their work supporting the social witness of Christians in the Middle East. We’ve just had delivery of a set of the 60th edition which I will be using in carol services I’ll be leading in a local Day Centre. It’s worth getting the most recent edition as it has updates of all that’s going on in ‘the lands of the first nativity’ as ‘the Church continues to offer healing and hope today’. In 2012 the Charity changed its name and is now known as Embrace the Middle East. Its work has gone from strength to strength. ‘Where there is a need – for refuge, a home, healthcare, education, justice and human rights –,’ they explain in the introduction to the latest Bethlehem Carol Sheet, ‘we, with our partners respond’.
This Advent Embrace the Middle East are joining the Community of the Cross of Nails, a worldwide community of 280 churches and other organisations based in Coventry Cathedral with a vision to work for reconciliation. As they join, Embrace the Middle East will pledge to ‘join with others around the world to play their part in healing the wounds of history, learning to live with difference and celebrating diversity, building a culture of justice and peace’.
They have launched a new resource to help all of us talk about Israel and Palestine: Gracious Dialogue: A Guide to Listening and Speaking Well About Israel and Palestine. It’s well worth getting hold of.
Thirty years ago a remarkable sculpture was placed in the ruins of the first Coventry Cathedral. By one of the greatest sculptors of the twentieth century, Josefina da Vasconcellos, it is simply called ‘Reconciliation’. It had originally been made as a small piece in the 1950s called ‘Reunion’, inspired by the ‘reunion’ of two refugees after the second world war who had been on different sides of the conflict.
When the Society of Friends initiated a School of Peace Studies at Bradford University in 1972, the sculpture was renamed, and a larger bronze cast of ‘Reconciliation’ was placed in pride of place in the University. Thirty years ago in 1995 a copy was placed in Coventry. Following the conclusion of the Good Friday Peace Settlement, a copy was placed by Mo Mowlem in the grounds of Stormont in Northern Ireland. At the Millennium a church that had once stood on the East German side of the Berlin Wall and had been demolished by the regime, was rebuilt and reopened as ‘The Church of Reconciliation’. In the grounds, there is another copy of the same sculpture. There’s one in Hiroshima, and another in Dresden.
As Christmas approaches, whether or not you find yourselves using The Bethlehem Carol Sheet, remember the work of Embrace the Middle East and its fresh commitment to reconciliation in the Middle East.
And recall the words of the Josefina Da Vasconcellos’ poem which she composed alongside the sculpture.
I and my enemy met,
now free to wander,
but too tired to go.
Suddenly weak, we staggered,
gripping for support,
and fell to our knees . . .
In the mud, between us,
lay the bones of a child.
We prayed God for forgiveness
and in that moment
were reconciled.
Margaret Lewis, Josefina de Vasconcellos (Flambard Press, 2002).
Richard Cleaves
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