Articles

There have been quite a few items in the British media recently about forgiveness. It would seem that either the readiness to forgive is becoming more widespread or that editors are prepared to give the subject more space.

Ten years ago an Irish Republican Army bomb (IRA ) destroyed St Ethelburga’s, one of the few surviving medieval churches in London. Now, it has been rebuilt as a centre of peace and reconciliation.

The word forgiveness, or 'the F word' as it is described in an exhibition that has just opened in London, carries with it a lot of unhelpful baggage.

You will not hear from most of them any glib anti-Americanism. They may at times have disagreements with aspects of US foreign policy but their prevailing sentiment, as it has been for sixty years, will be one of appreciation of American generosity.

On the night of 14/15 November 1940 much of the Coventry city centre was destroyed. Yet, only six weeks after the bombing the cathedral’s provost, Dick Howard, did a radio broadcast from the ruins asking the British people to say ‘No’ to revenge and ‘Yes’ to forgiveness.

When a former British diplomat, Archie Mackenzie, led a British group on a mission to China, he told his Chinese hosts that he wanted the group to be taken to the old ruined summer palace of the Emperor. This sensitivity to the feelings of others marked Mackenzie’s work in his 32 years of diplomatic postings around the world.

Nothing since 11 September has so shaken public faith in the future than the unrelenting tit for tat of Israelis and Palestinians. Many wonder if they could ever become friends.

It would be easy, particularly after September 11, to feel desperate about the world and to have doubts about the capacity of human beings to live together.

My Scottish grandfather wrote two books, ‘The Roman Church, Is it Holy?’ and ‘The Jesuits. Are They Christian?’ My Irish grandfather, who had served in the British Army, was told at the time of Irish independence, ‘You leave Ireland by the end of the week or be shot.’

A St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace will rise from the rubble.