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Cultivating a Living Wisdom for Our Time
A Path to Discovering Beauty and the Beauty of Creation and the Creator
'Behind the beauty of the moon is the MoonMaker.'
There is Intelligence inside the ocean’s intelligence
Feeding our love like an invisible waterwheel.'
‘Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love. Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it.’-Rumi
There is, indeed, a beauty on earth that is beyond comprehension.
“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come.”- Jalaluddin Rumi, The Persian Sage of Beauty, Wisdom and Love.
Come, come, whoever you are, come
Do you hear that voice calling you, calling us?
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‘Are we forever doomed to be warriors, wired from birth to be belligerent? Or is there, deep inside our species, an equal propensity toward peace?’
The scene is the aftermath of a mustard gas attack on the Western Front in August 1918 as witnessed by the artist (John Singer Sargent)-Photo and Source
A century ago this week, the world’s first major industrialized war ended with an armistice. Across the globe, whole societies were forever changed by the war and the peace process that followed.
This week, is also the 78th Anniversary of the Coventry Blitz, my home city since 1974.
In recognition of these momentous anniversaries, and to encourage a further and more meaningful dialogue and understanding of the lasting imprint of these events on the present, I am recalling a sample of stories and articles that I have written over the past few years or so on war and peace, hatred and love, despair and hope.
But, first and foremost, I want to begin to pay homage to The man who changed the course of my life, when I first visited Coventry Cathedral in 1973 and saw these two words: ‘FATHER FORGIVE’:
The very Reverend Richard Thomas HOWARD (12 June 1884– 1 November 1981), Provost, Coventry Cathedral, 1933 to 1958
Reimagining a Better World: A World of Hope, Healing and Peace
Provost Richard Howard: The Man who Gave us the Gift of Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Provost Howard, whose vision and portrait of a humanity that need not be condemned to endless cycles of aggression was anticipated and foretold by a young British officer called Wilfred Owen, who died a mere week before the Armistice on November 11th 1918, one more senseless death among so many others senselessly wasted.
To quote Ariel Dorfman,* Owen was only 24 years old when he was killed, though he wrote some extraordinary poems about his wartime experience. In one of them, "Strange Meeting," he eerily anticipated the impending end of his own life, speaking of "the waste of war in its time." They are verses that today -- when humanity is assailed with similar stories of carnage, poisonous gas attacks and fears of apocalypse -- are just as painfully relevant as they were back then.
In that poem, Owen channels the voice of a soldier who strikes up an unnerving conversation with a dead man. Together, they mourn "the undone years, the hopelessness," until the dead man reveals he was killed the previous day by the very soldier narrating this encounter: "I am the enemy you killed, my friend... Let us sleep now."
Owen was to sleep forever, without seeing the conclusion of the "War to End All Wars," according to a phrase from H.G. Wells. As the interminable conflicts and victims of the next hundred years attest, nothing could have been further from the truth: we continue to slaughter each other as if the curse of Cain is ingrained in our DNA, as if we had learned nothing. Our political leaders attend war time ceremonies and keep promising to "protect the peace" while doing not nearly enough to really prevent war.
We live in a world ravaged by incessant strife and the rise of the extreme nationalism that led to the First World War, or the Coventry Blitz, for example, that so many now swear never to repeat.
‘Doctors in Syria and Yemen, mediators in Colombia and Afghanistan, citizens contesting rage in Israel and Palestine, peacekeepers in the Congo and Kosovo, women -- and men --denouncing war rapes, prove that there is no lack of brave members of our species ready to stand against the machines of war. What is lacking is the realization by us all that peace is a daily task, that must be carried out not by heroic, exceptional beings, but by every concerned parent and every vulnerable child.
Only when millions upon millions understand that struggle to be intimately theirs, will no more Wilfred Owens die, no more soldiers like him be sent to kill enemies whom they have never met and who could one day move in next door and become their best friends.’* Only then will all the brave and selfless peacemakers, like Provost Howard will rest, effectively, in peace.
*For the inspiration for the above piece, for the paraphrasing of the excerpts and more, I wish to thank Ariel Dorfman, for his excellent article, The boy who taught me about war and peace, which was originally published in the CNN on 15 November 2018.
...And now the stories, articles and more I had mentioned above:
Father Forgive: Its Impact on Me
Coventry and I: The story of a boy from Iran who became a man in Coventry
Centre for the Study of Forgiveness and Reconciliation
14 November 1940: The Destruction and Re-birth of Coventry
Coventry’s Message of Hope to the World on the Armistice centenary and Remembrance Sunday
A Non-Violent Path to Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding- Kamran Mofid (Editor), et al
Istanbul Declaration: A Non-Violent Path to Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding
Eurosceptics should visit Coventry Cathedral: The EU's Higher Purpose
Israel and Palestine: Can there be Peace?
The Road to Peace, Justice, Prosperity, Happiness and Well-being
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“...tomorrow morning Coventry will lie in smoke and ruins.” – Josef Goebbels, Ministry of Propaganda
At this time of nationalism and bombast, the Coventry message of hope reminds us of our shared humanity across backgrounds, faiths, civilisation and cultures. And at a time when our country is divided, pitting itself against our European neighbours, we’d do well to remember the hopeful and enduring story of Coventry.
St Michael's was elevated to cathedral status in 1918 but destroyed in 1940- Bridgeman Images
Photo:PA
The Enduring Beauty and Wisdom of Coventry Cathedral
This is Why Coventry Cathedral Has Inspired the World
After the devastation of World War Two, Coventry Cathedral, inspired by its visionary Provost, Richard Thomas HOWARD, did something remarkable – they sought forgiveness and reconciliation rather than revenge and more wars of destruction.
A Portrait Of Humanity: Provost Howard’s Gift to the World
The very Reverend Richard Thomas HOWARD (12 June 1884– 1 November 1981), Provost, Coventry Cathedral, 1933 to 1958
Richard Howard: The Man who has inspired us all to reimagine a better world: A World of Hope and Healing
This is Coventry’s Message to the World: Remember and Forgive, Reconcile and make Peace
A Message of Humility, Kindness and Hope
A Message for Our Time, A Message for All Time
14 November 1940: The Destruction and Rebirth of Coventry
“On 14 November 1940 the Luftwaffe launched its most devastating bombing raid of the Second World War so far. The target was Coventry, a manufacturing city in the heart of England with a beautiful medieval centre.”
‘in just one night more than 43,000 homes, 71 factories, the entire city centre, two hospitals, two churches and the police station had been destroyed by 449 German bombers, dropping 30,000 incendiary bombs. An estimated 568 people had died in the raid on the first night of bombing, with over one thousand people sustaining serious and life-threatening injuries;
‘as a result of their efforts, the Nazis coined the verb Coventrierung (literally, to Coventrate) to describe total annihilation of a city through aerial bombardment;
‘the next morning, while the rubble was still smouldering, Richard Howard, the cathedral Provost, had taken a piece of chalk and written on the sanctuary wall: “Father, Forgive”;
‘Richard Howard had made a bold move to break the cycle of vengeance. When the 1940 BBC Christmas Day service was broadcast from amongst the ruins of the cathedral, he vowed that, once the war was over, the cathedral would work with the people who had previously been their enemies “to build a kinder, more Christ-like world”;
‘inspired by the cathedral’s stonemason, who had made a wooden cross from the debris, Provost Howard made a cross from the nails that originally held the roof together. The destroyed altar was remade from the rubble, the crosses were placed on the new altar and the words “Father, Forgive” were inscribed on the wall behind;
‘after the war ended, the cathedral donated a “Cross of Nails” to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, which was also destroyed in the war. Today there are over 170 Cross of Nails Centres across the globe, each one owning a cross made from three nails from Coventry Cathedral, symbolizing the road to forgiveness and reconciliation…’ Continue to read: Father Forgive: It’s Impact on Me
The Coventry Litany of Reconciliation: The Charter for Forgiveness and Reconciliation the World Ever Needs
Photo: kmyra.ca
This is, once again, the timeless and noble message from Provost Richard Howard and Coventry Cathedral to those who think anger, revenge, retribution and war are what is needed to settle personal, regional and international disputes:
‘In the midst of war – a time when anger and defiance could have ruled the day – Provost Howard chose the harder, more transformative path. I wonder how our world might be changed today if we took on living the words of this Litany.’
‘After the bombing of Coventry Cathedral in 1940, Provost Richard Howard put the words “FATHER FORGIVE” on the wall behind the charred cross in the ruins of the destroyed cathedral in 1948. Not “Father forgive Them” – because we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3,23). These words have moved generations of people and are prayed in the Litany of Reconciliation every Friday at noon outside in the ruins, and in many other places around the world.
The Litany of Reconciliation, based on the seven cardinal sins, was written in 1958 by Canon Joseph Poole, the first Precentor of the new Cathedral. It is a universal and timeless confession of humanity’s failings, but it evokes us to approach these sins and weaknesses in the forgiveness of God’s love.’...Continue to read
...And this is What Provost Howard’s ‘FATHER FORGIVE’ has Meant for Today: Lest We Forget
The Queen and Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier attending a remembrance service at Westminster Abbey for those killed and wounded in the First World War, on Sunday 11 November 2018, 100 years since Armistice Day. GETTY IMAGES
Thank you Provost Howard. Thank You.
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