Coventry Cathedral

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On a trip to Coventry today, I visited the old and new cathedrals, expecting to hear from the Holy Spirit while I was there. But he began pouring out thoughts before I left and continued after I arrived home. He delights in abundance!

I spent much of today in Coventry, visiting the Cathedral. There are actually two buildings, the old cathedral and the new cathedral, they stand side by side linked by a canopy. The old one is a ruin, destroyed by fire during a night of German bombing in World War II. The new one is the replacement built in the 1950s and 60s. My reason for going was that I have felt for a few weeks that Father wanted me to visit and that he would speak to me while I was there. And he did.

This was the first day that has been both free in my diary and forecast to be sunny. It seemed important to go on a sunny day.

I parked the car in a rather scruffy area marked as the Cathedral Car Park, walked past a university hall of residence and then turned left. I spotted the Cathedral immediately. I remember coming here with my parents to see the building progress so I recognised the scene right away. There's a lot that I could say about the day. Unexpectedly, I began hearing from the Spirit while I was preparing to set out, then again while I was in Coventry,  and yet again in the evening after returning home.

But I'll save that for another time. Tonight I want to leave you with some words of Simon Barrington-Ward, offered as part of his enthronement speech when he became Bishop of Coventry in 1986.

Coventry Cathedral itself offers us a wonderful picture of what Christ's love could do in us. On the night after the bombing when the roof had gone and all those matchless pillars, arcades and clerestories lay on the ground in broken heaps, it took the eye of faith to see what yet could be....Out of the sole sore loss and brokeness was fashioned a new harmony, a new richness, the sign of a healing and reconciling influence was to reach out all over the world.

That is what God's new love in Christ can do in us if only we will yield ourselves to him. The ruins of our very gifts and failure can be made new and brought into a greater pattern.

Yes, exactly! 'The ruins of our very gifts and failure.' I found those words tonight in a little guide book, 'Coventry Cathedral after the flames'.

'The ruins of our very gifts and failure.' It's true, isn't it? I can wield my gifts like weapons to cut down those who see things differently. I've been guilty of precisely that. And that is why the fruit of the Spirit is more fundamental than the gifts of the same Holy Spirit. A gift can be mishandled, misused, misapplied. It's not possible to do that with the fruit. (Galatians 5:13-26)

See also: Coventry pilgrimage

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