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19/11/2016

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Claire Campbell Smith.

2 minutes

Last on

Sat 19 Nov 2016 05:43

Script

Good morning. 聽I remember the chill I felt as a teenager when I went through Checkpoint Charlie to visit East Berlin. 聽I鈥檇 read of families forced apart, of people shot as they tried to escape to the West, but found it hard to comprehend the idea of a wall dividing a city, separating its people. 聽Now I saw the barbed wire and the watch towers. 聽
So in November 1989, I rejoiced to see the Berlin Wall torn down, the euphoric crowds pouring across it. 聽Memorably, the American, Leonard Bernstein, conducted Beethoven鈥檚 9th Symphony in Berlin that Christmas Day. 聽For him, the finale鈥檚 Ode to Joy, a celebration of love, peace and brotherhood, had always been associated with the year of his birth, 1918, when hostilities ended in the first World War. 聽鈥淲e鈥檙e all children of one father,鈥 he said, 鈥渓et us embrace one another.鈥
All that might sound a rather hollow note today when walls seem to be going up rather than coming down. 聽 Migration has raised complex issues, but the response doesn鈥檛 speak of an increasingly globalised world. 聽
The central thought of St Paul鈥檚 letter to the Ephesians is of God as the great unifier. 聽Of two communities 鈥 Jew and Gentile 鈥 who鈥檇 previously been totally isolated from each other, he says: 鈥淐hrist is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.鈥澛
Lord, we belong to one humanity. 聽May we order our world in a way that recognises our inter-connectedness. 聽Amen.

Broadcast

  • Sat 19 Nov 2016 05:43

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