In a worship serve on May 15, Duke Divinity School formally joined the Community of the Cross of Nails, a worldwide community of organizations dedicated to the ministry of reconciliation.

The community emerged through reconciliation work that took place after World War II. During the war, the Coventry Cathedral in England was bombed into ruins by German forces in November 1940. A vicar of a nearby church found three medieval nails in the wreckage and bound them together to form the first Cross of Nails. After the war, English and German people worked together to build a new cathedral in Coventry next to the ruins of the original as a testimony of the atrocity of war and the hope of reconciliation, and the global Community of the Cross of Nails was born.

The Very Reverend John Witcombe (Dean of Coventry Cathedral, UK)
The Very Rev. John Witcombe, Dean of Coventry Cathedral, preaches in Goodson Chapel, next to a cross of nails.

During the service, which also opened the school’s Summer Institute for Reconciliation and was co-led by the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies (AEHS), the Very Rev. John Witcombe, Dean of Coventry Cathedral, preached and presented the school with its own cross of nails made in Germany.

Witcombe said joining the Community of the Cross of Nails was “like placing a cairn on the path” to reconciliation, reminding members of their call when the path becomes difficult.

“To be called to the path of reconciliation is not to be called to an easy path,” he said. “The people who are called are called because their hearts have been broken.”

"I’m hopeful that having something like the visible reminder of our participation in the Community of the Cross of Nails in our midst will be something that calls us to that work day in and day out."

The Very Rev. Timothy Kimbrough

The guiding principles of the community are healing the wounds of history, learning to live with difference and celebrate diversity, and building a culture of justice and peace. Partners are invited to pray the Litany of Reconciliation together across the world each month.  

Dr. Balmaceda, Fr. Kimbrough, The Very Rev. John Witcombe (Dean of Coventry Cathedral, UK), and Rev. Ian McPherson
Dr. Nina Balmaceda, associate director for the Center for Reconciliation, and Kimbrough are presented with the cross by Witcombe and the Rev. Ian McPherson, a minister at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, which is also a member of the Community of the Cross of Nails.

Said the Very Rev. Timothy Kimbrough, director of the AEHS and Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of the Practice of Anglican Studies: “As far as the particular vocation for the Divinity School in the Community of the Cross of Nails, I think there are many. We are in part outward facing with our ministry of reconciliation—this kind of call that suggests all of us have to make this move into the world to be ambassadors or agents of reconciliation as Christians.

“I also imagine, however, that as this Divinity School is increasingly ecumenical, as the denominational diversity of the seminary continues to grow, that there’s reconciliation work we often assume among us but don’t specifically tend to. I’m hopeful that having something like the visible reminder of our participation in the Community of the Cross of Nails in our midst will be something that calls us to that work day in and day out.”