麻豆约拍

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Harry Baker

Good morning.

Sixty years ago today, Berliners woke up to a divided city, with a wall through the middle splitting East and West. I was lucky enough to live in Germany for a year while studying, and on trips to Berlin I was always struck by how present the history felt compared to somewhere like London. As well as remnants from both world wars still being very much on show, being able to walk along a large section of the wall in the present moment felt as visceral as when I was able to do something similar in Northern Ireland, and brought back memories of the first time I visited Israel/Palestine and was faced with the brutality of another wall that I hope will one day too will be relegated to the history books.

I lived in Germany in 2016 and there was so much I loved about my year there, but one of the most exciting moments was being here for the Football World Cup. As well as an excuse to visit beer gardens for most of the summer the team went on to win the tournament emphatically, something that held a special significance for the country as it was the first time they had won it since entering separate teams as East and West Germany.

I was reminded of that this year watching the England football team, when for a moment it felt like the country could be united behind this young and new vision of what being English can mean, and yet seeing the racist abuse and the fallout afterwards was a reminder of how many walls do still exist for us, be they physical or otherwise. The same way refugees were shut off from fleeing from east to west Germany overnight, there are those who remain committed to closing our borders rather than seeing the humanity of others. Yet I am also heartened that for the 28 years that the Berlin Wall stood it has now been 32 since it came down.

God of possibilities, may you remind us of our humanity, and our ability to build bridges and not walls.

That all that is built can be broken
All that is broken can be fixed
All that is fixed does not have to be set in stone
One day we鈥檒l tear down those bricks.

Amen.