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In 1995, Richard Branson paid for two bronze copies to be cast. Fifty years after the end of the War, one was placed in the ruined part of Coventry Cathedral as a symbol of reconciliation between the European Nations which had gone to war. The other was placed in the Peace Garden at Hiroshima, on the site of the dropping of the first atomic bomb. On that occasion, the Prime Minister of Japan publicly apologised for what Japan had done in the war. Both the statues became signs of international reconciliation. Since then, further copies have been placed on the site of the Berlin Wall, at Stormont Castle in Northern Ireland and in South Africa.
Next Friday we keep again the Feast of Jesus Christ Transfigured on the Holy Mountain (the subject of the icon in our new Chapel of Transfiguration). You can read the story in St Luke 9: 28-36. It tells of God glorifying Jesus when our Lord was transformed by a glorious light coming down from Heaven.
A different bright light exploded over Hiroshima on the Feast of the Transfiguration in 1945. The light caused by the atom bomb has been described as 'brighter than a thousand suns'. Unlike the Transfiguration of Jesus which bathed his humanity in glory, the bright light of Hiroshima brought a terrible devastation of human life, not only through the deaths it caused but the on-going suffering that followed those who were burned by radiation. It could be argued that, no matter what led to its dropping, the atom bomb unleashed a terrifying symbol of what human beings can do to each other. It, and the War which caused it, brought humanity to one of our lowest points. I remember a teenage boy addressing the General Synod on the subject of that atom bomb and he cried out at the end - 'No more Hiroshimas, no more Hiroshimas!'
The story of Josefina's statue and what it has come to symbolise about peace, reconciliation and justice with mercy, has done a great deal to help raise our humanity from the depths of those terrible wartime days towards a new vision of peace and love. There is still much to do before we can live in a safe world, but each step we take brings us closer to a truth expressed by St Irenaeus which describes both our Lord's Transfiguration and ours: 'The Glory of God is human beings fully alive' - humanity seeking to live within the Glory and love of God.
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