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I am aware that today we remember that it is 90 years since the end of the first world war and it has special meaning for me as members of my family fought with the ANZAC troops, including being at Gallipoli. However this morning I would like to share with you a story that has inspired me. It concerns a stocky 69 year old who got to his feet in the packed church of Sancta Maria Empfängnis, The Immaculate Conception of Mary, in the German town of Kleve and led the prayers saying,
“Lord, while the hatreds, the killings continue and much of the world is still in turmoil, this moment, I believe will be for You one of the good times, when You can see us together and working in unity for the good of all.”
Nearly half a century before that service in May 1991, Ray Hamley had helped destroy the Kleve church.
On 26th September 1944, when Flying Officer Ray Hamley took off his bomber from the Melsbroek airfield in Belgium. This was the week after the road bridge at Arnhem had proved to be a bridge too far. So, with German forces rushing in to stop any advance of allied troops, Ray’s plane had been ordered to bomb a key crossroads over the Spoy canal in the town of Kleve, called in English “Cleves”, just inside Germany’s border with the Netherlands. As they neared the town, Ray guided the pilot to the target area. As they flew over Ray released the eight 250 pound bombs from the bomb bay.
That evening at Melsbroek, photographs taken by the planes external cameras confirmed that as well as the crossroads, they had hit the railway station - and a church.
A week later, near Stettin on the Baltic coast, 17 year old Liesel Federal was reading her friend’s letter in disbelief. There had been a big raid on Kleve, her friend wrote. One bomb had destroyed the St Maria church and the house next door – the home of Liesel’s parents, the church caretakers. Her father and mother had been killed. She took compassionate leave and went to pay her last respects to her parents buried in the town cemetery. In 1945, as the war was ending, to escape the brutal Russians, Liesel left Stettin and made her way back to Kleve. There in 1948 she married Theo Megens and settled into a normal life. She gave thanks when in 1950 St Maria Empfängnis was one of the first churches to rise from the rubble.
In England Ray got married and became a teacher and thought no more about the war. He became a man at peace with the world. But small coincidences began stirring up the past. Eventually after being shown a newspaper cutting about a bombed church in Germany, in Kleve, he began to think. He had seen eight bombs strike Kleve. One had hit the crossroads; the second had hit the church. How about the others? What had happened in Kleve?
So on 24th August 1984, wrote a letter to the Mayor of Kleve, explaining the string of coincidences and admitted that he must have been the RAF bombardier who destroyed a local church. He wanted his letter passed onto the present parish priest. He wanted forgiveness. Come that November, he heard from the Mayor, “We accept your apologies as a sign of your sympathy and your compassion…………the church has now been rebuilt……you are most welcome to come and visit us.”
Then on 1st December, a package from St Maria’s parish priest arrived. He had read out Ray’s letter at all four masses one Sunday, telling his congregation, “If you think you are able to forgive this man as asked, please sign the letter at the back of the church.” More than 500 people signed, including Liesel Megens, whose parents had been killed by Ray’s bomb. Father Friedrich Leinung, the priest also sent in the parcel a specially baked bread of peace. Father Friedrich wrote saying, “We believe that we as a church, are allowed to speak for others and therefore would like to say that we admire your courage in coming out of anonymity and saying “It was me”. We are sending you a loaf of bread a sign of peace and oneness in the face of a terrible past.
The following summer Father Friedrich visited him and encouraged him to go to Kleve. Ray was unsure; some things are best left undisturbed. Father Friedrich told him there were many, many people for whom Ray’s presence would be valuable. “Just as you need to be forgiven, others need to forgive.” Eventually Ray agreed to go the following summer. On the morning of August 10th, 1986, the St Maria church was packed. Many wept as Ray gave a short address in which he asked for God to forgive him. “Many years ago, I deeply hurt the folk of this town………Thank you for guiding me to this place where I through You have found so much kindness and friendship………and most of all peace in my heart.” Outside the church afterwards Ray was introduced to a short red haired figure; Liesel Megens. They were yards away from the spot where her parents had died………the two simply wrapped their arms around each other.
After the service, Liesel Megens said, “The greatest gift Ray Hamley brought Kleve is the gift of peace. His war service in bombers must have called for considerable bravery. But I believe it took greater courage to reach out to us and search reconciliation with those whom he had brought such terrible suffering.”
Now, if anyone thinks I’ve gone soft and I’m destroying the meaning and message of Remembrance Sunday, they fail to understand the message in the second chapter of St Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus verses 11 to 22 and the meaning behind this story.
For as much as we personally may dislike war, if there is a great evil rampaging over this world of ours then a just war to combat it is right and proper. But only if the result it brings is a peace with justice for all. A peace without justice is a false peace, no peace at all. This is why so many wars that have been waged since the end of the Second World War have had no moral or ethical backing for them.
Where Remembrance Sunday is concerned, it is right that we should remember those who died in the wars of the world. Some will say it is time to forget, but is it? as wars continue even today. As long as there is one person who suffers as the result of war, one person who is cared for from the sale of a red poppy. Then we must remember.
Although Ray Hamley’s story stands adequately on its own and has many points in it to reflect upon, it is worth realising that it is a story that depicts a journey, a difficult journey of one man that if we stop and think about it does have relevance for each of us in our lives today. He had at the age of 21 been on a bombing mission to stop a great evil and in the process killed and injured innocent people. A sad, but inevitable thing that happens in wartime. Yet he felt that he needed to make peace with the people of Kleve and be reconciled to them. A difficult journey for anyone to embark upon but one that must be taken.
The journey contains a struggle for both sides. Each must overcome the animosity that they have felt for each other before they can truly forgive each other. To forgive someone for something they have done does not mean forgetting what they have done. God, when he forgives us the wrongs we do, does not forget what we have done but all the same forgives us wholeheartedly and so we should be with other people, otherwise we can never be reconciled and have that inner peace we all so desire as believing Christians.
Of course we have to realise that for some reconciliation is very hard as Ray Hamley found out when he visited an old people’s home. There lived a Mrs Eichenhöfer, who had lost most of her family in the bombing on Dresden and was open in her hatred of the British and the Americans. Father Friedrich had warned of this, yet Ray was non-plussed when a woman came in and made as if to walk right past with a fierce scowl on her face. Wondering what to do, he stepped forward towards her, hand extended as if for a handshake. Mrs Eichenhöfer wheeled round, then burst into tears and threw her arms around him. Release and forgiveness had come. Ray had gone in the love of God with a genuine feeling in his heart and God had taken the opportunity to turn one women’s closed heart and hatred totally around. She found herself able to truly love her old enemy. Mrs Eichenhöfer’s repentance, turning around does beg the question to all of us as to whether we should all go on hating or whether we should work for reconciliation. From the Christian view point it is the latter that is the true and proper course of action.
Ray’s story is of an Englishman going to Germany and their reaction to him. What we must consider in our hearts is what would be our reaction if this story was reversed and a German had come to us here with the same request. Would we be able to forgive?