With all the talk about reconciliation these days in The Episcopal Church, the Community of the Cross of Nails (CCN) has become a valuable resource for those serious about reconciliation. CCN, an international ministry of reconciliation headquartered at Coventry Cathedral in England, has 43 centers of reconciliation in this country, including an active chapter at the Cathedral of St. Mark, Minneapolis.

The community emerged from the burned-out rubble of Coventry — a victim of World War II German bombing. More than 65 years later, CCN took its message of divine reconciliation to this century’s most hallowed rubble. Sept. 11, 2006, marked the grand opening of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Center at the General Theological Seminary in New York City.

Internationally, CCN has 160 centers around the world, according to the Very Rev. Spenser Simrill, dean of the Minneapolis cathedral. “It’s interfaith and ecumenical. The dominant consistency is Episcopalian,” he said recently. “But they also come from other traditions. We’re also establishing reconciliations in the Muslim community.”

He noted the community’s cornerstone and centerpiece is reconciliation.

“Reconciliation — the charge and imperative is uniquely Christian, going back to Paul’s great revelation in Second Corinthians (5:17-18): If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old has passed away, behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

“God has called us in Christ — undergirded by the rhythm of crucifixion, death and resurrection — to work through forgiveness,” Dean Simrill says. “He’s counting on us. Now we need to act like it. It’s not some nice, sweet theological idea. It’s our marching orders. We’re privileged to participate with God in breaking down hostility. It’s that big. It’s that important. And it’s hard work. It’s exciting, challenging, messy work. But it’s life-giving work. It’s redeeming work. It’s why we’re here.”

At St. Mark’s CCN chapter, the dean points out, “we have relationships with the Diocese of Cuba — you can imagine how hard it’s been to get in there — and with the Diocese of George in South Africa, rebuilding after years of apartheid. We’re working with the Diocese of Peru to establish the first CCN center there, and to build a medical center in Lima.”

Larry Swandby, a member of St. Mark’s who’s involved with CCN, joined Dean Simrill on several international missions.

“I met the staff in Coventry and went to South Africa to establish a relationship with our diocese in George,” he said. “From a CCN perspective, St. Mark’s offers support for the [George] diocese, but not as much financial … more moral support, Christian support.”

CCN has sent these broad ripples out around the globe by moving in the smallest of circles, literally. Its basic essence is the foyer group, or hospitality circle — small groups (fewer than 10 members, typically) that meet monthly to pray, meditate, and reflect on reconciliation.

“I know that I can’t single-mindedly, single-handedly solve all the brokenness of the world,” says the Rev. Jan Dougherty, a deacon at St. Mark’s. “But I can in my life, and the lives I touch. For me, that happens with prayer and within community. [CCN] brings a focus. It brings a reminder that there are people around the world committed to reconciliation and prayer. It’s a connection that’s quite powerful and hopeful.”

The format for the CCN hospitality circle gatherings varies.

“We always begin with a common prayer. We also do some silent prayer,” says Deacon Dougherty. “People share their lives; what’s happened with reconciliation in the last month. We read something … and reflect on that topic. We [close] with half an hour in fellowship, sharing some little treat. It’s food and fellowship.”

Lisa Brandt is a recently retired public health nurse and non-profit administrator who founded a rural AIDS action network in 1994. “From the outside, it probably looks like a support group,” she says. “But Minnesotans don’t do support groups.”

In her circle, “we don’t do handouts too much,” she says. “Some have brought them. But we don’t want to be a book club.”

“Mostly it’s a free for all … within ourselves, there’s reconciling who we are. There’s reconciliation of issues at St. Mark’s. We need more reconciliation to bring together [the parish’s] old timers and new timers. Some people have particular issues bothering them … say homelessness. The hardest part is reminding folks the push toward reconciliation goes on, and it’s a struggle.”

The CCN hospitality circle has many advantages. There’s the intimacy and shared experience. And at a cathedral as large as St. Mark’s, it’s an ideal way to draw additional spiritual insight.

St. Mark’s is the “cathedral for a state that is 10 hours from north to south — a huge territory,” says Ms. Brandt. “We’re not neighborhood neighbors. [Yet] it’s much more an intimate knowledge of each other than you’d ever get at coffee hour.”

Mr. Swandby, a cradle Episcopalian and retired attorney, has been “in the same original circle, along with five others,” since CCN came to St. Mark’s. “We really bond and grow close. I’ve never had the opportunity to experience an intimate trust with other Christians. When you belong to a large congregation, you know a number of people, several fairly well. But circles are unique. You can share your spiritual direction and thoughts.”

St. Mark’s CCN has fluctuated in size, but has around 300 participants.

“We’ve birthed a Center for Religious Inquiry to promote dialogue,” says Dean Simrill. “Former vice president Walter Mondale (a Presbyterian) is our chair. We’re also working on a Muslim, Christian and Jewish trip to the National Holocaust Museum [in Washington, D.C.]. St. Mark’s is involved with Somali-Mai. The Twin Cities have the largest population of people from Somalia in the entire United States. We’ve established friendships, we’re providing tutoring, and sponsoring Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops with them. We are responding to hunger [with] a Monday night supper that feeds homeless youth.”

But CCN’s work is not all active public witness. “We offer quiet days at St. Mark’s in Advent and in Lent,” Dean Simrill says. “We did one on Mary in Advent. Another was on the witness of John the Baptist: What does it mean to proclaim in our day what John did in his? Our last quiet day was on the beatitudes.”

To date, CCN has been a huge success at St. Mark’s, in part because of the creativity of its dean. “When Spenser came five years ago, he started talking about it all the time,” says Deacon Brandt. “All the time.” ❏

Willy Thorn resides in Bangkok, Thailand, and is an editor for the Union of Catholic Asian News.

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