A day that could change history.

In November 1995, twenty five years ago,I found myself driving with a Swiss French friend, Eva from Lausanne, Switzerland to Clermont-Ferrand, France to mark the 27th November 1095 as the 900th anniversary of  when Pope Urban II first called on his faithful knights and others to take up the cross and go to the aid of their Christian brothers in order to save Jerusalem from the infidels. 

It was a beautiful scenic drive but also a drive with a goal and a purpose in mind that had been forming in me for several years. I had a lot of anticipation about what was in front of us as we went to meet Lynn Green, the Reconciliation Walk director, and the  group who were travelling from the UK and France. Our purpose was to mark this 900th anniversary of the Pope calling for the crusades with a solemn day of prayer together. It was our opening event to begin to call Christians to participate in apologizing for the Crusades by walking and travelling the route of the First Crusade from Germany to Jerusalem. We would be apologizing on the basis of repenting for misrepresenting the character of Jesus Christ and corrupting his message of love and brotherhood for all. 

In 1095, Pope Urban II had received a letter from the Byzantine  Emperor Alexius asking for him to come to the aid of their “eastern brothers” who were being pressured by the Selcuk Turks breaking through the Empire’s border in Eastern Turkey. In simple terms, the Emperor was asking for “Western Christian mercenaries” to be sent to reinforce the Byzantine army. The Normans were at the time known as the best soldiers on offer and in the world of the Middle Ages, younger brothers of princes with no ability to inherit wealth were sent out to fight. Viewed through the Popes eyes, the Emperor was giving him a message that he could use to call his Christian knights to go to fight the Infidels and restore Jerusalem to Christian leaders instead of them fighting with their fellow Christian brothers in France. 

There was also another strand to this day in November. Knights and Church, and the wider European populace, had a spiritual sense that it was their responsibility to be sure that pilgrims could continue to walk safely to Jerusalem. Pilgrimages were a part of peninience that would help the pilgrim shorten his time in purgatory after his d,eath. There was also a feel of end times gathering of evil forces that needed to be conquered.

So on the 27th, after nine days of a church council, Pope Urban called for a gathering of clergy, knights and the general public to meet together in an open field. He called on the group as Western Christians to take up the sword and to go to the aid of their Eastern Christian brothers. For those who chose to go on this holy mission, he promised that the Church would forgive their sins which would allow them to go to heaven bypassing purgatory. He urged them to take up the Cross and to liberate Jerusalem by defeating the Turkish Muslims. When the Pope finished, cries went up from the crowd shouting “God wills it” God wills it”.  Knights came and knelt at his feet to be commissioned to go in the name of God to holy war. 

Over the next few months, Crusader fever spread across Europe igniting the imaginations of princes and their knights as well as ordinary people. Each would leave home to join this holy pilgrimage wearing a tunic marked with a large red Cross. The symbol of God’s love for all mankind was transformed into a symbol of death and destruction to God’s enemies. 

As our group of around 100 gathered in Clermont-Ferrand there was no pope present, just a group of ordinary people who all  felt a desire to be a part of a movement to say sorry. This does not represent us. Not in my name! We reflected on the historical facts, and we asked God to guide us as we shaped this modern response to an ancient event. 

I came to that day full of expectation. I had just led a Christian discipleship training school in Lausanne with 25 outstanding young people. Our 6 month school had been shaped by training that would help us grow in our spiritual walk with God so that our lives would be changed by Jesus’ teachings. We also trained with the understanding that we were going to Turkey to pioneer the message of apology that had been written for the Reconciliation Walk. At the end of that school, I had written Lynn explaining to him all the ways we saw the message being received by Turks, and it was all overwhelmingly good news. As someone read the apology in Turkish, the reader often became teary as they sought to explain what this message meant to them. It opened doors of hospitality and dialogue. It was a gift to see how a simple message restored friendship. 

So, sitting in our gathering in Clermont, I felt the awe of God’s goodness that here we were, ordinary people gathering together hoping and praying that this simple act would help build new relationships with the people of the Middle East. We prayed that day and talked about our dreams. We prayed for the walking teams that were beginning to form who wanted to actually walk the route of the First Crusade over the next 4 years. We prayed for Western Christians to respond and to come to participate in the Walk. We prayed that in some small way, we could be the message of the Gospel as we went forward in God’s love for his broken world.  This was a holy moment.

We all left Clermont with a commission in our hearts. It was as deeply held as that of crowd 900 years before. But this would be different. Since the Crusades the world had too often associated Christians and the Cross with death, greed, and domination of others. We were now going to seek to undo that image by being true followers of Christ who seek to love God and love their neighbours.  

Driving home, I felt the day marked the beginning of preparing to pack up my household goods and to move towards a pilgrimage to the Middle East and Jerusalem. But more deeply, I knew it was a day that could change history!

The adventure had begun.

This is the first of a series of blog pieces by Cathy Nobles, Training Director of the Centre, remembering the Reconciliation Walk from 1995-1999 in which she had a key part. More on the overall project here.