Home
Welcome to our website for the
Three Valleys Team Ministry
There is a story of two peacemakers who visited a group of Polish Christians ten years after the end of World War II. “Would you be willing to meet other Christians from West Germany?” the peacemakers asked. “They want to ask forgiveness for what Germany did to Poland during the war and to begin to build a new relationship.” At first there was silence. Then one Pole spoke up. “What you are asking is impossible. Each stone of Warsaw is soaked in Polish blood! We cannot forgive!” Before the group parted, however, they said the Lord’s Prayer together. When they reached the words “forgive us our sins as we forgive” . . . everyone stopped praying. Tension swelled in the room. The Pole who had spoken so vehemently said, “I must say yes to you. I could no more pray the Our Father, I could no longer call myself a Christian, if I refuse to forgive. Humanly speaking, I cannot do it, but God will give us his strength!” Eighteen months later the Polish and West German Christians met together in Vienna, establishing friendships that continued for life.
What a different world we would now be living in if the allied powers had said to Germany at the end of the first or second World Wars we cannot forgive, therefore we will not help you to recover, you can starve for all we care. There are many parts of the world where we can see how a continuing cycle of unforgiving hate and revenge has locked people into a life of grief and strife without end.
Far from being the cause of the problems of the world as some would claim, true belief in God can be completely transformative and break that cycle, so that out of the ruins comes a new world and a new strength. Not a bad thing to remember 100 years after the end of one of the most cataclysmic wars in history.
Tony Gilbert
Team Rector
I hope that you will find plenty of useful
and interesting information in here.
The Reverend Tony Gilbert
and
Tony with his wife Nicola
