All Together Now In No Man’s Land

We often hear the story of Christmas 1914… Five months after The Great War had begun an unofficial truce occurred. In the week leading up to 25 December, French, German and British soldiers crossed trenches into no man’s land. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day soldiers exchanged seasonal greetings, food and souvenirs. Several meetings ended in singing carols and men playing football together.

I love the song ‘Altogether Now’ that describes this day:

A spirit stronger than war was working that night
December 1914 cold, clear and bright
Countries’ borders were right out of sight
They joined together and decided not to fight

…All together now in no man’s land

This memorable image of the truce seems particularly poignant this year with war in Israel and Gaza, continuing hostilities in Ukraine, and acts of aggression and terrorism around the world.

Even in countries where there’s peace, there’s adversarial politics. Division and animosity leads to verbal and often physical aggression. There’s no sense of ‘altogether now’, pooling our resources for the common good; no meeting in ‘no man’s land’, recognising our common humanity.

In the church, at a time when we remember ‘The Prince of Peace’ there’s continuing uncompromising division, emphasising being right rather than being compassionate.

René August, veteran of the anti-apartheid movement, writes about making reconciliation possible over issues of race, gender, sexuality…

She tells the story of South African church leaders discussing national legislation on abortion as a constitutional right. There was deadlock; people were entrenched in their positions.

I can imagine it.

A gent called Peter Storey got up to speak: ’’…No woman is born desiring an abortion. Anyone contemplating abortion is in need of pastoral care, and it is to this that God has called us.’ One by one people stood up and started applauding. ‘That’s it, We can all agree on that.’’

He sought for an alternative to division.

All together now – in no man’s land.