Resurrection

Coventry became a household word synonymous with utter demolition on the night of Nov. 14, 1940, when the Nazi Luftwaffe, in one of the most terrible raids of the war, systematically pulverized the industrial town in the English Midlands, killing more than 500 people. Center and symbol of the destruction was St. Michael's Cathedral, of which nothing was left the next morning but the famed 15th century tower and spire. While the rubble still smoked, a local craftsman, under the Bishop of Coventry's direction, bound two charred timbers from the roof together with wire to make a cross and set it up before the altar. Behind it, someone wrote the words: FATHER FORGIVE.

Even on that dreadful morning, Coventry did not presume to suggest who was to be forgiven.

Coventry's new cathedral, rapidly rising alongside the carefully preserved remains of the old, is sustaining the same spirit. As clergymen show visitors around, they are careful to stress the church's importance as a symbol of reconciliation as well as of resurrection.

Due to be consecrated next May, the completed cathedral will have two unusual chapels: the Chapel of Unity, designed for use by all denominations of Protestants, and the Guild Chapel (the Chapel of Christ the Servant), which will be dedicated to industry, trade unions, guilds and management associations. Already in use is a small Lady chapel in the crypt, its altar splendid with a bronze and glass cross by Sculptor Geoffrey Clarke, who was obviously inspired by the charred timber cross still standing in the ruins. In the crypt each day, lunch-hour services are held for a congregation of 400 to 500. The congregation plays an important part in these services: one day the lesson may be read by Sir William Lyons, board chairman of nearby Jaguar Motors, the next day by one of the men from the Jaguar assembly line.

Most dramatic element of what Scot tish Architect Sir Basil Spence calls his "prayer in stone" is the contrast between the starkly modern new building of pink sandstone (on the outside) and cool concrete (on the inside) and the bombed ruins, which will form a kind of entrance to the cathedral. They will be kept as they are--grass and gravel where the pews once stood--and linked to the new structure by a covered arch.

Inside the nave, stained glass windows proceed from green to red to purple to gold, symbolizing man's progress from youth through middle age and senility to the life hereafter. These towering windows, 70 feet high and eight feet wide, were created by three Britons who have led a dramatic revival of the ancient art of making stained glass: Lawrence Lee, Geoffrey Clarke and Keith New. Behind the high altar will hang British Painter Graham Sutherland's dark green and red tapestry, Christ in Glory, 74 ft. high and 40 ft. across. Already in place on the outside wall is the late Sir Jacob Epstein's sculpture of St. Michael defeating the Devil.

Traditionalists have expressed the inevitable shock during the various stages of the cathedral's completion from the first published plans. "Yes," says the Very Rev. Richard T. Howard, provost of Coventry, "I know it looks like a cinema, like a factory, like a block of flats. That is why I like it. It belongs to this age. The old church was new in its time, and the new church will be definitely and sincerely of the present day."

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