Truro In Coventry - The Site 

Cathedral of St. Michael, engraving circa 1880

The site for Faith in Conflict was not chosen by accident.  A cathedral has existed on the site continuously since the 11th century.  The then-extant Medieval Cathedral of St. Michael was destroyed, along with almost 5,000 homes and a substantial portion of Coventry's industries, in the massive German air raid of November 14, 1940.  This raid has been noted as the beginnning of escalating retaliatory raids on population centers in Germany that  forever eliminated the distinction between combatants and civilians in war.

 

The cathedral was rebuilt in the late-1950s and consecrated in 1962.  A moving account of the spiritual events leading up to the new cathedral's consecration can be found in Fire In Coventry, by Stephen Vereny, who was Diocesan Missioner for the Diocese of Coventry at the time of the new cathedral's construction.

 

Cathedral of St. Michael today

An excellent summary of the Cathedral's history and current ministry and missions, particularly in the areas of peacemaking and evangelism, can be found here.