While hostile rumblings about migrants from Eastern Europe continue in the British press, CMS workers in Romania are pleased to report an outbreak of friendliness.

Geoff and Gill Kimber — English clergy and CMS mission partners — have spent the last four years in Romania helping to build relationships between different Christian denominations.

Their hard work paid off in September when senior clergy from Orthodox and Lutheran churches joined the Anglicans to receive a Cross of Nails — the symbol of reconciliation — from the Bishop of Coventry, the Rt Rev Colin Bennetts.

“Relationships between denominations in this Orthodox-dominated society are poor, and sometimes actively hostile,” says the Rev Gill Kimber, who worked at the Cross of Nails Centre at Coventry Cathedral before going to Romania.

“Bishop Colin’s visit changed all that,” she says.  The re-presentation of the Cross of Nails — first presented by Coventry to German cities which had been bombed in World War II — to the new reconciliation centre in Sibiu was ‘a breakthrough’.

“The Cross of Nails’ work suffered for some time from not having formal recognition by the main denominations,” Gill explains.

The Cross of Nails had originally been presented to Ascensium, an NGO delivering medical and educational work, in 1996.

When the Kimbers arrived, they moved the centre into the city of Sibiu, where it would be much more accessible.  They started putting together a small theological library in English, built a wide network of friends in all denominations, and offered discussions, events and English classes in a bid to bring denominations together.

A visiting CMS short-term mission group was also at the ceremony and had the chance to see the quality of the Kimbers’ work first hand.  “They have clearly been a real encouragement to one Orthodox priest in a poor parish we visited,” said group leader Debbie James.  “The parish worked with street children and poor children, including after-school clubs.  There is obviously a relationship of real mutual trust.”

On 23 September 2006, the Cross was re-presented to the new Centre for Ecumenical Research in Sibiu, a partnership between Orthodox and Lutheran theological faculties.   The Kimbers have brought an Anglican presence to the centre by donating their library and using the room for friendship-building events.

At the presentation were the Metropolitan Archbishop of Sibiu, the Rt Rev Dr Laurentiu Streza (third from left in the picture), and the Lutheran Bishop of all Romania, the Rt Rev Dr Christoph Klein (second from left).  The deans of the respective theological faculties also attended, and representatives from all denominations took part in an ecumenical liturgy.