They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind

This verse 7 of Hosea 8 came to my mind during an ecumenical night prayer at the Freiburg Münster Church.

The Münster Church was packed. Click on the photos to enlarge.

Last night, we commemorated the 80th anniversary of Freiburg's bombing by the Royal Air Force that nearly annihilated the city.

Four years before, on November 14, the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) had bombed Coventry.

From a distance, the writer Christoph Meckel described the fire that followed the bombing of Freiburg, "And where, a few kilometers away, the silhouette of the city could usually be seen, a single, mighty flame was burning. The mountain walls were flooded with a flickering firelight, the valleys on the sides were immersed in black shadows, and the fir trees on the slopes of the Roßkopf stood out clearly. Thick orange smoke billowed into the night, rolling voraciously over the mountaintops, engulfing everything in darkness."

The three mayors, Sallie Barker, Guildford*, Martin Horn, Freiburg, and Anne Vignot (with an interpreter) Besancon*, united in their addresses: They called for peace.

*Freiburg's English and French sister cities

Together, they lit a peace candle that will shine in the Freiburg town hall.

After the prayers of intercession and the Lord's Prayer, the cathedral parish priest and the Protestant dean jointly gave the appropriate ecumenical blessing, "Go and bring peace!"

Meanwhile, a peace demonstration took place in front of the cathedral's main portal.

May Freiburg bear the title of City of Peace.

*