Two sides toWWIChristmas football truce story
THE Queen and the Archbishop of Canterbury both reflected on the World War I truce in their Christmas Day messages, but they drew different conclusions.
The Queen urged millions of viewers to be inspired by the story of German and British soldiers playing football in no man’s land to seek reconciliation in their own conflicts.
By contrast, the archbishop, who was too unwell with a cold to deliver his sermon and instead published it online, said that the real world had few happy endings and truces were rare.
The 100th anniversary of one of the most heart-warming wartime stories dominated Christmas messages. The Queen evoked the spirit of the footballing soldiers to recall warmly the reconciliation achieved in Northern Ireland and to plead for unity in postreferendum Scotland.
‘‘In 1914, many people thought the war would be over by Christmas, but sadly by then the trenches were dug and the future shape of the war in Europe was set,’’ the Queen said in her message, recorded at Buckingham Palace.
‘‘But, as we know, something remarkable did happen that Christmas, exactly a hundred years ago today.
‘‘Without any instruction or command, the shooting stopped and German and British soldiers met in no man’s land. Photographs were taken and gifts exchanged. It was a Christmas truce.
‘‘Truces are not a new idea. In the ancient world a truce was declared for the duration of the Olympic Games and wars and battles were put on hold.’’
Recalling her most recent visit to Northern Ireland, she said: ‘‘The benefits of reconciliation were clear to see when I visited Belfast in June. While my tour of the set of Game of Thrones may have gained most attention, my visit to the Crumlin Road Gaol will remain vividly in my mind.’’
The Queen had been shown around the prison by Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, former inmates who are now power-sharing leaders in the province.
‘‘What was once a prison during the Troubles is now a place of hope and fresh purpose – a reminder of what is possible when people reach out to one another,’’ she said.
‘‘Of course, reconciliation takes different forms. In Scotland after the referendum many felt great disappointment, while others felt great relief, and bridging these differences will take time.’’
The Most Rev Justin Welby drew the opposite conclusion from the 1914 reconciliation in no man’s land.
He used the example of the Christmas truce before slaughter returned to the trenches to remind Christians how fragile peace could be. His lesson was that the world remained torn apart by conflict.
‘‘It is the moment all have picked on this year, whether in adverts or sermons,’’ he wrote.
‘‘The problem is that the way it is told now, it seems to end with a ‘happy ever after’.
‘‘Of course we like Christmas stories with happy endings: singing carols, swapping photos, shaking hands, sharing chocolate, but the following day the war continued with the same severity. Nothing had changed; it was a one-day wonder. That is not the world in which we live – truces are rare.’’
He added: ‘‘Today there is no Christmas truce in the Middle East, or in northeast Nigeria where Christians are persecuted with other minorities. The tension in the ancient lands of Jesus’s birth rises by the day. Fear does not have a truce, nor the animosity and hatred whose tangible outcome is increasing separation between Israeli and Palestinian.’’
The Pope prayed in his Urbi et Orbi message for the world’s conflict zones, from Nigeria, ‘‘where more blood is spilt and too many people are unjustly stolen from their loved ones and held hostage or massacred’’, to parts of the Middle East.
The archbishop’s sombre mood may have been deepened by his visit last week to Sierra Leone where he met children orphaned by ebola.