Have you seen the new mini series “All the Light We Cannot See”? It is based on a book by American author Anthony Doerr. The novel is set during World War II. It focusses on Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind French girl who lives in her uncle's house in Saint-Malo after Paris is invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, and Werner Pfennig, a clever German boy who is accepted into a German military school because of his skills in radio technology.
Anthony Doerr was asked to explain what his book's title “All the Light we Cannot See” meant to him. Doerr explained it was about the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that are beyond the ability of our human eyes (ie radio waves). It is also a metaphor for [the fact] that the slice of possibility we see is so small, and there is so much more out there that we cannot see.
As I have looked back this week, over all the pictorial and written material we have gathered this year for the Centenary of Tiona, I’ve been transported to when the Green Cathedral was created in that same year, 1940. It was through the vision and energy of Apostle George Mesley and the hard work of enthusiastic young people that The Green Cathedral came into being. I’ve been reflecting on its significance set against the backdrop of World War II. As Alvin Peisker reflected “The maniac Hitler had trampled underfoot, in that one year, most of Western Europe. Although the storm had not yet broken in the Pacific we knew that we lived in the shadow of unmentionable events.”
What must have that been like sitting in the Green Cathedral that December 1940 knowing war was raging on the European continent? Was it in response to war that the church members in Australia were so passionate to show an alternative possibility of what could be? Tiona Campgrounds was developed, with a vision to be a place of Zion - a legendary place where the people were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in righteousness. Jack Imrie wrote in 1974 “The founders of Tiona and their successors have believed its attainment will be the result of heart, and mind and spirit joining together - mankind and the Infinite in partnership to achieve the cherished goal.”
How much time do we spend focussing on the small slice of the spectrum of possibility that we see right in front of us? God, in Christ, calls us to a spiritual partnership that is dynamic and ever-evolving and filled with hope. Yet what is this but an adventure back home, to finally see the new possibilities of living in love and grace and wholeness and becoming.
Anne Bonnefin
Communications Coordinator
Community of Christ Australia