A TREK TAKING walkers over 2,000 miles and back nine centuries to try to help build world peace began at Cologne Cathedral, on Easter Sunday.
A group of 125 Christians from 15 countries set out for Jerusalem, retracing the steps of the Medieval Crusades whose violence, they maintain, is the root of ongoing enmity between Christians, and Muslims and Jews.
Along the way walkers are passing out a statement to people they meet which apologizes for the Crusades having "betrayed" the real message of Christianity by corrupting "its true meaning of reconciliation, forgiveness and selfless love."
The Reconciliation Walk began at the site and on the 900th anniversary of the start of the first Crusade when - answering Pope Urban II's call for a holy war to reclaim Jerusalem from Muslim control Peter the Hermit left Cologne with 30,000 followers from across Europe. Thousands of Muslims and Jews were killed during the years of brutal fighting.
First to hear the apology were Muslims at a Turkish mosque in Cologne, whose Imam - leader - invited the walkers to visit, and said that he hoped the project became a great success. The reading of the statement in German, Turkish and English was greeted by applause.
Scores of small groups are expected to take part in the Reconciliation Walk over the next three years, which is due to culminate in a special prayer event in Jerusalem in July 1999, to mark the 900th anniversary of the Crusaders' capture of the city, and an ensuing massacre.
Averaging 20 miles a day, the first walkers were due to divide at Heilbronn in south Germany, with one group following the Crusade routes along the coast of the Adriatic, and the second setting out in August along the Danube. They will meet up in October in Istanbul, from where the second phase of the Reconciliation Walk will begin early next year.
During the course of the project, as many as two million Muslims and Jews could personally receive a copy of the message, according to Reconciliation Walk coordinator Lynn Green, Youth With A Mission's field director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
"That could make a significant contribution towards easing some of the major tensions in the world today, which are between Christians, and Muslims and Jews," he commented. "We should not underestimate what God could do through this - nor, at the same time, overestimate our own significance."
Among those at the launch were YWAM founder Loren Cunningham, and Dr Peter Wagner, head of the AD 2000 & Beyond Movement's united prayer track, who said that the walk was an "important initiative."
Last updated: 1996, June 08 /pf