He began by paying tribute to his “excellent women clergy colleagues who give of themselves with extraordinary dedication to the people of Coventry and Warwickshire.”

He continued: “The common life of Coventry and Warwickshire depends on the leadership of women in every other sphere—in political and civic life, in business activity and public institutions, in the arts and sport, and in the myriad of charities and agencies that care for those in need and raise the quality of our life together.

“It was notable that at our recent Coventry and Warwickshire Community Awards six of the seven prizes were awarded to women, all of them remarkable people.”

Bishop Christopher also spoke about the great relevance of Coventry’s history to the world today. He called for the centenary anniversary of the First World War to remember that the tears of German widows and mothers flowed with the same agony as those of British and Commonwealth women.

The bishop continued: “My Lords will know that although International Women’s Day had its origins in the movement for women’s suffrage, during the First World War its focus shifted to the struggle against war—war waged through so much of history by men, but suffered by women and their children.

“My own grandmother was one of them. She died as a result of running down the steps of a London underground station fleeing a Zeppelin raid in 1917. She was pregnant with my father’s brother. My father was left motherless, the only child of a father who was overwhelmed and who turned to his own mother to care for his son.

“And she did a great job. He died just before I became a bishop, so he had no idea I would be standing here today, but he would have been 100 years old on this coming Sunday.”

Bishop Christopher has been asked to preach at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, in Berlin, in Novem-ber when it marks the 70th anniversary of its destruction in an Allied air raid. While in the city he will pay his respects at Germany’s national memorial for victims of war and violence—Käthe Kollwitz’s statue of a weeping mother holding her dead son.

He concluded his speech: “It is alongside and with our former enemy who is now our friend that we reflect with Germany and our European partners on the impact of war on our continent and share a commitment to work for a reconciled and peaceful future for the world.”