The lives of two beautiful young women, murdered in Cape Town ten years ago, one American, one South African, are today exerting a wide influence in South Africa and further afield. Foundations in their name are benefiting the poorer and less favoured sections of society. All because of the open-hearted, forgiving spirit of members of their families.

On the night of 14/15 November 1940 much of the city centre of Coventry, including the 14th-century cathedral, was destroyed. Yet, only six weeks after the bombing the cathedral’s provost, Dick Howard, did a BBC broadcast from the ruins asking the British people to say “No” to revenge and “Yes” to forgiveness.

Hate the sin and love the sinner. It rolls off our tongue so easily. But it is not so easy in real life. What about rape?

New York Christians have raised money to rebuild a mosque in Afghanistan. It is a striking example of how religion can strengthen the human community.

Many Americans judge Muslim countries and the Muslim faith by the Taliban, by September 11 and al-Qaeda. Many Iraqis judge the United States and Christianity by the desecration of a Muslim cemetery, by abuses at Abu Ghraib and incarcerations at Guantanamo Bay.

Unresolved issues from the past are like buried land mines waiting to be triggered. They are not made inactive by the passage of time, there is no statute of limitations - ask companies who did business with the Nazis or banks who hold holocaust survivor money. Unless past issues have been faced honestly, and unless there is a willingness to face them again for the sake of people alive today, they have not been defused.

A Norwegian friend, Leif Hovelsen, was tortured as a teenager by the Gestapo. He is deaf from the beatings he received. After liberation the tables were turned and he found himself guarding his guards. He began to mete out to them some of the same punishment he had received and was startled, he says, to discover that the same root of evil he despised in the Nazis was also within his own nature.

In 1946 a group of Swiss, at great personal sacrifice, bought the rundown Caux Palace Hotel above Montreux as a place where the combatant nations of World War 11 could meet.

Does the old VCR suggest any life lessons for us, young and old, particularly before it becomes extinct? Is there a message in its well-worn keys?

The city of Coventry in the English Midlands has had a long and honourable tradition in peace building, since its 14th century cathedral was destroyed in 1940.