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This year has seen many anniversaries which have had a significant impact on contemporary Europe; from the centenaries of the Russian Revolution and the battle of Passchendaele, to the diamond jubilee of the European Union. This past weekend I had the privilege of joining many people of faith and from different walks of life at a Vatican sponsored conference on re-thinking Europe. One of the most poignant interventions came from the Presiding Bishop of the Lutheran Church, who asked what Europe could learn about building cohesion from the experience of the various Christian denominations, which had painful histories of division. I think that most people in the meeting were conscious of who was speaking, where he was speaking and at what time, just days before the 500th anniversary of the start of the Lutheran Reformation and in the shadow of St. Peter's Basilica, the costs of the building of which in the 16th Century, was a contributing factor to the Reformation. The Bishop said that when they thought about how they would mark the anniversary of the German Reformation, they had decided to do so not by devaluing others, but by jointly focusing on the original message of Christ, as the source of Christian identity. The Bishop’s appeal to those present at the seminar on Europe was to do the same in the European context, to build cohesion at the source, on the areas which are held in common rather than focus on the end-points which separate. As I listened to him across an auditorium full of people of faith representing Christian groups that had once been die-hard opponents, I thought how poignant his comments were in today’s increasingly polarised world. Today many experience a political and economic system, which divides and creates zero-sums, which leave some triumphant, and others marginalised and feeling disenfranchised. Echo chambers on social media give rise to false notions of uniformity where we often only engage with those with whom we agree or shout down opinions with which we disagree rather than explore meaning with those who are different to us. The debate on Europe in this country seems to have become one of the many issues of sharp polarisation. Christianity in Europe, despite at times having been the cause of division, intolerance and violence seems to have rediscovered in this context how to honour the past, but not always be bound by it. This has been achieved by learning how to reconcile, how to remember and value, and how to do so without devaluing the other’s contribution. Perhaps our politics could also reclaim such a civility.