Coffee with the Canons: Episode 4 – Building a Better World Through Non-Violent Resistance

We live in fractured times. Conflict and suffering seem to dominate the headlines, and many of us are left asking the same urgent question: What can I actually do? How do we resist injustice without perpetuating the cycle of harm? How do we build something better? And how do we love our neighbour when division feels so deep?

These aren't abstract questions for us at Coventry Cathedral. They're woven into our very foundations – literally and spiritually. Our Cathedral was destroyed in the Blitz of 1940, and in the rubble, Provost Dick Howard spoke words that would define us: "Father forgive." Those two words became our calling: to be a place and people of reconciliation, healing the wounds of history one encounter at a time.

But what does that look like in practice? How do we live out that calling in a world that often feels more divided than ever?

Interview with Reverend Scott Bostic

In Episode 4 of Coffee with the Canons, Canon Nitano Muller sits down with Reverend Scott Bostic, Lead Pastor of Union Memorial United Methodist Church in Baltimore, USA. Reverend Bostic brings years of experience working at the intersection of faith, justice, and healing – and he's grappling with exactly these questions.

The conversation ranges across the big, beautiful, difficult terrain of what it means to be a reconciler today. How do we resist evil and oppression – truly stand against injustice – whilst also building something constructive and life-giving? How do we lift each other up through non-violent resistance, drawing on the deep wells of faith and hope that sustain us?

And perhaps most intimately: how do we reframe "loving thy neighbour" in a time of such division? It's easy to love the neighbour we agree with. But what about the neighbour across the political divide, the neighbour whose worldview feels fundamentally at odds with ours? What does neighbourly love look like then?

Why This Matters Now

If you're asking these questions – if you're wondering how to be a force for good in a broken world – this conversation is for you. Reverend Bostic speaks from lived experience, from years of walking alongside communities and asking hard questions about justice, reconciliation, and what it means to follow a path of non-violence in a violent world.

His insights speak directly to Coventry Cathedral's DNA. We're not just a heritage site or a beautiful building (though we are both). We're a living community rooted in the belief that reconciliation is possible, that healing is possible, and that ordinary people can play a part in building a better world.

Listen In

Whether you're new to these conversations or you've been following Coffee with the Canons from the start, Episode 4 is a conversation worth your time. Reverend Bostic's wisdom, Canon Nitano's thoughtful questions, and the themes that bind us all together – these are the conversations that matter.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify here or Apple Podcasts.