Remembrance Sunday in a time of lockdown
I hated such events when I was a child and completely failed to understand why they seemed so important to my parents, grandparents and their generations. As a teenager I was highly critical of the way that Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day events appeared to glorify war - or so it seemed to me. I was wrong.
Since then I have begun to understand why it is so important to remember both lives lost in war and those who survive. It is important to honour both the dead and the living. It is important to remember the worst people do to each other, the best people do for each other, the courage and selflessness shown in war as well as the pain, fear and brutality. It is important to acknowledge our human failure to live together in peace as diverse children of one God. It is important to remember in order to strengthen the commitment to work for peace with justice for all.
In spite of the new lockdown restrictions that began in England on 5 November, it is still possible to share acts of remembrance and prayer from home, while church doors are shut for congregational worship. The Church of England website has a page Remembrance Day 2020 which has a short act of remembrance to use at home, a link to a national Remembrance Service at 9 am and a link to find streaming church services near you.
Most such services will use words made familiar over time: some poignant and beautiful, some nostalgic, some lamenting. Other words are hopeful. They point to a vision of a better world. They encourage us to work for 'all that makes for peace and builds up the common good'. Some words traditionally used raise more questions than they answer. The word, 'why' hovers over our remembrance of past and present wars. It is therefore good to observe 2 minutes silence. Silence can speak more effectively than any inadequate or misguided words, including mine. And silence can be the best way to pray, especially at a time of collective grief that the current pandemic is causing.
Those who grieve know that easy platitudes about healing and hope offered by well-meaning people sometimes do more damage while attempting comfort. Grief and lament for the past must be felt before the longing for hope and healing can start to blossom and a new way of living found.
"God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen."
Most such services will use words made familiar over time: some poignant and beautiful, some nostalgic, some lamenting. Other words are hopeful. They point to a vision of a better world. They encourage us to work for 'all that makes for peace and builds up the common good'. Some words traditionally used raise more questions than they answer. The word, 'why' hovers over our remembrance of past and present wars. It is therefore good to observe 2 minutes silence. Silence can speak more effectively than any inadequate or misguided words, including mine. And silence can be the best way to pray, especially at a time of collective grief that the current pandemic is causing.
Those who grieve know that easy platitudes about healing and hope offered by well-meaning people sometimes do more damage while attempting comfort. Grief and lament for the past must be felt before the longing for hope and healing can start to blossom and a new way of living found.
"God of peace,
whose Son Jesus Christ proclaimed the kingdom
and restored the broken to wholeness of life:
look with compassion on the anguish of the world,
and by your healing power
make whole both people and nations;
through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen."
from Common Worship
Image Credits: Photos by Keith Milmer, used with permission. Flowers by Sue Genes. Poppy net and banners by Lorraine Milmer.
I will be in Church Preaching and than leading a short memorial service at the War Memorial in the Church Grounds, we are also considering repeating that memorial on Armistice Day, 11th Nov 20. I have my own perspective on Remembrance, having served for 43 years in uniform, and having lost friends in conflicts over that time.
ReplyDeleteBy the end of my service I had been in the position of recruiting young people who I had to be honest with and tell them that as soon as they were trained and ready, they would be deployed to theatres of war around the world, it was a sign of the times, our involvement in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where we were involved in what were described as Peace Support operations, but were in reality, wars to suppress groups whose values were different from ours.
By the time I retired, I was a virtual pacifist, and retirement was timely, as I could no longer feel that what I was doing was something that I could support. Seeing casualties occurring almost daily, having to deal with the families of those coming back in a coffin or just so seriously injured, that their life was changed for ever. I felt that government policy was damaging and too costly.
I used to wear uniform at Remembrance. I was proud of my service. Even in retirement I wore uniform for Remembrance services, but I have had a change of heart. Now in Ministry, I robe, but wear my medals on my Readers Scarf, symbolic that I have changed from a role of warfare, to one of peace.
Today, our military still serves in dangerous places, albeit in smaller numbers, but young men and women are risking their lives for political ends. My Cry is "How Long Lord" until humanity realises how destructive military actions are and becomes a global peace corps. Where there is no longer a need for Nuclear Weapons, when people can live in peace with each other, surely, than the Kingdom of God will be realised and War will be no more, and Remembrance becomes an echo of a past to remember, and know, it will never be like this again.
Thanks for you thought provoking comment. I have huge respect for people like you who have served so long in the armed forces. I think you should be proud of your service. I was particularly interested in your 2nd and 3rd paragraphs. I'd like to respond to your comment at greater length, but I'm not able to do that today. Peace be with you.
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