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As far as I can remember, today is the first Remembrance Sunday when I have not attended a Remembrance service in church or an Act of Remembrance at a war memorial. 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 comm

A lot of words will be said and sung today in Remembrance Sunday services and commemorations across the UK. Words made familiar over time will be repeated. Some words said and sung today will be poignant and beautiful, some nostalgic and sentimental, some lamenting. Other words may be hopeful, pointing to a vision of a better world and inspiring children, women and men to work for 'all that makes for peace and builds up the common good'. Whatever is said and sung today tends to raise more questions than they answer. The one word, 'why' seems to hover over all our remembering. Perhaps the best thing about Remembrance Sunday is silence rather than words. The 2 minute silence is more eloquent on such occasions than our inadequate and sometimes misguided words. And silence can be the best way to pray. If you want some words for a prayer today, here is a prayer by Stephen Vincent Benet that I hope you thing is worth praying. It is not a specifically Christian

'In Flanders fields the poppies blow, between the crosses, row on row.' Blood red poppies, symbols of lives lost in bloody battle, of bodies disfigured, of families shattered, ... but a sign too of new life in war-ravaged soil. The red dissolves to white as the blood is drained. White poppies rise, symbols of lives lost as a consequence of war, of bodies maimed, of families broken, ...  but a sign too of peace, of hope, of working together across the barriers for justice, forgiveness and reconciliation. ('Meditation: Poppies' by  Gillian Collins ) Image Credit: Geograph, CC License