Some Words for Remembrance Sunday

Act of Remembrance.

Today we remember those who are casualties of war and military conflict – men and women of armed forces; families who live in dread and those who have lost sons and daughters, parents, wives and husbands; those who now live with the ongoing legacy of injury to body and mind, traumatised in spirit, memory, and seeking to rebuild their inner world.

We remember all who are caught in the crossfire of conflict, the wrong place at the wrong time, acceptable losses, collateral damage, civilian casualties, the vocabulary of evasion because we know that such loss and suffering is wrong, however right any cause.

So we acknowledge our capacity to hurt and to waste, to see the other as the enemy. Yet we ask with anguished hearts, how else can we protect our lives and our own nation – the double bind of making peace by conflict, of making secure by making war, of having to threaten and retaliate when threatened or attacked.

May God lead us in the ways of peace – make us witnesses of reconciliation – give us a holy impatience with the short cuts and the political expediencies. And yes, give us courage to question assumptions that conflict is inevitable in a globalised, polarised and destabilised world. God help us to see all those structures of violent power, of oppressive ideas, of instilled hostility, as part of that great song of the ruthless, and help us to silence it –

by persistent, patient actions of peace,

by resilient, responsive acts of reconciliation,

by gentle, gracious words of goodness,

by faith-filled, faithful prayers of friendship,

by holy, hopeful gestures of  healing.

Let us, therefore, remember in silence before God, all those who died in the two World wars, and those who have died in the conflicts that have continued to ravage our world. In the silence we pray to the God of peace, for those whose lives have been taken in conflict, those who have suffered injury of body and mind, and we will seek the healing peace and reconciling forgiveness of God.

Comments

[Dave Summers]

Thank you Jim. I've shared this with my bonus sister Elaine, who as an indefatigable worker for peacemaking and reconciliation, will love it I'm sure.