The week after Autumn half term is designated for Remembrance. Here are some thoughts on that aspect of our lives together.
As the autumn leaves fall down,
Red and yellow, green and brown,
We believe God loves us all,
As the autumn leaves do fall.
I wrote that for younger children. I remember it each year around this time, particularly when we take the older students to visit the Battlefields of the Western Front WW1. We always make this journey in October half term and I’ve done it at least half a dozen times. Although our route covers some similar ground it is always also different in some way. There are always falling leaves, particularly at Vimy and Lissenthoek. It is always very moving.
The young people know how to remember. They look up there relatives on the helpful CWGC website and we visit those cemeteries along with other key places like the Menin Gate and Thiepval. The opportunity to take part in this journey has been one of the most memorable aspects of being Chaplain.
At school our opening responses in chapel include these words:
Today we can begin again:
A fresh start and a new opportunity.
We are here to make discoveries:
To learn and to share together.
To become peacemakers and builders of justice:
To serve God and each other
Our Remembrance activities are centred on this commitment. Perhaps it seems a massive thing to suggest that the children and young people might be leaders in these aims but I can think of none better.
At the same time as one group was visiting the Battlefields another was doing development work in rural Tanzania with the Livingstone Tanzania Trust. Encouraging young people to become involved in community development is a very important part of the peacemaking and justice building and are amongst some of the most relevant aspects of being Chaplain here.
This year we will also have some creative work to accompany our remembering. A quilt, some Silhouettes, many poppies; these are amongst the things that will aid us, all of them made ‘slow’ to aid thinking and reflections. Such creativity is another aspect of our peacemaking, justice building and God serving; using our gifts to help each other to understand, learn and grow.
At Tyne Cot
As we remember those named on our roll of honour this week we recommit ourselves to the hope that this will not happen again: no more names will be added here or elsewhere, no more loss, no more grief. Only peace and justice. Yes it is a big ask, but quite possibly it is only young people who, through serving God and each other, can bring it about.
In our life and our believing
The love of God
