Our Remembrance Day service was another first for Reverend.Hilary but not for Graham Trevarton who has been playing the last post at St.Enoder since he was 14 years old. I read in the Newquay Voice that Graham would like to play at the top of the tower one year. That is something that could be arranged!
(photo courtesy of Jeanette Cox)
Hilary's sermon is shared below:
Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14. John 15:9-17
Today we have paid tribute to men and women’s bravery and their sacrifice that secured the victory and our freedom.
To all those who served in the forces - including the chaplains sustaining spirit and morale, the heroic resistance fighters in the underground, allied leaders and commanders whose courage never flinched and the millions who endured the suffering of incarceration, oppression and bombardment. Never losing faith that one-day justice and freedom, the hallmarks of morality would prevail in humility and reverence. We salute them all.
It is in remembering and telling the story that we discover who we are and the meaning of our lives. It is in recalling the past that we best see what the way into the future is.
It is remembering what happened and why it happened, that we find principles and the guidelines by which our lives should be governed.
I want this story to be continued and to be remembered. I want to know the stories, your stories so that I can pass them on to my grandchildren.The stories of magnificent courage and heroism that were repeated again and again by allied forces during the war, elsewhere in Europe in Africa and Asia, in the air, sea and land, all in search of justice and freedom.
There has been throughout the week on radio Cornwall at 7.50am different reflections by people of different faiths about Remembrance Sunday. The two that made the most impact on me were those of a 13 year old pupil from Bodmin Community College and that of Bishop Bill.
Bishop Bill reflected on the fact that he was 64 and when he referred to war it was always that which occurred between 1939 -1945.But he said there are many for whom those years would not be a marker. I admit that I am one of those.
“It is worthy of note,” he said, “that since 1899 there has only been 1 year that a British soldier has not been killed in action.”
“Which means there has been conflict throughout the twentieth century and now into the twenty first.War has become more and more dangerous and uncertain with more and more people caught up in its tragedies.It means that more and more are involved with families and friends whose lives are changed forever.”
The 13 year old pupil reflected that he would rarely think of wars of the past unless in a history lesson. However it had occurred to him that these people who had taken part in these wars had been his ancestors, they had been distant uncles, great great grandfathers and they had sacrificed their lives for him. His own ancestors that had taken part in D Day, France and Egypt.
It was then, impossible for him not to take 2 minutes each year to remember them.He went on to recall a poem that for him summed up the debt of gratitude owed to those who gave their lives so we could have our freedom.
IT IS THE SOLDIER
"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier not the politician who has given his blood, body and life.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protesters to burn the flag.
- Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC
The kind of freedoms that we enjoy, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, together with the rule of law within a democratic system, had to be defended and bitterly fought for.We depend on those who have gone before us, as those who come after depend on us.
As Christians as our gospel reading reminds us we are chosen for love. We are sent into the world to love one another. Sometimes, we live as if we were sent into the world to compete with one another, or to dispute with one another, or even to quarrel with one another.But the Christian is to live in such a way that he shows what is meant by loving his fellow men. Jesus gave us the perfect example. "No man can show greater love than to lay down his life for his friends." He did that for us.
We must remember to remain ever vigilant, never the tolerating the neglect or diminution of morality in family or society
Let the message ring out loud and clear from this service and from the many other commemorations of that time and of the present, that any infringement of human rights, any incitement of racial hatred must be resisted with every weapon we posses- moral, legal, economic and if necessary by force -but always with love.
Failure on our part will only encourage wide spread decline in individual family, national and international values, not to mention Christian values.
As we go into an unknown future let us remember the stories of the past, tell them often so that we learn the lessons they have to teach us and may peace rule over us all.
Amen.
’. It contains seven chapters all of which address a big question. Amongst them Finding Hope in God’s Pain and The Mystery of Three in One.
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