A letter from the Vicarage – Rev’d Andy Stand

 

Hi Everyone,

How are we all doing?

The clocks have changed and so the nights are long once again with darkness descending by early evening, and many of us will be looking ahead towards Advent and Christmas, but before we get there of course we have the ‘Remembrance Season’ that is the proliferation of All Saints’ Day (1st), All Souls’ Day (2nd), Guy Fawkes Night (5th), Remembrance Sunday (9th) and Armistice Day (11th). That seems like an awful lot of remembering going on at the beginning of the month! But of course it is no different to any other month of November in any other year, where the only one of those events I have listed changing its date would be Remembrance Sunday.

I often ask in these magazine letters and in my sermons or talks, during November what it is that people will be remembering on these occasions.

All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are opportunities for us to remember those who have died. All Saints’ Day, we maybe remember the major Saints, those that have been beatified and given the title Saint, for example our very own St. Mark, St. Philip and St. James the Less, it may also be an opportunity to remember other Christians who we have never known that have also died.

All Souls’ Day on the other hand provides that opportunity for us to remember those closer to home: those who have died who we did have the privilege of knowing and loving and mourning.

Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday, of course give us the opportunity to Remember the Heroes of War, those who served their countries in times of war, and particularly those who lost their lives doing so. They also give us opportunity to remember the horrors of war and the suffering that warfare leads to; and the opportunity to pledge ourselves to the pursuit of Peace and peaceful living.

Is it just me, or does that hard won Peace, that our service men and women fought for, the hard won peace of our world, seem very much more fragile this year, compared to previous years?

We have experienced and continue to experience the fall out from the wars in Ukraine, and in Gaza. We celebrate the peace settlement between Israel and Hamas, but are probably aware of how fragile that feels in reality.

We have experienced unrest and demonstrations outside hotels housing, migrants and refugees. We have news headlines from senior ranking soldiers warning that war may yet come to this country, and/or to Europe.

And yet November affords us yet another opportunity to remember: The feast day of Christ the King (23rd) offers that opportunity to remember the kingship of Jesus which was never an exercise in power but of love and service to all regardless of religion or race. Jesus, the Prince of Peace calls us always to pursue peace, and all that makes for peace.

May God bless us all with his peace this Remembrance Season.

Every blessing, Andy.