Remembrance Sunday this year will be all the more poignant as we reflect on the conflicts which are claiming the lives of people around the world, most recently in Gaza, Israel and Ukraine.
The Rt Revd Gavin Collins, Bishop of Dorchester, will lead the congregation at St Peter and St Paul’s, Deddington, where he will share his thoughts on the three reasons why remembrance is still so important in our modern age; to give thanks; to share in one another’s grief; and to learn the lessons of the past.
He will also call for an ‘active remembrance’: “to loving one another and working for peace in any way we can – whether that’s peace in our own individual relationships, peace in our communities, or peace at national and international levels through our prayers, through our actions, through our supporting those who would work for peace, and – perhaps above all – through committing ourselves to living in love in our relationships with all the people around us.”
Bishop Gavin will remind us of the act of remembrance we carry out as Christians when we take Communion, recalling the blood shed for us by Jesus when he gave his life, as the soldiers of the First and Second World Wars gave theirs, so that we might live.
In Berkshire, the Bishop of Reading, the Rt Revd Olivia Graham will join worshippers at Reading Minster.
She will speak of the challenge we all face to commit to peace in our lands and in the world where our sisters and brothers face unimaginable violence and fear: “We must be conscious that peace is a fragile flower, which needs to be nurtured and supported, and knowing that we will have had a general election in this country before we meet again to remember, we must commit ourselves to speak out against extremist or inflammatory views, and place a high value on truth and integrity in public life.
“‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God’.”
To find a Remembrance service near you, visit A Church Near You.
Read how one church in Tilehurst is marking Remembrance with a cascading knitted poppy display.