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Worship Pages - Worship Resources
Circuit Study Evening - Remembrance Sunday Resources
An excellent thought provoking evening was held at Shenley Methodist Church on 07/10/2014 as we considered the appropriate ways in which worship might be led on Remembrance Sunday.
The evening was led by the Rev John Churcher who in addition to being well known to us in our Circuit pulpits is also the chaplain to the British Legion Branch in Welwyn Garden City.
The evening was divided into two sessions.
A service of remembrance utilising material that had been created by John and his colleagues for Remembrance events in Welwyn Garden City.
Followed by a workshop to explore ideas and resources which could be helpful to preachers and their leading of worship on Remembrance Sunday.
John expressed his view that the act of remembrance should be an entire act of worship and we should if possible avoid merely using the two minute silence with some prayers. Worship provided in this way was an opportunity to offer a service for remembering to the whole community not just the Church fellowship.
There has been a marked increase in interest in Remembrance possibly due in part to the level of coverage conflict receives in our daily press and the injuries and fatalities which result, as well as with the centenary commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War this year.
It was suggested that the names on the Church or nearby public war memorials could be read, perhaps by a young person, as a more personal remembering of individuals associated with the church and surrounding area.
Many appropriate images and resources are available for use in worship especially where there are suitable audio visual facilities available in the church.
A number of sources of helpful material were discussed and I list some of these below.
General Resources
A large amount of material is available from the British Legion both words and pictures but also physical objects which could be used such as poppies and small wooden crosses.
Details can be found on The Royal British Legion Website
Churches together in Britain and Ireland have produced several helpful resources which are available here
The Tower of London is running a special installation "The Tower of London Remembers". Information about the installation and some resources
can be found on the Tower of London Website
Specific information on the Tower installation, and the nightly ceremonies, can be found here.
Images
The images from the Tower of London Ceremony in this article may be used without restriction in worship. Please click on the image to download a higher quality version if you would like to use them. Images will open in a new window.
For more up to date images of war, there is a BBC photo story of a war photographer with UK troops in Afghanistan.BBC Website photostory. The photographer's websites are Here and Here.
Hymns
Vince has written a hymn "We shall make peace". Which although not written for Remembrance is very suitable for use in a service of Remembrance.
Kevin Mayhew - have published a FREE hymn for use in Remembrance Services,
"Lest We Forget - Song of Remembrance" with lyrics by Michael Forster, sung to the tune of 'Be Still My Soul' (Finlandia).
To download your free copy (which can be credited against your CCLI licence) Click Here
Poetry
There is a huge variety of war poetry available, however, much of it is difficult to read aloud and to appreciate at a first hearing.
Vince has made some very helpful suggestions which may be suitable; these are ...
Wilfred Owen's At a Calvary near the Ancre and The Parable of the Old Man and the Young;
Henry Reed's Naming of Parts;
WB Yeats' An Irish Airman and The Stare's Nest by my Window;
GA Studdert Kennedy's War and The Spirit; and of course
Siegfried Sassoon's Aftermath, which is especially suitable for Remembrance.
If you have access to more modern poets (their poems aren't generally online for copyright reasons), Suggestions are Lotte Kramer and Myra Schneider, who have each written about the personal experience of leaving family members to die in Hitler's Germany.
Simon Rae did an update of Reed's Naming of Parts called Lessons of War, which starts,
"Today we have the breaking of hearts.
Yesterday we had ethnic cleansing.
And tomorrow morning
we shall have what to do after the firing of the village".
Also about Bosnia, and our failure to make our pious "never again" come true,is Kevin Carey's "Again" and James Fenton is good on the Vietnam/Cambodia wars.
Finally, although the best whole poems of Charles Causley's are probably "Armistice Day" and "At the British War Cemetery, Bayeux", Vince offers four lines extracted from "Recruiting Drive":
You must take off your clothes for the doctor
And stand as straight as a pin,
His hand of stone on your white breast-bone
Where the bullets all go in.
Some of the poetry mentioned above is available if you look under the poet's name on either poemhunter.com or bartleby.com.
The War Poetry Website also provides a resource for suitable poetry and can be found at the War Poetry Site