Dear Friends,
By the time you read this we will be in our second lockdown. We will also know the result of the US Presidential election. Both are momentous events affecting the lives of millions of people from all backgrounds and ages.
Many have compared the experience of lockdown to the experience of living through the after effects of the second world war. Rationing, hardship, communities reliant on each other and pulling together. Clearly there are many differences, but similarities are there.
This season of remembering gives us the opportunity to include those who are often forgotten. All Saints Day, giving honour to all the saints, known and unknown; and All Souls Day, a day of prayer and remembrance for the souls of those who have died, all are prayerfully remembered and celebrated. Most did not have rows of medals on a uniform, many were unrecognised and unknown.
The National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, is a place where the concept of remembering has grown and deepened over the years. It is a creative place, with over 400 memorials to many groups and people, it is growing and developing all the time. In sensitive ways it moves beyond those caught in conflicts, to include many who are caught in the conflicts of everyday living and suffering.
Some are named, many are not. Some have been celebrated for their actions, others are only just beginning to be remembered publicly for their service and suffering.
Our remembering may be deeply personal, it may remind us of lives given in service, duty and love. There will be the sharing of words like, sacrifice, service, offering, hero, gallantry and bravery. There will be other words and more importantly, the feelings and memories for which there are no adequate words.
Remembering is at the heart of the Christian faith. The God who remembers and loves each and all of us, even when we forget him. The God who came among us in Jesus, and took on the pain and suffering, absorbing it and transforming it on the cross, for all.
Remembering is the part of our humanity, it transforms our living for tomorrow.
Peace
Tim