Dear La Côte Church friends and family,
Each year, La Côte Anglican Church offers services that address the reality that some of our congregation members suffer long-term grief and loss, living with emotional wounds that are sometimes very hard to bear, and in some cases with trauma. Services such as those for All Souls Day, Remembrance Sunday, Safeguarding Sunday, Blue Christmas and Refugee Sunday provide opportunities to acknowledge the pain of those situations, while affirming that this pain is not the last word and that Jesus is present with us in them.
This coming Sunday, 8 November, is Remembrance Sunday. What exactly will we remember and commemorate? As we prepared this service, we realised that it is not just about the horrors of World War I and the courage and dedication of military personnel in the conflicts since then. Rather, Remembrance Sunday is an opportunity to reflect on how war fits (or doesn’t fit) with God’s plan for us – and what we are called to do about that.
The Bible reveals that war is not God’s desire for humanity, that it grieves God deeply, that Jesus suffers alongside its victims with a heart of love, empathy and compassion, and that our ultimate destination is profound peace.
Remembrance Sunday is therefore an opportunity for us to lament the appalling human cost of war, with its terror, grief, loss, trauma and displacement. We will remember those who showed deep commitment to duty, sacrifice, loyalty, responsibility and heroism in appalling circumstances.
And then Remembrance Sunday also requires us to examine the present and our responsibility for decisions and actions that lead to war. The past and our Remembrance service can thus shape the future, especially for those of us who live in countries governed (more or less) democratically.
Chris Potter and Chris Talbot
