It was
wonderful to see so many people in church at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday 11th
November for our special Remembrance Day service. Alongside our regular worshippers was an
excellent turn out of Guides and Brownies and their families. In addition there were many for whom this is
an important occasion for remembering, and honouring, loved ones and others that have given so
selflessly that we might have the safety and freedom that we are privileged to
enjoy.
During our
first hymn, “Eternal Father Strong to save”, the Guides and Brownies presented
their colours at the front of the church.
We then all
prayed:-
Lord, Direct our thoughts,
teach us to pray,
lift up our hearts
to worship you in Spirit and
in truth,
through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen
Jeremy then
led us in Prayers of Penitence after which Rachel read to us from the Bible –
Hebrews 11 v 11 – 16.
We then
affirmed our faith and were led in prayers for other people before we sang our next
hymn, “Fight the good fight”. During
this hymn, Donald came out with a wreath that, escorted by two Brownies, and
followed by Jeremy, he paraded to the war memorial at the back of church.
Then during
our “Act of Remembrance” the names of the war dead of Birkdale were read out
before David played the “Last Post” and we maintained the traditional 2 minutes
silence. The silence was broken with
Jeremy saying:-
“They shall grow not old, as we who
are left grow old:
age shall not weary them, nor the
years condemn:
at the going down of the sun, and in
the morning,
we will remember them;”
after which
we all echoed,
“We will remember
them”
before David sounded “The reveille”.
“The act of
remembrance” concluded with Donald placing the wreath on the War memorial.
Then we all
exchanged “The Peace” before Jeremy led us in Prayers for world peace.
Appropriately,
we then sang the lovely, moving hymn, “Make me a channel of your peace”.
During his
talk John began by summarising the themes that we have been discussing
throughout the autumn;- Beginnings; Prayer; God
still speaks [during which he remembered, our new Archbishop, Justin Welby’s
visit to St. John’s (many years ago) – probably
the only time an Archbishop of Canterbury has ever visited St. John’s
John quoted
from our reading – Hebrews 11 v 13 –
‘All these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and
greeted them’.
He
discussed the successes and failures of war and the faith that those who fight
must necessarily have in their leaders.
He reminded us that, in the words of Psalm 146, the Bible says “Do not put your trust in Princes, in mortal
men who cannot save”
and that
Jesus said, “do not let your hearts be
troubled, Believe in God, believe also in me.”
John concluded that the message is clear, there are two things to do. He put them up on the screen.
The service
ended with the collect for the day, The Lord’s Prayer and The National Anthem
before the organisations collected the colours whilst we sang the final hymn,
“One more step along the road I go”.
Following
the Blessing most of the worshippers went into the hall for
coffee and cakes,
provided by the guides,
and catch up with each other.
