Redeeming Remembrance

I always felt uneasy with Remembrance Sunday. Why?

1.All that glorification of war and militarism.
2.It seemed very irrelevant to young people, for whom the World Wars are ancient history.
3.And incomprehensible foreign history to my multi-cultural, international congregation.
4.Also cruel, belittling the wars raging many countries my church members come from.

So we tried to redeem this cultural practice. If we critique sub-christian aspects of other cultures, then surely we should with our own?

What happened? Very simple. Nothing many churches have not already done.

Turn it into a Peace Service.

•Name places where wars – international and civil – are still happening.
•Include conflicts in countries where our own brothers & sisters are from.
•Confront the violence in our own community: gang warfare, knife crime, domestic violence.
•Acknowledge our own country’s involvement in two wars – many British people usually don’t think of our country being ‘at war’ because it’s happening ‘over there’.
•Confess the contribution of Christians to conflict: including between denominations.
•Teach our calling as peacemakers: in families, communities, city, nation, world.
•Proclaim that Christ’s Cross brings peace between us & God, us and each other.
•Resolve specific personal responses to bring peace.