Dear Friends in Christ,
Tomorrow, August 4th, is the hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I. Throughout Europe there are many memorials and commemorations taking place. The Church of England website has offered many resources for reflection and worship, some of which I have included below. All of these resources are from a British perspective; in part, that is our heritage as a Church, and what is most easily available in English. But we need to remember that suffering and atrocities happened on all sides, and in many, many places. No one who participated was left unscarred in some way, and the world has never been the same since.
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The British war poets (including Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Vera Brittain) wrote of their experience of the horror and destruction of war in ways that were especially poignant, given that the public expectation in 1914 was that the war would be limited and speedy, a way to bring glory to England and heroism and pride to self. Owen died on 4 November 1918, just before the war’s end, at the age of 25.
1914, by Wilfred Owen
War broke: and now the Winter of the world
With perishing great darkness closes in.
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.
For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
This You Tube link is for Choral Evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, recorded by the BBC on august 13, 1982. You may want to listen to the entire service (about 50 minutes), but the anthem (at minute 33:24) is very appropriate in reflecting on World War I. It is “Give unto the Lord” by Edward Elgar, a setting of Psalm 29, and it was written and sung for the first time in April 1914 – as it happens, a very prescient prayer for peace; beautiful and moving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaLUj_aSHpM
A responsorial prayer of commemoration
Remember, Lord, those whose stories were unspoken and untold.
Jesus, remember them when you come into your kingdom.
Remember, Lord, those whose minds were darkened and disturbed by memories of war.
Jesus, remember them when you come into your kingdom.
Remember, Lord, those who suffered in silence, and those whose bodies were disfigured by injury and pain.
Jesus, remember them when you come into your kingdom.
Father of all, remember your holy promise, and look with love on all your people, living and departed. On this day we especially ask that you would hold for ever all who suffered during the First World War, those who returned scarred by warfare, those who waited anxiously at home, and those who returned wounded, and disillusioned; those who mourned, and those communities that were diminished and suffered loss. Remember too those who acted with kindly compassion, those who bravely risked their own lives for their comrades, and those who in the aftermath of war, worked tirelessly for a more peaceful world. And as you remember them, remember us, O Lord; grant us peace in our time and a longing for the day when people of every language, race, and nation will be brought into the unity of Christ’s kingdom. This we ask in the name of the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
+ + + + + + +
Many of you will remember the Rev. Mark Beach and his family, who served here in 1999 during Richard Wrede’s sabbatical. Mark is now the Dean of Rochester Cathedral in England. Here is a link to the Cathedral’s website describing what they are doing in remembrance of World War I http://www.rochestercathedral.org/news/categories/cathedral-news/277-remember-ww1.
And a final link, to a hymn that is in our hymnal (#597) “O day of peace that dimly shines.” It is set to the very famous British tune Jerusalem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zso1Y_B7EbA
O day of peace that dimly shines
through all our hopes and prayers and dreams,
guide us to justice, truth, and love,
delivered from our selfish schemes.
May the swords of hate fall from our hands,
our hearts from envy find release,
till by God's grace our warring world
shall see Christ's promised reign of peace.
Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb,
nor shall the fierce devour the small;
as beasts and cattle calmly graze,
a little child shall lead them all.
Then enemies shall learn to love,
all creatures find their true accord;
the hope of peace shall be fulfilled,
for all the earth shall know the Lord. ~ Carl P. Daw
In this summer when so much in our world seems to be so violent and difficult, may courage and leadership never be lacking, and yet may we always pray for wisdom and guidance and be about doing “the peace that passes all understanding.”
Blessings,
Vicki+
Tomorrow, August 4th, is the hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I. Throughout Europe there are many memorials and commemorations taking place. The Church of England website has offered many resources for reflection and worship, some of which I have included below. All of these resources are from a British perspective; in part, that is our heritage as a Church, and what is most easily available in English. But we need to remember that suffering and atrocities happened on all sides, and in many, many places. No one who participated was left unscarred in some way, and the world has never been the same since.
+ + + + + + +
The British war poets (including Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Vera Brittain) wrote of their experience of the horror and destruction of war in ways that were especially poignant, given that the public expectation in 1914 was that the war would be limited and speedy, a way to bring glory to England and heroism and pride to self. Owen died on 4 November 1918, just before the war’s end, at the age of 25.
1914, by Wilfred Owen
War broke: and now the Winter of the world
With perishing great darkness closes in.
The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,
Is over all the width of Europe whirled,
Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled
Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin
Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.
The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.
For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,
And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,
An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,
A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.
But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need
Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.
This You Tube link is for Choral Evensong at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, recorded by the BBC on august 13, 1982. You may want to listen to the entire service (about 50 minutes), but the anthem (at minute 33:24) is very appropriate in reflecting on World War I. It is “Give unto the Lord” by Edward Elgar, a setting of Psalm 29, and it was written and sung for the first time in April 1914 – as it happens, a very prescient prayer for peace; beautiful and moving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaLUj_aSHpM
A responsorial prayer of commemoration
Remember, Lord, those whose stories were unspoken and untold.
Jesus, remember them when you come into your kingdom.
Remember, Lord, those whose minds were darkened and disturbed by memories of war.
Jesus, remember them when you come into your kingdom.
Remember, Lord, those who suffered in silence, and those whose bodies were disfigured by injury and pain.
Jesus, remember them when you come into your kingdom.
Father of all, remember your holy promise, and look with love on all your people, living and departed. On this day we especially ask that you would hold for ever all who suffered during the First World War, those who returned scarred by warfare, those who waited anxiously at home, and those who returned wounded, and disillusioned; those who mourned, and those communities that were diminished and suffered loss. Remember too those who acted with kindly compassion, those who bravely risked their own lives for their comrades, and those who in the aftermath of war, worked tirelessly for a more peaceful world. And as you remember them, remember us, O Lord; grant us peace in our time and a longing for the day when people of every language, race, and nation will be brought into the unity of Christ’s kingdom. This we ask in the name of the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
+ + + + + + +
Many of you will remember the Rev. Mark Beach and his family, who served here in 1999 during Richard Wrede’s sabbatical. Mark is now the Dean of Rochester Cathedral in England. Here is a link to the Cathedral’s website describing what they are doing in remembrance of World War I http://www.rochestercathedral.org/news/categories/cathedral-news/277-remember-ww1.
And a final link, to a hymn that is in our hymnal (#597) “O day of peace that dimly shines.” It is set to the very famous British tune Jerusalem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zso1Y_B7EbA
O day of peace that dimly shines
through all our hopes and prayers and dreams,
guide us to justice, truth, and love,
delivered from our selfish schemes.
May the swords of hate fall from our hands,
our hearts from envy find release,
till by God's grace our warring world
shall see Christ's promised reign of peace.
Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb,
nor shall the fierce devour the small;
as beasts and cattle calmly graze,
a little child shall lead them all.
Then enemies shall learn to love,
all creatures find their true accord;
the hope of peace shall be fulfilled,
for all the earth shall know the Lord. ~ Carl P. Daw
In this summer when so much in our world seems to be so violent and difficult, may courage and leadership never be lacking, and yet may we always pray for wisdom and guidance and be about doing “the peace that passes all understanding.”
Blessings,
Vicki+
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