8th November, 2020.
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My dear friends,

The start of the second ‘lockdown’ in England has caused many Remembrance Sunday events to be cancelled this year. The government has said that open-air services at village war memorials may still go ahead. We shall, therefore, hold a simple open-air service of Remembrance at Great Bardfield War Memorial at 3.00pm on Remembrance Sunday, 8th November 2020. The War Memorial is on the small green at the centre of the village. There is on-street parking nearby and cars may also be left at the small church car park outside my Vicarage.

Members of St John are most welcome to join us for our Remembrance Sunday Service. Several veterans and serving soldiers have telephoned me and said they would like to come and lay wreaths. We ask that members of the congregation maintain social distancing and wear face masks.
Our churches are open for private, individual prayer during the lockdown. Do please let me know if you have any special requests for prayer: I can be reached by telephone on 01371 810267 or by e-mail at Robert@webform.co.uk
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With my prayers and all good and warm wishes,

The Rev. Dr ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY, 8th NOVEMBER 2020
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One day when I was carrying out some research in the library at Lambeth Palace, I found a letter sent during in the Second World War by a parish priest who had volunteered to serve as an Army chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang. The chaplain described the death of a badly wounded soldier, the first such death he had seen.
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“Am I going to die” asked the soldier? “Yes, Sonny, I’m afraid you are,” said the chaplain. “Oh God,” said the soldier, and then added, “Be gentle when you write to my wife. We were expecting our first baby about now.”

The soldier then began to sink fast. The chaplain remembered he had a little cross in his pocket. He pulled it out and held it in front of the soldier’s face. The soldier struggled to focus his eyes, and then he realised what it was, and gave a lovely smile. The chaplain, usually a rather undemonstrative man, was suddenly inspired to lean forward and kiss the dying man on the forehead.  The soldier smiled again, and in that instant, died.
I find myself calling to mind some words from the well-known hymn Abide with me:
 
Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies:
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
 
In France, since 1918 the rituals of Remembrance have always been entirely secular in character and have focused almost entirely on the old soldiers, sailors and airmen. With the passage of time, these rituals have lost much of their grip on the public imagination.
In Great Britain, by contrast, the rituals of Remembrance have always been in part religious. British war memorials often feature a cross, sometimes with a sword on the front, known as the ‘sword of sacrifice.’

Furthermore, although in Great Britain we have commemorated the Fallen and those who survived war but with grievous wounds, we have also focused on those who were left behind: the hundreds of thousands of widows after 1918; all the orphans; a generation of women who would never be able to marry because there weren’t enough men left. To an extent, this was also true after the Second World War. And I am sure that you, like me, are keen that today, we also commemorate all who have lost their lives, been injured, or lost loved ones since 1945.

I mentioned the chaplain holding a cross before the eyes of a dying soldier. This image of Christ on the cross is very important on Remembrance Sunday. We know from their letters home and from their diaries that one of the things which impressed many British soldiers during the First World War were the wayside calvaries – the large, almost life-size crucifixes – which they saw besides fields and in villages in France and Belgium. Some troops felt a certain affinity with these calvaries. These images of the crucified Lord spoke to them in that moment in a way that other images of Jesus could not. They felt that Christ, the Suffering Servant, understood what they were suffering as they trudged up the line towards the trenches and the firing line.

            The death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ are the lens through which we Christians look at the world and try to make sense of it. The Easter story reminds us that the world is not the way God wants it to be; but it reassures us that God is ultimately in charge; and that if we will but have faith in Him, all shall be well in the end. For the Christian, death is not the end, but rather is a step in the journey; and if we love and trust Jesus Christ, then God the Father will grant us a Resurrection to eternal life just like that of His dear Son.

            This year, Remembrance Sunday will be a little different because of Coronavirus regulations, but the message is the same. We do not celebrate war and killing people. Nor do we come to gloat over former enemies and rake over long-past atrocities, for the past is now in the hands of God, and our task is to work for the future, and for reconciliation and friendship amongst the nations.

            Instead, on Remembrance Sunday we commemorate ordinary men and women who went forth for the highest and noblest of motives, to defend liberty, their loved ones, and all they held dear. They did not ask to die, but because they did, we enjoy certain freedoms. One of those freedoms, of course, is the freedom to worship. Today we honour and salute their memory. We pray that we may learn from their selfless example.

In humble faith and confident trust, we commend the departed of two world wars and all other conflicts, and all who suffer today as a result of war and of man’s inhumanity to man, into the hands of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died in sacrifice upon the Cross and rose again three days later, for each single one of us. 

We pray also that God’s will may be done in our lives; and that He may use us to reach out with His love to all who are suffering or unhappy in our times and generation.