The Church Of The Holy Rood -- Wool, Dorset, U.K.
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The Church Of The Holy Rood -- Wool, Dorset, U.K.
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Remembering the past, living for the future Few of us, I trust, will ever find ourselves under shell or sniper fire, at risk of landmines or improvised explosive devices, or find ourselves under siege. The dangers of war are generally known only to the few, at least in this country in 2009. Not so for people in many other parts of the world All of this came home to me very forcefully while on holiday in Bosnia & Herzegovina a few weeks ago. In cities and towns and even in the mountains the evidence of many wars (including First and Second World Wars, and the more recent conflict of the 1990s) were all around us. Buildings were pockmarked with shell-fire, and the burnt out remains of one of the 1984 Winter Olympic buildings stood atop a beautiful peak. Its Olympic symbol witnessing to nations coming together in peaceful competition in a stark contrast to the barbed wire around it and the signs warning of uncleared minefields. Our holiday guides were young men brought up under fire in Sarajevo, and injured in Mostar. It brought me just a little closer to what war means for those caught up in it, both military and civilian It impressed on me just how much we need to spend time listening to the pity that is war. More recently I came across a tribute to Canadian soldiers in a video on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8gRx8tWJmI). It opened with the line “We’ll never have a future if we don’t remember the past. The lyrics also exhort us to listen to the cries of the wounded and the bereaved, if we are not to avoid a greater danger than the physical perils faced by those on the frontline: “the danger much greater than these within … the noise that we make as we constantly bicker … Remembrance Day honours the fallen of wars past and present, but the most fitting tribute to all those who fell would be for war to be no more. May we listen to the cries and the pain and commit ourselves to work untiringly for justice and peace in our world. Your friend and parish priest,
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