FROM REVEREND ROBIN
As I write this, the Nobel Peace Prize has just been awarded and the war between Gaza and Israel looks like it actually might be coming to an end. Of course, I am writing this on the 10th of October and with the world as it is, anything can happen between now and when you read this but as a professional optimist I like to live in hope. So, I am confidently writing these words expecting the hostages to have been released and the bombing of civilians to have stopped by now or at least, be well on the way.
November is a time of remembering, as we gather around the war memorials on Remembrance Day, we pay tribute to all those who died as a result of war and what it means to live in peace as a result of their sacrifice. But war hasn’t ended. The war to end all wars did no such thing. We continue as a species to find reasons to kill each other. While Israel and Gaza may have ceased, Russia and Ukraine are still fighting. Civil wars continue in Sudan, Yemen, the DRC, Myanmar, Syria. After all the suffering we learnt nothing. We gather together and stand in silence, we read the names of the fallen who came from our villages, and we remember.
I never wanted to join the army, in my youth when I watched war movies, I always wanted to be the vicar character or the one sitting under a tree playing the harmonica rather than the one running into battle. I learnt the harmonica (well, I can play ‘You are my Sunshine’) just in case war broke out and it turns out I became a vicar as well so I guess I’m ready. But thankfully, people much more capable than me are still willing to put their lives on the line to protect our freedom.
As a pacifistic Priest, it is a difficult line to walk between gratitude that people are still willing to join the forces to protect us, and wishing the army was something we learnt about in history lessons because they are now obsolete like kings and queens beheading traitors or the Church taking money in order to pray you out of purgatory. This however, despite my optimism is not likely to be true for many, many generations. Leaders of nations with fingers on Nuclear Buttons continue to disagree with each other, historical arguments over the rights to land, terrorist groups taking control and leading horrific attacks will continue to happen, and it doesn’t look like it will ever stop. So, we remember those who died for us, we pray for those who have lost loved ones, and we give thanks to all those who continue to serve in ways that I could never do. Putting their own safety on the line so that we may live in peace.
And at the end of the day, we pray to God for peace. For a day when there is no need for armies. For all wars to cease, and for our eyes to be opened to the fact that we are all created in the image of God, brothers and sisters in Christ. AMEN
