There have also been positives: a growth in community feeling, new ways found of socializing and caring and looking after each other and ourselves, We have stood together on our doorsteps to say thank you to the NHS, and to all those who have kept our communities going.
This is the time of year when we remember – at All Saints and All Souls, we remember those we love who have died, and those who have gone before us; and Remembrance, both the Sunday and the 11th itself, when we think of those whose lives were permanently altered by war.
I learn something new at Remembrance each year: about local people and their role whether in the military or civilian life, about how life was lived for those in the middle of war. One of the effects of the First World War was the huge number of women who lost the opportunity of marriage and family life. It meant that there was a generation of women with careers, and in particular in the teaching profession. They dedicated their lives to the children in their care, to expanding their worlds and their education. Our grandparents and parents and we have benefitted from their lives and work.
And it always shocks me to remember how long rationing went on after the Second World War to the mid 1950s. People reused and remade clothes; they improvised on food ingredients, and grew their own. They did not have the vast array of food we have at our supermarkets and online. It reminds me just how privileged we are, and how often we forget that.
This year on Remembrance Sunday, we will remember, as we always do, and some of us will pray, as we always do. As the local churches, part of the Church of England with the Queen as our head, we will be organizing services and acts of remembrance, but they will be different. But whatever our views, Remembrance Sunday is a day for memories, for learning, and for a commitment to peace now and in the future.
So on Remembrance Sunday in Wilstone and Long Marston, wreath bearers will walk, one from each end of the village in both places, to the war Memorial. The wreaths will be placed there for 11am, and we are suggesting that everyone stand outside their houses as the wreaths pass, We will provide an act of
remembrance for all to read, so that we can remember together, even if we cannot gather together, and keep the silence together. At each memorial, a clergy person will read the act of Remembrance that everyone will be following at home. In this way, we will be remembering together, respectfully and safely. So just as we gathered to say thank you to the NHS, we will gather to say thank you to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and for peace,
Rev Jane Banister
