My dear Friends.

Usually I can take Christmas in my stride - after all I have experienced it once a year every year of my life! I have known it as a child, young person, parent and now grandparent. I have been involved in all the preparations and I usually enjoy what goes on in the family, the Church and in the community over the Christmas period. Basically I am like a big kid when it comes to Christmas!!

Having said that things have not always gone to plan and some years Christmas has been spoilt by rows or illness or made very difficult because a loved one has died. But generally Christmas is a very special time of the year for me and although I sometimes struggle in preparing sermons and talks for the festive period, at least I do not feel I am walking through a minefield when I preach at Christmas.

But Remembrance Sunday - well that is very different. When it comes to Christmas, I have been there, done it and got the T-shirt but not so with Remembrance Sunday. I have never served in the Armed Forces, I have never been involved in war, I have never seen comrades killed before my very eyes. I have never lost a loved one because of war and so I have always found it difficult to conduct~ and preach at Church Services on Remembrance Sunday. This was especially true in the early years of my ministry when I would have in front of me a good number of men and women proudly wearing their medals and others there to remember a loved one who never returned from war. In addition, there would be those who did their bit on the home front as well as many too young to have experienced war at first hand. As I found out each congregation included people of very different views and backgrounds, so a very difficult Service at which to preach!

Yet, it was a Service to which I attached a great deal of importance, for it always seemed to me very important that we look back and remember - remember the service and sacrifice of so many, for without them our world and especially our country would have been a very different place and I shudder to think of it.
- remember also those who still suffer because of the effects of war and remember also that a true appreciation of history can help prevent us making the same mistakes again.

So the Remembrance Day Service and the 2 minutes silence has an important part to play in our lives if we are to be truly human. For to be truly human is to be aware of others, others who have done so much for us and our families. To be truly human means also we do not take things for granted but we remember, give thanks and determine to do our bit today for God and for good.

So can I encourage you and invite you to our Remembrance Day Services and please do pray for me and others as we prepare and preach that we get our message just right!

God bless you
Yours sincerely

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