Remembrance Day

Following my post on Halloween as an interesting holiday, I thought I'd postpone writing on the retreat last week and instead take this time to talk about a few other dates.

Today is Rememberance day, which means that this past Sunday was Remembrance Sunday, ( the Sunday closest to the Remembrance Day) which is, like Veteran's Day in the U.S. on the 11th of November, in commemoration of the end of the First World War. Unlike in the U.S. the holiday is also celebrated in churches, marked by participation of the Uniformed Organizations (Boys' Brigade, Girls Brigade, Scouts and Guides) these groups are similar to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in the U.S. but are generally more involved in the church, and marching plays a larger part (at least according to Andy).

The service is also marked by everyone (or so it seemed) wearing red poppies, most of them paper poppies sold in shops to benefit the Royal British Legion, which works to support veterans.

The other side of Rememberance Sunday and Rememberance Day (because there always is another side in Northern Ireland) is that it is a British (and therefore unionist holiday). This unionist sentiment is compounded by the acts of Irish Republicans during the First World War, and the neutrality of the Republic of Ireland during the Second, but there were still a large number of Catholic Irish from both sides of the border who served honorably in both wars, and these people risk being or feeling excluded, or that their service and sacrifice is unappreciated.

Another problem with Rememberance Sunday, or at least an obstacle for me is the ease with which commemorating soldiers can lead to glorifying war, especially in a divided society such as still exists in Northern Ireland. The events of the day can very easily be seen as highly jingoistic. and thus I was highly appreciative of the way the service was run here at Harmony Hill. The choir's anthem was a musical arrangement of the Prayer of St. Francis, and David's sermon addressed also the discomfort that I, and many others have "remembering war in case we are guilty of glorifying it, or of wrapping the gospel in one particular flag. But remembering is not glorifying, remembering is respecting."

For anyone interested, you can listen to Harmony Hill services here. The Remembrance Sunday Service under Sunday, November 8th, 2009. The choir anthem I referred to is at 740 seconds in, the sermon is 1,997 seconds in (the number shown is seconds). You can also find the service as a podcast on iTunes, in which case the choir anthem is at 12:20 and the sermon at 33:17.