Dear One and All,
And so, we enter the season of Remembrance. It is time to pause and take stock. Some families will have very deep scars; there will be memories of loved ones, photographs on mantlepieces, stories told and tears shed. The generation from the Great War has faded away and time is having a similar effect on those from the second World War. Conflicts, however, have taken place ever since in Korea and Malaysia, Northern Ireland and the Falklands, Afghanistan and Iraq. The police, fire service and ambulance staff have faced their own dangers and known the tragedy of loss in the course of duty. Who can forget too, the bravery of the RNLI and those lost in incidents such as the Penlee Lifeboat disaster? It is once again time to remember. The Kohima Epitaph is the epitaph engraved on the Memorial of the 2nd British Division in the cemetery of Kohima (North-East India). It reads:
When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.
The verse is attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958), and is thought to have been inspired by the epitaph written by Simonides of Ceos to honour the Greeks who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. When no members of the Burma Star Association are present at church Remembrance services this is read. Its words are poignant and makes us reflect; war is a terrible thing and its cost impoverishes us all.
My great uncle was a Sergeant Major in the London Regiment. He won the Military Medal for bravery in the face of the enemy. I have his medals at home. Having obtained advice from a retired army officer I wore his medals last year (on the right side of the chest) at a Remembrance parade and service in Kilkhampton. At the service a war widow spoke; her husband had been killed in Iraq while on active service. After the service I found myself standing in front of her for a moment. I hadn’t the words to express my admiration for her or my sadness at her loss. Binyon’s words were still in the air and seemed to fill the space as we simply nodded and moved on.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old, Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, We will remember them.
Peace is what we all long for, but the world seems never to achieve it. From generation to generation the currency of war is spent and so much misery is the result. Christians call Jesus ‘The King of Peace’. We should pray, we should act, we should cry out ‘Let there be peace!’ May that prayer and that shout of protest be what Wilfred Owen called ‘an Anthem for doomed youth’.
Every blessing,
Simon.
Revd Dr. Simon H. Leigh.
Superintendent minister.
*Please note that Simon will be on leave 27th October to 2nd November, 2024.