When? 2nd Sunday in November
StF+ has published a number of hymns that add to, and complement, those already in Singing the Faith:
- Once crimson poppies bloomed (Andrew Pratt)
- We stand for brave and selfless friends (Gareth Hill)
- Lord we recall your words (Andrew Brown)
- We shall not forget (Andrew Murphy and Matt Allen)
- This fragile, passing beauty (Andrew Pratt)
If you are celebrating Holy Communion on Remembrance Sunday, you may wish to use Dominic Grant’s hymn, Poppies to remember, with its thought-provoking reference to red, white and purple poppies.
As a reminder that violence still breaks out painfully and menacingly, and that peaceful relations are still to be prayed for, you may also wish to consider Vince Gilbert’s We shall make peace (to the tune “Finlandia”).
See also:
Resources from Armed Forces Chaplains
This resources comprise material mainly from Methodist Armed Forces Chaplains, including reflections by chaplains themselves, suggested Bible readings and songs/music, and poems and prayers.
Two contributions have been made available as videos to provide greater flexibility.
For younger people
BBC Bitesize has images, basic facts, and activities about World War One, designed for use with younger children.
Resources that were originally featured on the Woodlands Junior website are now available on Mandy Barrow’s Project Britain site – including Laurence Binyon’s For the fallen and other poems.
Service orders and prayers
Beyond our Tears: resources for times of remembrance (CTBI) includes a wide range of prayers, poems, hymns and music (by Gerry Fitzpatrick and Noel S. Donnelly) for Remembrance Sunday. In addition, it draws together stories and memorial services recalling and marking local and national tragedies – from the Aberfan disaster (1966) and Dunblane massacre (1996) to the 2003 Service of Remembrance at St Paul’s Cathedral for all who died in Iraq.
Remembrance Sunday Worship Material produced by the Baptist Peace Fellowship whose members ally themselves “with those who seek nonviolent means to confront and overcome injustice”. One member of the Fellowship, Norman Kember, became internationally known in 2005 when taken hostage while volunteering with a delegation of Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq.
John Miller’s Silent Heroes, currently out of print but available second hand. Each Remembrance Sunday, for twenty years, John Miller interviewed an older member of his Church of Scotland congregation in Castlemilk about their experiences of the Second World War. These humane, honest interviews, all collected here, were a way, says John, of connecting experiences of the past with the boys and girls of the uniformed organisations gathered together for this service.