When I was at vicar school memories were fresh of the TV comedy series “Rev”, about a hapless vicar trying to run a parish in London. Most people thought this was a comedy; I thought it was a training manual. A decade later, I am still following the instructions I learnt from it. One episode started with the hapless Rev Adam and his deputy on Remembrance Sunday, standing alone at a war memorial now surrounded by high-rise flats, observing the two minute silence. Nobody else was there; it was just them remembering. And so, this Sunday, a member of the congregation will be in Billingsley Church on Remembrance Sunday. He will ring the bells just before 11am, then pause for 2 minutes and ring the bells again. At Sidbury, a member of the congregation will be at the soldier cut-out, at the head of the drive to the church. He will read the exhortation “At the going down of the sun….”, observe the two minute silence at 11am and then end with the Kohima epitaph, “when you go home…”. I imagine both will be alone; I will be leading remembrance at Glazeley so cannot join them. It really does not matter. On Remembrance Sunday, at 11am, they will be acting on behalf of their communities to remember the sacrifice of past generations. In fact they will not quite be alone; alongside them will be all the company of Heaven.
Rev David Poyner