Our Remembrance Service is at 10.30 on 9th November. This would normally be our All-Age worship, and activities will be in the Parish Centre organised for children if they wish to remember in that way.
As the centenary of the outbreak of World War I it will be especially significant and poignant. We will be distributing replica copies of the Gospel of St John which relive those given to each soldier serving during the Great War. For many of these young men the comfort and strength they found in the words in that small gospel were a lifeline to them. For some the physical presence of that small gospel in their breast pocket proved to be the difference between life and death.
Each gospel has a page within it where a soldier is invited to complete a personal declaration of personal commitment to follow Jesus as a Christian disciple. These pages, returned to relatives with their personal effects in the event of their death, have brought deep comfort to families.
We are asking people to take one of these gospels only if they have a serious intent to read it and find the same comfort and strength for themselves which these soldiers found. Each deserves to be treated as much more than a souvenir. Generally speaking it is not the book which saves lives – it is the words within it. To put on a shelf or in a cupboard misses the point.