Just back from the Remembrance Day observations in Bradford. A couple of thousand people turned out and observed two minutes silence at 11am. We also sang and prayed. Why? And what for?
Last night, for the first time in many years, I watched the whole Festival of Remembrance from the Royal Albert Hall. Why? Well, because we have two Swiss friends staying with us and this is a uniquely British phenomenon – along with the Last Night of the Proms and the Changing of the Guard. And, if I am honest (and can bear to bang my familiar drum again), when you watch something like this in the presence of foreigners, you watch it through different eyes – explaining it and asking yourself why such a ceremony has the particular form and content it does.
Last night was a real tear-jerker, especially when the young girl who had sung ran to her father as he entered the hall to surprise her; he still has three months of Navy duty to do on the other side of the world. The family testimonies of people whose loved ones have been killed in recent conflicts were as powerful as ever. But, why sing hymns and say prayers? Why bring God into this? Isn't the 'God on our side' mentality the cause of conflict anyway?
Well, again, last night was powerful partly because it combines proud pageantry (and epic television production) with raw collective emotion. And in the midst of a busy world it compels us to step back, shut up and reflect on both human mortality and the hubris of power. At no point was war glorified or blind patriotism enjoined. At no point was conflict romanticised or propagandised. At every point we saw both the complex morality of war and the devastating cost of violence – along with examples of sheer courage exercised in the field of conflict.
I was interested to see both Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg singing the hymns although both are declared atheists. This is NOT a criticism of them. But, I think that when you bring God in to any reflection of human mortality we go beyond human conventions (about the meaning of life and death) and find ourselves held before a far more serious bar. Of course, this bar is not subject to passing fancy or political fashion – it holds human life as infinitely valuable (a clear theological anthropology that does not leave human life subject to 'convenient re-valuing') and eternally significant (ethics matter and not just to particular human beings or societies). I wonder what political leaders think when they are not the top dog and when the language and ceremony relativises their power?
I hope it leads to humility as an antidote to any temptation to hubris.
This was all a mystery to the Swiss, who have no similar public commemoration of their history. I am not sure if any other country does such commemoration as we do today. But, I remain convinced that if we didn't have Remembrance Day, we would have to invent it. We need at least one day a year when we stop and shut up, when we ritually re-member our collective past (and recognise that we don't live in a historical or incontingent vacuum), when we confront hubris with humility, and when we recognise stories of courage and loss. There is nothing romantic or heroic about seeing a mother grieve the son who fell in a war he didn't choose.
That's enough.
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Nick Baines's Blog 
November 10, 2013 at 1:45 pm
What worries me about Remembrance Day is that it is the only day when we as a nation look back in this way, and that we do so only in the context of remembering those who died from our armed forces. Because we do not wish to tread on the grief of those who have lost family and friends, and wish to show respect to those who have died, it is impossible for the Church really to put forward the teaching of Christ, which was not to fight back, to love your enemy and to do good to those who hate you. It also grieves me that the Church takes part in all these parades, and in many cases cancels the usual services at which Christ and God are at the centre of worship. But more importantly, I regret that the Church puts so much less effort and time (if any) into praising and commemorating those who have tried to bring peace without force of arms, and may well have been killed or scarred in doing so.
November 10, 2013 at 1:55 pm
preacherwoman, you have completely missed the point of my post. The church’s presence brings God into the heart of this remembering and raises precisely the questions you cite. It also offers an opportunity to speak about these things on a day when people – many of whom do not usually enter a church – are attuned to listening and hearing.
You also illustrate the moral complexities of conflict. Would you have resisted Hitler – or left him to rule over Europe and build the power to then invade Britain… especially if you knew what this subjugation already meant on the European mainland (systematic annihilation of ‘weak’ people)?
November 10, 2013 at 2:35 pm
I am sorry if you feel I have missed the point of your post. But in all the Remembrance Services I have taken part in or watched (and that’s over 60 years worth now) I can’t remember any church minister ever saying that fighting wars is not Jesus’s way of dealing with conflict. Yes, the 2nd World War was the nearest we have come to a ‘just war’ in recent times, but it came about largely because of the legacy of WW1, which was not a just war. And you haven’t answered my point about why the Church is so prominent in Remembrance of those who fought for peace in comparison with the Remembrance who gave their lives making peace without arms.
November 10, 2013 at 2:45 pm
preacherwoman, I addressed why the church is prominent in my post. Take the church out (and the God dimension) and what are we left with? And just because you haven’t come across recognition of those who choose other ways of making peace does not mean it doesn’t happen. In my experience it happens, but sensitively. Making the link between Jesus refusing to fight and whole nations refusing to defend themselves is not obvious! And, however unjust was World War One, it didn’t make it easier to judge the ethics of engaging in World War Two – when a decision has to be made in the present and not simply on the basis of an ‘armchair ethical’ judgement about the past. If you were Prime Minister what would you have done?
November 10, 2013 at 2:54 pm
My point was that the church is very prominent in Remembrance services which honour the military dead. There may services which recognise those who work for peace without arms, but they are very much less obvious. They certainly don’t happen in parish churches like Remembrance ceremonies do, and I can’t ever remember a service to honour peacemakers of that kind on prime time national TV. So the impression is given that the Christian faith supports armed conflict, which I don’t think followers of Jesus should be doing, especially when Remembrance and wearing a poppy now seems to be more concerned with ‘showing solidarity with our armed services fighting today’ than remembering the volunteers and conscripts of World War 1 & 2.
November 10, 2013 at 3:19 pm
Thank you, Nick. I think you got this just about right, despite the renewal of ‘The Poppy Wars’ which was apparent to me this year. I think the Christian religion, uniquely in Britain, but not exclusively, has a central role to play because so many soldiers, war poets and artists have testified over the years to finding Christ in ‘no-man’s land’, transcending the ‘God on our side’ attitude they sometimes went to war with.
November 10, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Reblogged this on hungarywolf.
November 10, 2013 at 3:58 pm
I am not sure if any other country does such commemoration as we do today.
Er… you’ve never been to France for 11 November? (and incidentally, if you want to see what you are left with if you take out the church from Remembrance, France is no bad place to start).
There is nothing romantic or heroic about seeing a mother grieve the son who fell in a war he didn’t choose
There aren’t many of those mothers left, if any.
November 10, 2013 at 4:22 pm
Thank you Nick. Please see also how Australians and New Zealanders observe Anzac Day,
April 25. I think your appreciation will deepen. You don’t even have to visit the countries – just go along to the many observances here in the UK, inc Westminster Abbey.
November 10, 2013 at 4:59 pm
Nick, thank you for this post and the perspective (again) that you bring to it. Like preacherwoman (and yourself, it seems), I have a visceral distrust of the church-is-the-nation-is-the-armed-forces thing that we (sorry, the tabloid press) tend to get into. However, I see less of that now than I have done in the past, and my own experience of working with military people is that they hate war more than most and have a deeper understanding of the grief of the enemy than they did 20 years ago. So whilst I am keeping a sharp eye out for the multifarious overhyped publication-fest that we will get come 2014, any act of stopping and shutting up, thinking hard about the lives lived and lost, will be worthwhile. This is why Cockburn’s Each One Lost is such a helpful song to consider here.
As to why the church is so prominent, I have been thinking about this all day, and have to say – if not us, then who? And if not the church, then why? It is only because we are considering eternal realities that we have the memorial at all. And if we have eternal realities, then to me the church needs to offer itself, invitationally, for men and women to find the comfort that our affectionate God provides.
November 10, 2013 at 5:20 pm
This was our 5th Remembrance Sunday without Rich. He was RAF, he did 2 tours of Afghan and then died in a bike crash on his way to his camp. No. Life isn’t fair. My boy was 6yrs 1 month old. He’s now 10. This year, he understood Remembrance Day in a way he hasn’t before, in a way he wasn’t mature or ready enough for in previous years. This year was his hardest. However, he, like me, gains comfort from the fact that even though most of the people there weren’t there to remember Rich, they were there to remember people like him, or even just what he stood for.
My son is part of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a charity that supports those children who lose a serving parent. All of those children are proud of their parent, and now have each other to understand as well. But for this two minutes, those children have the whole country join them in their grief, in their remembering. I cannot explain what a comfort that is, even though, as usual, I cried.
As for where God and the church come into it, I think we need them to organise us in our remembering. They focus our minds, and it is the knowledge that our loved ones are safe with God now that makes it slightly easier to bear. Jesus didn’t always refuse to fight – he turned over the tables in the temple and threw the money lenders out. He stood up for what was right. God Himself is not a quiet God – the Old Testament is full of battles and wars. However, for us, there is a verse of Deuteronomy that says “He protects the widow and the fatherless.” and that’s what we rely on.
This was a lovely and thought provoking blog post. Thankyou.
November 10, 2013 at 6:41 pm
Each year for the past six years, we have held a separate Remembrance Service with our local branch of the Royal British Legion. In our prayers and in the preaching the huge destructive costs of war, the non military casualties, the efforts of those who work for peace, the life long scars of those who have been in combat (including mental illness and suicide) are given prominence. There is little talk of heroism –and I am encouraged by how willing our Legion members are to engage with the real moral complexities of war. Our conversations over coffee after the service focussed on how difficult it will be to commemorate in any appropriate way the tragedy of WW I over the next years. Our Remembrance Service is anything but a glorification of war, and I am grateful that the Church is invited in to these celebrations, with our message of a better way and a commitment to creating and keeping peace.
November 10, 2013 at 7:43 pm
Thank you. Perfect.
November 10, 2013 at 10:50 pm
Yes, good point, Jenny!
November 10, 2013 at 10:51 pm
James, I had forgotten that I did attend on 11 November in Paris when I was working there many years ago.
November 10, 2013 at 10:52 pm
SarahC, thank you for your comment – which speaks for itself.
November 10, 2013 at 10:55 pm
preacherwoman, I simply disagree that “the impression is given that the Christian faith supports armed conflict”. Acknowledging is not the same as supporting.
November 11, 2013 at 8:13 am
We don’t give any particular impression simply by stating that we do so. We might have particular intentions or hopes for the impressions we give, but unless others recognise those we are not succeeding. It strikes me that some churches are excellent at giving the impression Nick is hoping for, whereas others aren’t. As for the national televised event, some very clearly see it as the church aligning itself with military might while others just as clearly see what Nick sees.
November 11, 2013 at 2:38 pm
My Grandad, now 94, was held as a Prisoner of War for 4 years in Thailand on the ‘Death Railway’ and suffered uminaginable horror. He has been back twice since, the last time was when he was 90, and he has taken part in a project for young people exploring issues of commemoration and conflict. He was asked ‘Can you think of a message for young people today, inspired by your own wartime experiences’? and his reply was as follows: “You have a great opportunity to have a wonderful, happy and contented life, and to share your happiness with family and friends. Make the most of every day. Do not be drawn in to doing anything against your wishes, but have your own strength of character and self-confidence to make your own decisions. Consider other peoples’ feelings when you make such a decision. Never say ‘I’m bored’, when there is so much pleasure gained from doing the simplest of things. Help others, and they in turn will help you. Find out about the rest of the world, by listening to teachers, reading library books or travel, and realise there are plenty of people worse off than you. Visit war memorials, and stand and contemplate the sacrifice made so that you may live happily”. i think it is the very least I can do to spend two minutes doing just that. And also that I could do a lot worse than try to follow his advice.
November 11, 2013 at 4:32 pm
I had not realised that Clegg and Millibean are atheists. Thank you for the information. At last I find something to respect in 2 of our most senior politicians
I have to admit that I did not understand the point of your paragraph, but I am not a theologist nor a philosopher. I try not to use 3 or 4 long words where 1 or 2 short ones would suffice.
The fact that Clegg & Millibean sing hymns is interesting. I try to differentiate between god & religion. There is every reason to doubt the existence of a supernatural invisible god, but there is no doubt that religion exists, and is a very powerful force, for good and evil, across our planet.
The question I ask myself; if I had been there, would I have sung those hymns? Probably not, but I am not a politician. I hope I can respect our history without reference to the supernatural. KK
November 11, 2013 at 9:56 pm
Thanks Nick – you address some really crucial issues. Like many clergy I find Remembrance Services problematic – and I served my first curacy in a town centre church with close civic links so Remembrance Sunday was very militaristic (or so it seemed to me…). My vicar and I disliked singing O Valient Hearts but for opposite theollogical reasons – he was (and is) traditionalist catholic and saw the events of Calvary repeated in some way at the eucharist; I was (and am) evangelical and saw Calvary as once for all – either way, death in war is not a lesser Calvary.
When I discovered Bonhoeffer, I found a way in to peaching on Remembrance Sunday. Bonhoeffer’s life offers a critique of the patriotism that asks no questions by saying that true patriotism will oppose that which harms one’s country even if that is the (elected) government and that violent resitance may have a part to play in true patriotism.
November 12, 2013 at 10:45 am
Thanks for the discussion. I didn’t see the Festival of Remembrance the other day so i can’t speak first had to the impression given from the Christian content in the programme.
My brother-in-law started a discussion on Facebook about commemoration in November and peoples’ attitudes to this year and the plans for next year. One of his atheist friends commented that his impression of the prayers, in particular, meant that we should just ‘shut up and obey’ whatever the government of the day tell us to do. Interesting that he felt this coming from the prayers offered. Are we, as church folk, not as aware of how these words sound to those not used to church language? Is the church afraid, at times, to use language that challenges the establishment view? I know that can be difficult for those who are grieving for their loved ones because soldiers are ordered to serve and to fight and so die in that cause (whether we think it is right or wrong).
We use the Christian form of worship at our commemorations but, of course, many of those fighting with the allies were from all faiths. How can we begin to acknowledge that more and include those who are now living and working in the UK so that we can include them in the commemorations, either nationally or locally? Does Bradford offer this in some way that could be a template for others to adapt?
November 13, 2013 at 4:20 pm
Good advice Jenny. Perhaps we need Remembrance Sunday to put our own lives into perspective.
November 17, 2013 at 8:55 pm
I watched some of the Remembrance Day services, but then there were the Armictice Day events as well the following day. In my town there was also a military parade on the Saturday. All three were supported by many people. How can you connect with names of people who you never knew or whose families you do not know? I started looking in my family tree and suddenly there were lots of deaths nominated ‘France & Flanders’ of young men connected in some way to my family. I would bet £10 that most families in the country could find similar people in their histories. Perhaps one thing to do in 2014 is pass on some of these details to the modern generation to bring home that the name are not just part of history.
If God does not figure in the act of remembrance, what can be used? King and Country do not really measure up, Freedom could be used, but then you would have to think about freedom for who? I think Nick Baines got it right in this blog entry.