Ship of Fools: World War I Centenary Services

Thread: World War I Centenary Services Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=027908

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

It struck me today that the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War (1914-1918) seems to have gone almost unnoticed on this board......

...so what has your place done/planned to commemorate this occasion?

Our next-door parish extended their Saturday Celtic/Iona Evening Prayer yesterday, and another neighbouring church is having a Vigil Service tomorrow evening. We had a short late afternoon service today in our All Souls Chapel (whose reredos is, in fact, our WWI Memorial, with all the names inscribed), followed by Benediction. We used a suggested service from the C of E website, with an interpolated Litany of Remembrance and a couple of suitable hymns. At least 2 people in today's little congregation are in their 90s, and have lived in the parish all their lives - so they recognised at least some of the names, even if they were not old enough to know those who were killed.

My impression is that all these services/commemorations (being held on various dates and at different times) are quite low-key. It all happened a long time ago, and, even though many of the men listed on our Memorial lived in the little terraced houses around the Church, their families and descendants moved away many years back..

Ian J.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Civic Service with Drum Tattoo last Sunday afternoon. The lights out is being done separately by the Royal British Legion. Big display near the WW1 memorial,

Posted by daisymay (# 1480) on :

We had that at our church and people local who had been killed were again prayed for to get to heaven, and also their families who are sad for them. they were prayed for too.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Our service today took this as its main theme - not as celebration, but as commemoration and in sorrow for continuing warfare in the world. So no parades or Last Post or anything like that, although we did light a candle for peace.

[ 03. August 2014, 22:53: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]

Posted by Evangeline (# 7002) on :

Very little attention paid to it in Australia, which in one way is surprising as we have a very strong tradition of honouring sacrifice/loss in war.

The 100th anniversary of Gallipoli has been planned for a long time though and I think this will get enormous coverage etc and many Australians and New Zealanders have already booked their trip to be at Anzac Cove for the dawn service on April 25 2015.

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :

A simple mid-day candle lighting service

Posted by Pyx_e (# 57) on :

I'm going to wait a few years and mark the END of the war.

I will go into church tonight and light a candle in the window.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pyx_e:
I'm going to wait a few years and mark the END of the war. ....

I rather agree. We mark remembrance on November 11th each year.

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

I was doing the intercessions and while praying for the departed I said "for those whose names are on the war memorials in our church and all who have died in armed conflict in the past hundred years".

The curate told me afterwards that they are planning something on WW1 "when the children are back".

Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :

I shall light a candle at 10.00 pm this evening . It was put out on the radio today that anyone who so wishes is invited to do so.

Posted by Jel (# 9755) on :

I wonder whether they'll have as bug a shenanigans over the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic?
I think the Belgians in Liege got it right, while the politicos are beating their patriotic breasts, the locals have staged a "bal populaire", which would translate as a street party in this country. Not out of disrespect for the dead, but out of disrespect for the political poseurs who clearly learned very little from the War and are still dancing to the strings of half a dozen extremely aged jingoists.

Posted by Jel (# 9755) on :

You know, if the Boss still hasn't listened after a hundred years of ear-pulling, perhaps He's not going to...after all, we don't keep jammering on about the dead of the Napoleonic War, nor particularly of WWII, let alone those of our own generation, for all that some may claim that they are symbolised in the dead of WWI as some kind of strange precursor of what is still to come...
Surely the time has come to recognise that the only ones I remember survived the war, those who lived then and were old enough to actually remember anyone who died are now alongside them in the graveyard themselves. So how can I say in honesty "I will remember them" when in all probity I never knew them?

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

Remembrance Sunday and Mothering Sunday are the two occasions in the year when I would like to just have the ordinary Sunday, even if, as on Lent 4 this year, it means going to Brompton Oratory.

Posted by St Everild (# 3626) on :

The church I serve didn't exist in 1914' and we have no war memorials.

I kept a poppy candle burning on the altar step all day yesterday and we remembered all those whose lives have been affected by war in our prayers.

Posted by DangerousDeacon (# 10582) on :

At our regular Sunday morning Choral Eucharist we observed the outbreak of the Great War with a Requiem performed by the local Orchestra. But in Australia I suspect the big services will be next April on the Centenary of Anzac.

Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jel:
I wonder whether they'll have as bug a shenanigans over the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic?
I think the Belgians in Liege got it right, while the politicos are beating their patriotic breasts, the locals have staged a "bal populaire", which would translate as a street party in this country. Not out of disrespect for the dead, but out of disrespect for the political poseurs who clearly learned very little from the War and are still dancing to the strings of half a dozen extremely aged jingoists.

I think there are several reasons why the First World War was signicant in the life of the nations who participated - not least of which was the element of normalizing civilian casualties in an excessive degree. Island Britain particularly had only experienced this horror mainly through civil conflict. And, of course, it was a pan-European/pan-global war unparalleled up to that point.

I'm not aware that the Spanish 'flu was mankind's deliberate act of terrorism or violence against itself - but, of course, I could be wrong. But that might explain why people tend to commemorate basically avoidable or at least partially man-made tragedies as opposed to (ahem) 'acts of God'. Eg, the Famine(s) are commemorated to a certain extent in Ireland, partly as object lesson in how not shit on a country that's already in the mud, but mostly to recall reflectively the useless loss of life of many, many precious individuals needlessly sacrificed.

Still, it's fair to say that many churches (and others in different ways) regularly commemorate en masse the lives of those who have died, say, by AIDS, or various cancers etc.

I'm guessing there's something of this behind some of the war commemorations, too. And of course there is still something of a tradition in some nations' psyche to commemorate the dead, anyway - not always from religious motivation, either.

I quite agree with you that the politicians don't learn the lesson. Foreign fisticuffs are essential to take the national focus off home cock-ups; so wars and such like are very handy in that respect. But unless one believes in the bullshit of 'New World Order' conspiracy theory crap, most politicians actually have very little say or control over global conflicts. Some few are momentarilly in a position to do something positive eg, Russia and Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, even Northern Ireland but the variables are - well, too variable usually for any tightly controlled outcome; except sadly the more predictable and destructive kinds.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

As I've said already, WWI services in this area seem to have been really quite low-key.

I was, however, somewhat dismayed to hear our modest service of reflection described by my fellow-Reader (who should surely know better) as a 'Celebration' of the centenary of WWI..... [Eek!]

Ian J.

Posted by Basilica (# 16965) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
As I've said already, WWI services in this area seem to have been really quite low-key.

I was, however, somewhat dismayed to hear our modest service of reflection described by my fellow-Reader (who should surely know better) as a 'Celebration' of the centenary of WWI.....

Ian J.

Well yes, it shouldn't be a celebration. But equally it's not quite right to see war as a situation where there is nothing to celebrate. War is often the setting for astonishing acts of compassion, courage, sacrifice, ingenuity and humanity. They are worth celebrating.

Posted by Gee D (# 13815) on :

Like Anzac Day, it most certainly is not a celebration - an observation, a commemoration, but not a celebration.

Posted by Corvo (# 15220) on :

Our Vicar seems to call every service a 'celebration'.

Looking 'to celebrate' up in the dictionary I find he is probably right (or not wrong):

1.
to observe (a day) or commemorate (an event) with ceremonies or festivities:
2.
to make known publicly; proclaim:
3.
to praise widely or to present to widespread and favorable public notice,
4.
to perform with appropriate rites and ceremonies; solemnize:

Posted by PaulBC (# 13712) on :

We didn't have a special service in regards the outbreak of WW I > However for the summer we are using the chapel for services. In that space are the memorials of the men of the parish who went out and didn't come home also the colours of the 88th battalion CEF The Victoria Fusilers .Which went to the UK and became replacement troops for the Canadian Expeditionary Force. So I thought that being in the presence of the memorials & the colours we remembered the fallen.

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0