Remembrance celebration with Nancy, Randy and Robert Campbell

PRELUDE:                Chenaniah
PROCESSIONAL:
Piper: Robert Waller 
Presentation of Colours 
O Canada/The Queen                                               
epositing of Colours                                                         
Act of Remembrance                                                      
Minute of Silence

As we remember in silence before God those
who made the ultimate sacrifice, let us commend their souls anew to God's eternal mercy and compassion, and let us pray that God would grant us grace to serve faithfully until our life's end, to the honour and glory of God's Holy Name.

Minute of Silence

CALL TO REMEMBRANCE:  
At the 11th hour of the 11thday of the 11th month the guns fell
silent on the Western Front, to bring to an end the First World War. Our nation and commonwealth has recalled that moment through our Remembrance events through the decades, decades during which men and women of our armed services have continued to pay the ultimate sacrifice. 

And so 97 years later, we stand here today to remember lives sacrificed in the service of our country. We also remember those traumatized and injured in conflict.

May we have such a devotion to justice and freedom that the heroism of all who fought, and still fight, may continue to be remembered in a nation of service and in a world of peace.

WELCOME:
HYMN:            #461 Be Thou My Vision

PRAYER: 
Almighty and Eternal God, from whose love in Christ we cannot be parted, either by death or life. Hear our prayers and thanksgivings for all whom we remember this day. Fulfill in them the purpose of Your love, and bring us all, with them, to Your eternal joy.

God, You are a God of truth and justice. We hold before You those men and women who have died in active service. As we honour their courage and cherish their memory, may we put our faith in Your future, for You, alone, are the source of life and hope.

Loving and compassionate God, we pray for all who have laboured for liberty, freedom and justice; for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice; for those who in life and in death have preserved our living.
​

Grant that they may rest in Your peace, and that we, through our actions, may be found worthy to inherit the eternal treasures of Your kingdom.

Join now as we pray together: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS:      Marion Bannerman

by John McCrae, May 1915
​
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
​

ANTHEM: "Weep For The Dead" (Choir)

Annoncements with Betty

SCRIPTURE READING: Micah 4:1-5           page 1444
Micah 4:1-5 New International Version (NIV)The Mountain of the Lord
4 In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
    as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
    and peoples will stream to it.
2 Many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
    so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He will judge between many peoples
    and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war anymore.
4 Everyone will sit under their own vine
    and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
    for the Lord Almighty has spoken.
5 All the nations may walk
    in the name of their gods,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord
    our God for ever and ever.

PERSONAL REMEMBRANCE: Rob Ireland

The personal story I related in church on Remembrance Day Sunday was one I found in my Grandmother's archives.

She taught Sunday School and used this personal story to give her students a feel for the losses that were endured by families of soldiers and an appreciation of how much we owe to those who died in defense of our country.

One of my Dad's good buddies from his early years living on a farm in rural Ontario, was Bill Paget. Through the depression years they played hockey and hunted rabbits together. They went to Shelburne High School together in the late 1930's. They also signed up for service together when WWII was declared, and Canada needed volunteers to go to battle against Hitler.

Bill Paget and Dad, both wanted to fly, so they applied for service in the RCAF, and were put into training as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). They were both accepted as good potential pilots. Their paths separated at this point and Bill went into training on multi-engine aircraft like transports and bombers, my Dad trained as a fighter pilot. Both 'got their wings' and were selected to be sent off to Europe in early 1944. Bill fell in love with a Toronto girl, and the week before shipping out, they were married.

Bill and my Dad briefly re-connected in London, for a weekend of 'leave' - rest and relaxation - shortly before D-Day in June. Thereafter, Dad was fully involved in combat with a Spitfire squadron over the skies of Normandy, then Paris, then Belgium and Holland. Bill was involved with transporting men and materials in England.

In the Fall of 1944 a plan was hatched by the Allied commanders to end the war by Christmas. This brainchild of Field Marshall Montgomery was supposed to take the Germans by surprise, by dropping 1000's of paratroopers in Holland far behind enemy lines, to take over key bridges and allow the allied tank and infantry forces to speed up into Holland. With this accomplished they would cross the Rhine and get into Germany through the side door and head to and capture Berlin.

It was called Operation Market Garden. Like many plans in wartime, this one was not well enough thought out and circumstances went against the allied forces, trapping thousands of paratroopers deep in German occupied Holland near the towns of Nijmegen and Arnhem. One of the greatest battles of the war ensued, well documented in many books, notably 'A Bridge Too Far' by Cornelius Ryan, and in movies. Nearly twice as many Allied lives were lost in this Battle as during the D- Day invasion.

t became a futile operation with 17,000 Allied casualties ( and possibly 13,000 enemy). My Dad flew air-cover missions in his Spitfire to keep the Luftewaffe at bay, and bomb enemy transport and tanks during this time, and had a close brush with death. In an effort to salvage as much of the operation as possible and save lives, the trapped and retreating men needed food and ammunition, and so massive airlifts of supplies had to be organized quickly. On September 23, Bill Paget was a pilot in one of the Dakota ( DC-3) unarmed, twin-engine transports dropping 'paniers' to these stranded troops.

​It was his first drop mission with this squadron. His plane was hit by flak or small arms fire and brought down. He never returned, leaving his new wife a widow, and his mother heartbroken. Grandma Ireland used this story on Remembrance Day to inform her children of the horror and futility of war, and also of the sacrifices made by others, for THEIR freedom.
A link to the WIKI article on the operation is:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden
A brief bio of Bill Paget is below.
​
He is buried in Oosterbeek Airborne Cemetery, near Arnhem, Holland.

OFFERING: Offering Received:
Offertory Hymn:                   #79    (Blue hymnal)
Offertory Prayer:                    
The spirit of giving changes, 0 God, as You become our partner. Our reluctance becomes generosity. Our vision of offering widens to encompass gifts, skills and talents. Our focus changes to include national and international needs. Transform our giving, Loving God, in the Way of Jesus. We pray in His name, Amen.

HYMN:           God As With Silent Hearts

    
God! As With Silent Hearts
God! As with silent hearts we bring to mind                                   How hate and war diminish humankind,                                     We pause, and seek in worship to increase                                       Our knowledge of the things that make for peace.
Hallow our will as humbly we recall
The lives of those who gave and give their all.                                  
We thank you, God, for women, children, men                                 
Who seek to serve in love, today as then.
Give us deep faith to comfort those who mourn,                               High hope to share with all the newly born                                     
Strong love in our pursuit of human worth,                          
“Lest we forget” the future of this earth.
So, Prince of Peace, disarm our trust in power,
Teach us to coax the plant of peace to flower.  
ay we, impassioned by your living Word,                  
Remember forward to a world restored.


PRAYER OF REMEMBRANCE: Loving God, have mercy on Your people, and open our hearts to peace and love. Reward all who died for our country, and grant that Canada and all nations may continue to work for justice and peace.
Lord, help us to remember those who still have the physical and mental scars and disabilities of their service. Help us to remember the agony, courage and compassion of war service, but save us from ever glorifying the horror and tragedy of war. Lord, help us to remember. Amen.
​
HYMN:        0 Valiant Hearts          

O Valiant Hearts, Who To Your Glory Came
O valiant hearts who to your glory came                                         Through dust of conflict and through battle flame;                           Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,                                   Your memory hallowed in the land you loved.
Proudly you gathered, rank on rank, to war                                     As who had heard God’s message from afar:                                     All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave,                                   To save mankind – yourselves you scorned to save.
Splendid you passed, the great surrender made:                                Into the light that nevermore shall fade;                                  
​Deep your contentment in that blest abode,                                       Who wait the last clear trumpet-call of God

REMEMBERING: Eric Pritchard

REMEMBERING
This is part of a play written by high-schooler Alexandra Bily Brooker of Edmonton, whose great-great uncle was killed in action
n World War I..

NARRATOR:           Imagine! August 4, 1914!

PAPER VENDOR: Get your copy here. "Great Britain declares war on Germany. Canada joins Great Britain."

NARRATOR:               Imagine! The fear, the excitement, the hysteria, the posters, the propaganda, the songs.

PAPER VENDOR: It's always fair weather when good fellows get together. You'll find a lot of good fellows in the Kilties. Why not join them? God save the King!

NARRATOR:           (sing Till We Meet Again)
Smile the while you kiss me sad adieu,
When the clouds roll by I'll come to you;
Then the skies will seem more blue down in lovers' lane my dearie. Wedding bells will ring so merrily,
Every tear will be a memory.
So wait and pray each night for me,
Till we meet again.

Imagine! The men and women as well as the under-age and the over-age all joining to help their country. Crowds gather at the stations to wave goodbye. Three 17 year old boys, Jim and his two friends, board the train to Winnipeg to join the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.

Why should we remember?

Imagine if you're the soldier in the trench that first Christmas Eve in 1914. You hear voices in the enemy trenches 200 feet across No Man's Land singing a familiar carol in a foreign language; "Stille Nacht; Heilige Nacht; Alles Schlaft..." and you join in "All is bright, Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child..."
Then a white flag goes up in each opposing trench and you all crawl out of your trenches and share cigarettes and memories, pictures, laughter..

And the next day you shoot that friend in No-Man's Land!

Imagine! Sitting in the trenches full of filth and grime.

Imagine! Seeing a greenish/yellow cloud rolling across No-Man's Land towards you — burning your lungs, searing your eyes — and you don't know what it is or how to fight this new enemy — certainly not with guns or bayonets as you have been trained.

Imagine! Seeing your friends shot and wounded and killed...The Battle of Mount Sorrel was underway with the Germans eventually capturing key Allied positions — Mount Sorrel, Hills 61 & 62, Maple Copse & Sanctuary Woods.

Imagine! If you were wounded and lying in the mud with rats and decomposing bodies, and you knew there were no antibiotics to fight this filth...

Imagine how your family would feel receiving this letter:

NURSE:
Dear Mrs. Haynes,
Your grief will be great when you know that your son passed quietly away this morning. He was so good and brave and did not murmur once. He was anxious that you would receive his Bible and just a few things he had with him. He sent his love to all and then peacefully gave himself up. He was one of the finest lads I have ever seen — and an absolute hero. I am afraid your sorrow will be great as he spoke continually of you and hoped it would not worry you too much.
It may be a little comfort to you to know that everything that was possible was done for your boy, and know that all the soldiers' graves are kept and I shall put flowers on your boy's cross with your love.

 
With sincere sympathy for your great loss, believe me, Yours sincerely,
Angela M. Sadler, Nurse

NARRATOR:         

Imagine! Other families and other fathers and mothers, sons and
daughters and all who believed and worked for a peaceful world: WWII, Korea, Kosovo, Afghanistan -- the list goes on and on.
And rernember._"At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them"

ALL:                     We will remember them! 

Special Salute to Normal Blair

HYMN:          #330 0 God Our Help In Ages Past ter Love

​ MEDITATION:        No Greater Love
​
Raking leaves is relatively easy work for most people. True, your back and arms may get a little sore, but the yard looks so nice when it's devoid of leaves — until the next morning when you awake to find your lawn once more strewn with the fallen leaves. Oh, why do leaves fall? When the leaves die, they become useless and a liability to the tree. They become a weak link. So the tree protects itself from the leaf by abandoning it to the winds.

I've talked about the tree and the leaves as an analogy to the story in John 15 where Jesus speaks of the vine and the branches. Jesus represents the vine, or the tree, but He doesn't cast His branches or leaves. But do they abandon Him?

Consider John 15:13 — Greater love has no man than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. Jesus is trying to impress on His disciples their need to remain in fellowship with Him and to stay true to their faith in Wm.

During the American Civil war, a farmer was drawn to become a soldier. He was worried about it, not because he was a coward, but because of his motherless family, who would have no bread winner or caretaker in his absence. The day before he had to march to the town where the conscripts' names were called over, and their clothing and weapons given them for the campaign, young Mr. Durham, a neighbour, came, saying, "Farmer Blake, l will go instead of you." The farmer was astonished so much so as to be unable to reply for some time. He stood leaning one hand on his spade and then wiping the sweat from his brow with the other.

It seemed too good to be true! At length he took in the deliverance, as if it were an angel of tight in a dark dungeon, and he grasped the hand of the young Durham and praised God. The young fellow went, feeling that he was doing a noble thing, and all the village came out and bid him "God speed." It may be that he had 'glory' before him — the sash of a general, the chair of the President. Whatever his ideas, he nobly took the place of his fellow man; but alas! In the first battle he was shot and killed! When the farmer saw in the newspaper the name of Charles Durham in the list of "missing," he at once saddled his old horse and went off to the battlefield, and after searching for some time, found the body of his friend.

He brought the body back to his village, to the little churchyard in which they had so often walked together to the house of God; and from the quarry up on the hill he cut out a plain marble tablet on which he carved an inscription with his own hand. It was roughly done, but with every blow there fell a tear from his eyes.

There, in the little churchyard, he placed the body of his devoted friend and substitute, and covered the grave with grass sods from his garden. Then while his tears dropped, he put the marble tablet on the grave, and when the villagers stooped to see the little monument they also wept. It did not say much, but it really touched them; it said, "C.D. He died for me."

"Greater love has no man than this, that he lay done his life for his friends."

Today we honour those who laid down their lives for us. Greater love has no person than this — they paid the ultimate price in order for us to reap the benefit. We must never forget the sacrifice of youth, innocence and even life itself, that our brave service men and women have made, and continue to make to this day. Untold numbers have fallen in two World Wars and conflicts since, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Fallen leaves — not shed by their nation, but laid down their lives for their friends. We have set aside today to honour their memory and to recall their sacrifice. We thank God for deliverance which was attained at such a terrible cost.
Perhaps a soldier goes to war in search of adventure, or perhaps he has high ideals and principles, but when he fights to the death it's for his friends. Greater love has no one than this. I can't help but think of the great love shown by all those we honour today. They took up the mantle of our Lord's example and teachings. The freedoms we enjoy, we owe to them. The peace we so often take for granted, we owe to them. We must never forget the cost of freedom or the value of a single human life lost in the horror of war.

No greater love — Jesus is not just the tree; He is also a leaf that fell. He gave the Ultimate Sacrifice for us, His friends. He left the comfort and the glory of His Father's right hand to come to a world of darkness, where He met suffering, sin and death. He was met with mockery and taunting. Many challenged His authority. But Jesus had a purpose — He came to free sinners and restore them to life and peace with God. We must never lose sight of the great love Jesus has for us. We must take Him into our heart and accept that now is the day of salvation.

Greater love has no man than this; to lay down one's life for one's friends. To lay life itself upon the altar, and if needed, to yield it up. Not only those who have served in war, but each one of us is called every day to follow the example of Christ. We need only to live in Him.

Greater love has no man. There are some who have been called upon to die for their friends. The rest of us have been called on to live for our friends. But remember this, there is still a commitment. There is still a cost. With faith in Christ, there is also a promised strength. Let's thank God for all those who fought and fell so that we could live to see an even more glorious day.

Let us remember our fallen, remember their deeds, and most importantly, never lose sight of the great debt of gratitude owed by all of us. Their call was daunting, but God gave them strength, for the Lord is rich and abundant to all who put their trust in Him.

We have all been called to love and to serve, and if need be, to lay down our lives. May God help us to serve with our whole hearts and without reservation. May He help us to know the dignity of true service. The fallen leaf dies, but those who serve in the name of Jesus Christ will never perish. Christ gave His life that we might live with Him forever. What a price! What a victory !

Our soldiers' duty is not over yet. But until the day comes when they are no longer needed, and with God's help, we will continue to remember those who fell, and our service men and women today will continue to follow in their footsteps and will serve valiantly as those who went before served valiantly. For there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends and in the cause of lasting peace.

Lord of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget!

​LEST WE FORGET!

​
HYMN:       #407 Praise My Soul The King Of Heaven

ACT OF COMMITTMENT:
ONE: Let us pledge ourselves anew to the service of God and our fellow men and women: that we may help, encourage, and comfort others, and support those working for the relief of the needy and for the peace and welfare of the nations.
ALL: Lord God our Father, we pledge ourselves to serve You and all mankind, in the cause of peace, for the relief of want and suffering, and for the praise of Your name. Guide us by Your Spirit; give us wisdom; give us courage; give us hope; and keep us faithful, now and always. Amen.
BENEDICTION:     Go ye into the world in peace. Be brave, keep hold of what is good. Never
pay back wrong for wrong, and encourage the faint hearted. Support the weak and distressed and give due honour to everyone. Be always joyful and give thanks for whatever happens, for this is what God wills for you. Go in peace to love and serve your God and your fellow man.
POSTLUDE:  Chenaniah

"Lord, bid war's trumpet cease. Fold the whole earth in peace."
Oliver Wendell Holmes
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