Dear Glen Morris United churchgoers and community,  

On Remembrance Day, it feels rather fitting to be writing to you to offer the Peace of Christ. I hope that at some point today you have had an opportunity to participate in an act of remembrance. Having spent the last year watching the horrors of the war in Ukraine unfold, it feels so frustrating and heartbreaking to be thinking of the words “Never again” and the ways our hopes for peace can feel very far away.

We know of course that there are many ways to build peace and many forms of violence which need to end - that there are many ways for us to pray for and create a world with no more war. May the Peace of Christ be with you today in the space that feels despair for all that has been lost and also in the hope that a new and more peaceful world is possible.  

I hope you will appreciate the words of fellow United Church clergy Kimiko Karpoff as she reflects on Remembrance Day:  

Remembrance Day is tricky

There are those who fought in service of their countries

We pray for them

And there are those who as conscientious objectors did not

and stood for peace

And we pray for them 

There are those who lived through and died in combat

And those who lived and died imprisonedby their own countries

We pray for them 

We wear poppiesred poppies and white poppies knowing we need to remember

But to remember what?

Heroism and loss and death and judgement and hope

and quietly just carrying on through the destruction to keep families     

and communities alive

And mostly to remember peace

And to mourn our inability to keep it

And to look into our own hearts and heal our wounds

To heal our greed and our fear of difference

and our sense of being rightand our belief  that we know what’s best for everyone 

We pray

That we learn to pause 

And to breathe

And to connect to the peace of Christ​

To learn to be in companionable conflict with each other

Our families and communities

Because if we cannot talk about the things we disagree about

with those we love and care about

we will not know how to talk to people who look different

and speak differently and see the world through a different lens

And we will never learn that perhaps they have something to teach us

We remember that everything is created twice

The first when it is envisioned and the second when it is made real

So we pray that what we envision is God’s kingdom

That we see ourselves as agents of peace in every aspect of our lives

That we envision a love that both holds the other

And holds each other accountable,

With compassion and kindness,

as we walk this journey together

Remembrance Day is tricky because we boldly remember the ways we have failed

Then boldly lay that aside like yesterday’s wilted wreath

Honouring each piece as we take it apart

And, taking the seeds from the dying poppies, plant a garden

Plant a garden

Today we remember and we pray

We remember the past so we can join God in co-creating our future

We remember the past because our story emerges from these stories

We remember the past and remember that

We live the kingdom of God

Or we don’t

Lest we forget  

 

May the Peace of Christ be made known to all on Earth through the building of a world without war,  

 

Yours in Christ,

Rev Michiko