World War I Remembrance

From the vicarage

Last month we marked the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. At St Anthony’s, Alkham, there was a very moving Lights Out service on 4th August, followed by other events held in the village over the following weekend.

Fortunately for us, most can now only imagine what it must have been like to sit in a trench, praying for shells to fall somewhere else – but an eventful trip to the Holy Land during July gave me some idea of how it must have been.

A cheap taster for clergy considering becoming group leaders, we sailed on the Sea of Galilee, visited the places where Jesus lived and taught, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and more. Then we came to Jerusalem.

On arrival we took our bags to our hotel rooms. As we admired the view of the ancient city wall from our third floor window, a siren began to wail.

Quite possibly a rocket fired from Gaza was about to strike somewhere near us. We scanned the horizon – then realised that the window was not the place to be if anything did explode nearby. Nobody had told us what to do. We ran into the corridor – now what?  What about going downstairs? Would we make it before the rocket landed? In the end we could only wait – and, mercifully, nothing happened.

So that’s my experience of being under fire. It’s absolutely nothing compared with what those in the trenches went through – or what others around our world are going through today. If you pray, please pray for them.

Brian