Sermon
delivered at All Saints, Farley, Remembrance Day Service – Sunday 11th
November 2018
John 15:13
May
I speak in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
“No
one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You
are my friends if you do what I command you…I am giving you these commands so
that you may love one another”
So speaks Jesus to his disciples in that same passage
where he describes himself as the vine and them as the branches.
Today we remember and celebrate, yes celebrate too, the
100th anniversary of the ending of one of the most fruitless and
destructive wars of all time – the armistice of the First World War with
countless loss of life and much suffering for what was described as a war to
end wars following the assassination of
a member of a far-away foreign Imperial family, in a far-away foreign country,
carried about by a foreigner resulting in the declaration of war by two far
away foreign powers. 25 years later it was to all kick off again as a European
conflict.
Yet, as we know, the First World War rapidly escalated
into a global conflict played out largely by six powerful Empires resulting in
a huge loss of life. The Empires
themselves never recovered (four of them disappeared altogether) and the
remaining two were considerably weakened as a result. So I do say “celebrate” today as well as
remember because 100 years ago to this actual day at 11 am all hostilities ceased
(or were supposed to cease) bringing to an end the senseless bloodshed.
Today is, as always, is
a remembrance too of all those who lost their lives – in that conflict
and in later ones too – especially the Second World War which was equally
destructive. To remember those who “lay down their lives”:
I was recently shown this image of a young couple hand in
hand in a beautiful green pasture overlooking the sea. This wonderful idyllic
peaceful scene is being held up by dozens and dozens of First World War
Soldiers some dead, dying or wounded. In who, in the words of the Kohima Epitath
, “When you go home, tell them of us, and
say, for your tomorrow wegave our today.”
For the young couple’s tomorrow they gave their today”.
A couple of years ago I went with my son to Ypres and was
totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume of names of those who lost their lives
in that one salient alone – names bearing the same surname as my own family and
many others I know. It hit me hard as
does each and every Remembrance Sunday; and when I read my history books the
waste seems so terrible.
I have just finished reading a novel by William Boyd set
in German East Africa – modern day Tanzania where I have recently spent a
couple of weeks – and whilst it is just a novel it is set amidst the horror of
the First World War as it affected the colonies of the warring European nations
on the continent of Africa.. We often concentrate our remembrance of the First
World War on the slaughter in the trenches and fields of Flanders but for those
in Africa there was the added horror of terrible heat, tropical diseases and
wild animals just like those who fought in the jungles of Burma and Malaya in
later conflicts. For several days many
of the troops in Africa continued to fight and kill each other totally unaware
of the signing of the Armistice on 11th November 1918. How tragic is
that?
One of the names on the Farley plaque of remembrance also
lost his life on active service in or near the African Continent – in Palestine
in fact close to the Egyptian border– Leonard Francis Parsons.
In the early part of the First World War, Kantara in Egypt was an
important point in the defence of the Suez Canal against Turkish attacks and
marked the starting point of the new railway east towards Sinai and Palestine,
begun in January 1916.
Today the nephew of Leonard Francis Parsons, Gary Holmes,
is with us here today and he would like to say a few words about his uncle and
particularly about a visit his grandmother made to his grave in Egypt:
INTRODUCE GARY HOLMES
I would wish to introduce Leonard Parsons, when & where born, refer to his joining the Wiltshire Regiment as a 16 year old etc.
My mother Violet Holmes née Parsons ,was his sister.
To speak briefly about St Barnabas Society and its role in leading groups to to Egypt & Palestine. after the First World War
To introduce my grandmother, Vashti Louisa Parsons who joined the Pilgrimage in April 1927 & who wrote a warm detailed journal of her journey from Farley to Egypt, Palestine & the Holy Land.
To read the extract that speaks of finding her son’s grave.
Egypt
The special train awaited us at Alexandria to take us to Cairo. Some of the party remained behind in the town to visit the war graves there. From our train we watched them start off in motors with their wreaths. Most of these were made on board by St Barnabas Stewards and were all alike two Calafa Palms tied at the base and top, large bunches of Flanders poppies and white African Immortelles. The tourists saw the sites and proceeded to Cairo by train later in the day. We join the train to arrive at Cairo by midday.
Here a large number of pilgrims take the train to Kantara Cemetery which is about half an hour from the terminus and a boiling walk they have across the desert passing only a few native huts on their way.
There are 1500 British dead here in a sandy waste. A high wall protects the cemetery to a certain extent from sand storms and the native keepers sweep the graves clear of sand twice a day - otherwise the headstones would soon be covered up and lost. There are no flowers and trees to beautify this place and shelter the graves and the relatives can only bring away ‘a handful of sand’ from their beloved graves. A little girl of tender years goes to Kantara with her mother to visit her father’s grave. She is our youngest pilgrim.
We went by motor with the Dr. and his wife, the official photographer (and one other lady bound for the cemetery at Tel-el-Kebir), to as Ismailia Cemetery which is 120 miles from Cairo. We go through very wild and desolate country onto the very fringe of the Desert.
About four o’clock we arrived at Tel-el-Kebir, out of the wilderness (Sir Garnet Wolseley fought here many years ago) and after negotiating a ravine with the assistance of some natives, we entered a sweet little Garden of Rest where are from 20 to 30 graves of Britishers who died in the war. Tall oleander trees in full bloom were the feature of the place with palms and other flowering trees and cypresses. There is the ‘Cross of Sacrifice’ as in all other cemeteries.
The natives were keeping it in perfect order. They knew on which there and we had come and could not do enough for us. Maybe, they have lost their men in the same cause. The woman lent against a tree saying “O sorrow O sorrow!”
The men picked large bunches of pink oleander for us. The lady who was with us had found the grave she sought and we leave her whilst she places her wreath there. After a while the photographer takes a picture of the grave whilst we stand in silence for a time then board our car again. After an hour’s rapid ride through the desolate wilderness and alongside the canal over a very rough sandy track of a road we eventually arrived in Ismailia which is quite a large town with wide roads, flower gardens and a fountain in the chief square. Most of the roads here have French names. The desert is quite close on the borders of which is a large camp.
At 5.30 on 3 May we found the Cemetery and entered by its fine stone archway which bore the inscription ‘This land is given over for all time for the British Dead by the Egyptian Government.’
We walked up a pathway between cypress trees until we had almost reached the ‘Cross a Sacrifice’ and there on the right I found my boy’s grave. How can I say what I felt. I wonder whether the dead can see us at times and know our inmost thoughts. Did my son know that I could come all these miles after a weary waiting of nine years and that someone at last of his own who had loved him so, stood by that sacred spot where his body lies.
I did not feel that his real self was there as only his mortal remains were in the grave. He, I believe is in God’s keeping along with all those other precious lives but his memory is ever in my heart.
We placed a wreath at the headstone and an attendant brought me a can of water and in which to place the bunch of oleander given to me at Tel-el-Kebir. He placed it on the grave so reverently and with a bow he left me. For 15 minutes I remained in sweet communion with my boy. Then a photograph was taken.
That was all. ‘Goodnight, dearest! sleep on till the day breaks and we meet again.’ So we passed on leaving him lying in his restful tomb.
War is not, as has often been portrayed in films,
romantic. Every person who lost his or her life as a result of war had a mother
just like Leonard Parsons. Families were
torn apart by much grief and anxiety receiving or waiting to receive the
dreaded War Office telegram.
So then how should the church approach this topic? What
is the role of the church at times of such conflict? I believe it is not just to bury the dead or
lead services of remembrance after the events.
This was a question posed by and reflected on by the
Reverend Geoffrey Studdard Kennedy during the First World War. The Reverend Kennedy is better known by his
nickname “Woodbine Willy”.
From the trenches he was asked on more than one
occasion “What the b ________ h___ is the church doing here?
His short answer was “It
is trying to keep the hope of Heaven alive in the midst of a bloody Hell. It is
trying to fill the army and keep it filled with the Spirit of the Cross, the
spirit of strong love of Right which will triumph at all costs in the battle
against Wrong”. Further, he said, the church has to counter “the temptation for men (and I will also add ‘women’) to become
brutalised and to live as do brutes – The Spirit of the Bayonet without the
Spirit of the Cross”.
Today, we may not be fighting a world war as between
1914-1918 and 1939-19545 but the world continues to be brutalised and we see
people living as brutes. Today is a
remembrance of those who have laid down their lives in faith in those battles
against Wrong. The church continues to
have that role today – as we remember the fallen we should also remember our
role as reconcilers and instruments of peace.
Those we remember today made the ultimate sacrifice – their todays were
given up for our tomorrows; as did Jesus Christ himself when he died on the
Cross for our sins – in a spirit of strong love of Right against Wrong. Just as
Woodbine Willy put it in his short answer.
In the words of Christ himself - “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s
friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you…I am giving you these
commands so that you may love one another”.
“At
the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them”
Amen
MFB/06112018
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