Remembrance Sunday 2024
Today, we gathered at St Peter’s church and the War Memorial to remember the fallen from our villages from the First World War and to reflect upon the loss of precious lives in all conflicts before and since. The current conflicts in Ukraine and Israel continue relentlessly with no end in sight.
It was a grey and somewhat bleak day, after a spell of almost two weeks with very little sunshine; somehow appropriate for very bleak times in the wider world.
Our incredible flower arranging team transformed the church with a variety of arrangements. Large solemn sentinels by the altar contrasted with tiny posies of poppies which caught the eye brightening hidden corners.
While we sang and prayed; listened to readings, held silence for the Last Post and Reveille and listened to the names of our lost young men, the little poppies captured my thoughts.
Poppies are the epitome of calm after chaos, bringing beauty after unimaginable ugliness.. Tender fragility following brutal cruelty.
The tiny field poppy symbolises hope as it grows from disturbed ground. Its seeds can lie dormant for hundreds of years until the earth turns… but its blood red petals remind us of the horror and sacrifice. And a field of little poppies remind us of the millions who died.
The unbearable transformed but never forgotten.
All that in one tiny wild flower?
Lest we forget…
St Peter's Church, Church Langton 