This Sunday, being Remembrance Sunday, instead of our regular 10 am service, we had our service of Remembrance  at 10:45. This short service in the church included the keeping of the 2 minutes silence at 11am, a reading of the Roll of Honour, an act of Commitment to the peace and welfare of nations, and the National Anthem. The Choir sang 'My Soul there is a Country far beyond the Stars' by Hubert H Parry as the anthem. Father Stephen in his sermon recalled that 100 years ago in November 1915, the country was in the midst of the First World War, with no hope in prospect and in fact as we now know the further horrors of the Battle of the Somme to come in 1916. Mechanised war was established and the countries of Europe and beyond remembering the Galipoli campaign in 1915 were locked in terrible conflict. Many of the veterans who paraded in front of the Cenotaph from both world wars are now gone, but sadly replaced by those who have had to fight in more recent conflicts. War is evil, but God is good and humans can show great compassion, courage and love in he face of the worst we can do to one another.

At the end of the service in church, representatives of the Services and village organisations processed out to the War Memorial by the North Gate, followed by the altar party and the congregation, where wreaths of Poppies were laid to remember those from Sidlesham who  gave their lives for our security and peace.