Church offers service for reconciliation with Germany

Service to mark 100 years since Great War will include the Lord’s Prayer in French and German

THE Church of England has launched a First World War prayer service to promote reconciliation with Germany.

The new “monologue”, which incorporates songs such as Pack up Your Troubles and Jerusalem, has been launched to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War this

November.

It encourages worshippers to experience “reconciliation” with enemies and “commit ourselves afresh to working together for peace”.

An explanatory note before the service says: “Each of the ‘steps’ is linked together with an imagined monologue, in which a British soldier is speaking to his opposite number in the German army.”

It adds that in many places modern societies are now disrupted by terrorism as well as warfare.

“Today, of course, many of the scars and divisions we suffer are the result not of conventional warfare, but of the cruel and destructive violence of global terrorism,” the preface says.

The service, which is designed to be

‘It is an effort to demonstrate a unity of voices across the linguistic lines of the conflict’

held in a church, a school or a community centre, also suggests poetry by Wilfred Owen and readings from Genesis and Corinthians.

The fictional soldier also describes the war as “industrial madness”. “Such waste, such horror! How did this happen! Why, oh, just why was it allowed to go on and on,” the passage adds.

In a later section the soldier apologises to his German counterpart.

“My first word has to be ‘sorry’. But it’s such a heavy, weighted word. It rolls so effortlessly off the tongue, but what a freight of meaning it has to carry! How can it be said?”

The resources include a prayer for world peace, a prayer to say when visiting a soldier’s grave, and a vigil service to take place on the night of armistice day, Sunday November 11, or the evening before. The service includes an unusual section where the congregation is invited to say the Lord’s Prayer in French or German instead of in English, which the Church said was an effort to demonstrate “the unity of voices across the linguistic lines of the conflict”.

Readings include sections of Corinthians and Genesis, as well as Psalm 29 and parts of the book of Luke and the book of Matthew.

Bishop at Lambeth the Rt Rev Tim Thornton, bishop to the Armed Forces, said: “There are of course very few people now left to tell first-hand stories of the First World War.

“As we commemorate its centenary, remembering those who gave their lives, it is important therefore also to pause and commemorate those who have lived with the memory of war, and the manifold challenges that brings.

“These resources offer an excellent way for churches, groups, families and individuals to connect with a generation whose lives were inexorably altered by desperate conflict.

“The season of remembrance each year sees churches and cathedrals come to the fore as communities bring to mind those lost and affected in any way in conflicts, give thanks for the sacrifices of our Armed Forces, and pray for peace.”