Thought for the Week

Throughout the year we are invited to remember various events and causes, historical and contemporary.

At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month (Armistice Day) we are invited to remember the beginnings of the end of the fighting of the First World War. But Armistice Day is more than the signing of treaties. It’s about lives and livelihoods lost in a historical sense and in a contemporary setting.

Once, Armistice Day was the focus of grieving families who vowed that never again should lives be wasted, and in the 1920s and ’30s it became an occasion for peace activists around the world to rally in support of disarmament.

And so it is a contemporary activity as we recall and pray into the many wars being fought throughout this world today.

During this season many of our local churches also engage in other acts of remembrance which are rooted in history but remain of contemporary significance.

During a Passover celebration that became His Last Supper, Jesus, in an act of communion, said, ‘Do this in remembrance of me’.

Which leads us into Remembrance Sunday. War memorials throughout the country, predominantly bearing the names of men and boys, remind us of the terrible impact of war on families and communities, on social, economic, political and cultural life. We can remember all those who have lost their lives in the numerous wars fought throughout the world, some of them seen as ill-considered, some deeply unpopular, even divisive. We can also remember all those who currently serve in the nation’s forces (armed and civil). We can also reflect on Jesus saying, ‘Remember Me’. Reverend David Carruthers, Church of Scotland, Ardrishaig and South

Knapdale.