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Viewpoint from Pat Stringer 10/11/2023
 Pat Stringer
Licensed Lay Minister
Parish of Great Yarmouth
As the time for Remembrance comes around each year, many people suffer very mixed emotions; the pain and suffering they experience is still so great that all commemoration is tinged with bitterness
Regularly in church services during the time of Intercessions, prayers are offered for Peace, a time when there will be no war. Something we should all strive for, a time to live in unity and be peaceable with all people. Peace, as the Bible understands it is not an achievement it is a gift which comes from God
It is possible through the hard work of prayer, persuasion, and political action, to make governments on the one hand and revolutionary groups on the other, see that there is a different way to that of unremitting violence of fighting force with force. – a prayerful revolution. May all prayers offered to God request that we may live a quiet and peaceful life
 Being a peacemaker means taking life seriously and facing up to its pain. The men and women, who volunteer for a career in our armed forces, know there is a high risk that they might be killed. Those who died in conflicts didn’t choose to die, or to be wounded
The purpose of Remembrance Sunday is to remember – to remember those who have died in past wars and also those who today are losing their lives daily in the many troubled parts of the world and to remember the reasons, good or bad for which they died
Jesus said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends". But did those who died in war voluntarily lay down their lives? No, they wouldn’t have wished to die. Many of them, at some stage, took a decision which they hoped would bring peace for others and risked involving the loss of their own life
Jesus said we must “Love one another, as I have loved you, so you must love one another”. We must make friends with all people, whatever race, creed, or nationality and bring peace to our world, the peace that comes from God alone
So we must pray for a peaceful life in our daily prayers and intercessions; remembering those killed in war, and those scarred by war with deep gratitude for the sacrifices they and their families made.
I would just like to leave you with the following thought:
“Do not seek for the City of God on earth, for it is not built of wood or stone; but seek it in the soul of those who are at peace with themselves”
Philo (20BC – AD40)
Amen
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