The photo of the poppy adorned cross was taken at least a decade ago, in a church building that dated back to the 1880s and a congregation where there were, at the time, people who still recalled those who had gone to war and never returned.  Until now, I have always been a member of, or have served churches whose foundation predates the so-called Great War - but this year that isn't the case.  Although the building dates from 1902. the founding congregation foundered, and the current congregation was founded in 1927 (big birthday coming up soon!) and so there are no memorial plaques, and no tales of who served where.  This makes Remembrance feel quite a bit different, if no less important.

This morning, I dressed my Welsh pew-wood cross with the same poppies that appear in the photo above, and which have been carefully stored over the years since then.  I tried - and failed miserably to create a similar image to the one above, and in the end, took my cross out into the garden to snap this image:

On Sunday, I will tales I have told before, in other places at other times, and work with a 'strange story' set in the Lectionary to reflect on wisdom and folly.

It's important to remember the past, not to glorify or vilify (one of the dangers of binary categories) but to complexify, problematise and discover new and old truths.