... as promised, a photo of the poppy collage the children made today, and the wreath with the adults memory poppies...

This morning we had the joy of a cellist and a trumpeter to augment our music.  The choir sang beautifully.  A number of visitors joined us.

The picture shows the response to remembering our own loved ones - poppies and tealights symbolising those we have loved and lost, or those whose stories have inspired us.

A teenage girl was inspired by a school history trip to Europe to come to the service and remembered a WWI soldier she had researched; others recalled parents, siblings, friends, partners, children.

We reflected on characteristics of authentically Christian grief and prayed for the world of which we are a small part.

Some wept their way through the service, finding the release cathartic.  Others simply valued a different form of worship to their usual.  Overall, I think it went well, and we benefited from sharing together.

The Sunday school made a gorgeous poppy collage - which I must get a photo of - and the little poppies the adults used were stuck onto the wreath to sit alongside it.

We remembered; may we never forget.

Today was walking club day, a couple of the pictures I took...

And of course a rather lovely longhaired black and white cat...

For those who like palindromic dates and times, or for those who love Pascal's triangle, today is a date in which to revel.  But across the globe it is a day when, on average, 1 military and 3 civilian lives will be lost every hour in armed conflict.  It is not a day to debate the rights and wrongs of armed conflict, it is a day to remember, with gratitude, those, often conscripts rather than volunteers, who paid for our freedoms in their own blood.  It is a day to remember the countless children, women and men who live with the physical and mental scars of war.  It is a day to pray for peace - not mere absence of war.

My friends include pacifists and military chaplains, retired armed forces personnel and anti-war campaigners.  I have worked in defence; I hope I also work for peace.  Do I have an answer? No, not really.  But today, for a moment (or 120 seconds anyway) I will endeavour to stop and think.

Remember the Dead

Do not forget the Living

Pray for Peace

Why has Holly Cat suddenly taken to jumping onto the back of the settee and licking my hair?  Answers on a postcard please!

Still summoning the courage to get the curls chopped - not this side of my holiday weekend but it must be soon as I look more and more like a scarecrow... maybe Holly is trying to tidy up a wayward kitten?