75  adults and 50 children gathered at the village war memorial for the annual act of remembrance this morning.  Our local uniformed organisations had marched on parade form the village hall to the memorial and their flags marked the gateway to church. Nicky, the vicar, led the act while John Maxwell-Jones read out the list of those from our village who had died during both the first and the second world wars and several wreaths were laid. We  then had a live bugle call for Last Post and Reveille which flanked the two minute act of silence.

During the remainder of the service, we moved into the church building and sang hymns, listened to readings and poems, talked to a neighbour about our understanding of hope and completed a wordsearch of words about war which when completed revealed a hidden message taken from Jesus' words in John's Gospel 'Peace be with you'. We thought together about how the past, the present and the future all come together on Remembrance Sunday and the importance of us reflecting upon the sacrifice and suffering of those involved in war and our commitment to seek the well being and flourishing of all people which the Bible describes as true peace, human flourishing. The service completed with the opportunity for us to pledge ourselves to seeking peace in our world and living in a way that makes a difference and enables others to flourish. After the National Anthem and blessing, everyone was invited to take home a white rose petal along with their poppy so that together the two remind us of our calling to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others and to commit ourselves to seeking peace and human flourishing in our world today.