We are coming up to Remembrance Sunday in the UK. This is the Sunday on which it is has been culturally appointed for us to remember the end of WWI, those who fought in WWII and, since then, the service of those who protected our country in wars that came after.

For many, it would be anathema to have no act of remembrance. Others – particularly those who choose to wear white poppies – have objections about what they perceived to be the implications of the act of remembrance. As this latter group judge it, it is glorifying war. As the former group judge it, it is honouring those who made great sacrifices for our sake. Others still have no problem with remembering and honouring the war-dead but feel there are both appropriate and inappropriate contexts in which to do it. Some find the whole thing overly politicised and would rather we did something else altogether.

One of the interesting debates that used to roll round regularly was whether it was necessary to wear a poppy at all. This was often brought into public consciousness by the newsreader, Jon Snow. It has been something of a convention for newsreaders to wear poppies, but it was noted that Snow never did. When he was challenged his argument was neither for or against the wearing of poppies per se, rather he insisted newsreaders are supposed to be impartial and not endorse any campaigns in particular. If he wore the poppy, what is to stop any organisation insisting he wear their emblem? The pushback he received was that he appeared not to care about the war-dead and that he was ungrateful for their sacrifice. The riposte was that it is ironic that the war-dead fought for freedom against fascism and yet those who most vociferously claim to honour their memory seem quick to implement a uniform and take something of an authoritarian approach to enforcing its universal uptake. Snow simply insisted it was a matter of impartiality and consistency in wearing no symbols.

Something of that same discussion rears its head in churches. There are those who could not countenance there being no act of remembrance. There are those who find it difficult to sit through one. There are others who are fine with it before or after the service, but don’t believe it should be done in service of worship. There are others still who don’t like the thought of it being done in church at all, but are happy with things happening elsewhere.

The bible doesn’t give us a direct answer on this. Certainly, it doesn’t tell us that we must do this – neither of the world wars had happened when the bible was written – but nor are we expressly told not to have an act of remembrance either. A couple of years ago, I wrote the post below working through some of the issues. You can see where I land on this question by following the link below.

We will remember them (but maybe not in the meeting)