Are you looking for Remembrance resources that focus on the suffering of all in war and the message of Never Again?
We encourage all churches to have white poppies available as a positive symbol of peace. Similarly, as knitting poppy cascades grows in popularity we encourage the inclusion of white poppies into the cascade. If you wish to purchase poppies then the Peace Pledge Union have a range of poppies on sale now.
Our friends at the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship have produced Remembrance and Armistice resources, full of details and ideas for church services. Pax Christi UK, the Catholic movement for peace, has also produced worship and reflection materials and resources for sale. The Baptist Peace Fellowship have produced worship resources. and Helen Paynter, from the Centre for the Study of the Bible and Violence has written a powerful remembrance hymn.
A Prayer for Remembrance Day
God the creator, sustainer and redeemer,
We thank you for life and the freedom to live it.
We thank you for giving us people to love,
And people to find challenging.
Through your son you call us
To love our enemy.
Let us not forget that the people caught up in war
are not those in disagreement, but civilians;
That WWI was not fought between enemies,
But by pawns, children, conscripts in distant fields.
Help us never to forget those who have died in war,
But to be reminded that war is not an inevitable evil,
And to creatively seek nonviolent means to peace.
Lead us along your path to peace,
Help us when the pressure to conform grows strong
And to question easy answers and scapegoating over
social, political, or economic problems.
Make us channels of your peace.
In Jesus name,
Amen
A Prayer for Remembrance Sunday
God of peace and life,
In all our remembering of yesterday, give us hope for tomorrow.
A hope grounded in your faithful promises not our wishful optimism.
A hope that sets us at odds with now, not passive in our complacent piety,
But restless in our longing for what will be.
As we remember sacrifice and suffering, help us to commit again to the long journey of peace.
We honour the fallen, women and men, children and the elderly, enemy and friend. We will not dishonour them by failing to use the armistice to seek justice and peace.
Once again we claim the fullness of your promises, in gratitude and joy.
Amen
A Remembrance Prayer for these times
Dear Lord God
We thank you for your presence in our lives,
We are all made in your image, no matter where we are and come from,
We are made in Your image for justice, mercy, kindness, humility, love and forgiveness.
Lord God
Help us to remember these fruits of the Spirit,
Help us to live a just life, full of kindness and forgiveness.
Help us to actively share the mercy You give us every day.
Help us to love one another as Jesus loves us.
Lord God, Heavenly Parent
We see so much destruction in the world at the moment.
We have civil wars in many African countries where people fight each other,
Resulting in a wave of refugees that the world has not seen for a very long time.
The inter-nation Wars between Russia and Ukraine, the fight in the Holy Land.
Watching in the news, it pains many merciful viewers
that the Land of God is such a brutal areas.
We pray, Lord our God,
That the City of David,
where the remains of the Jewish Temple stand and the Patriarchs are buried,
The sacred site of Jesus’ birth, ministry, Crucifixion and Resurrection took place,
The Islamic Dome of the Rock and Al-Agsa Mosque stand,
Become a peaceful place where people can live together despite their differences.
Lord God, Heavenly Parent
For Christian all over the world,
We pray for peace
We pray for a peaceful living together
We pray for justice of the excluded, persecuted and displaced peoples all over the world.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen
