A View From The Vicarage - November
Dear Friends
It seems entirely a truism to observe that November is the month of remembering. From it’s opening days dedicated to All Saints remembering those thousands of unknown and unnamed Christians who were examples in their own communities but are largely unknown beyond. November 2nd is All Souls’ Day in which we’re encouraged to pause and remember all of those we’ve known and loved but who have now been parted from us by death.
November 5th brings with it the sparkle and crackle of bonfires and fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night. Then, of course, Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day call us all to reflect and remember the sacrifice of all those who left these shores and now rest in some “corner of a foreign field” as the soldier Poet Rupert Brooke memorably described it.
It can, on occasion, feel as if November affords us little or no time to forget with all of this deluge of remembering. But, all of this remembering must surely compel us to pose a serious question what is actually the point? Are these merely quaint customs and traditions from the past or do they actually possess a relevance to life in Britain today?
When we light the bonfires and gaze in awe and wonder at the dazzling fireworks of Guy Fawkes’ Night do we ever pause to consider what it is we’re actually celebrating? Surely the national relief in the Seventeenth Century following the defeat of the Gunpowder Plot was that a small band of extremists had failed in their endeavour to overthrow the nation’s nascent democratic institutions. Whatever the future history of these islands would have been had the plot succeeded, this would be a different and I strongly suspect less tolerant country.
Following on from Guy Fawkes, Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day are powerful reminders that violence and bloodshed are never reasonable or acceptable ways in which to achieve objectives whatever they are, however noble or honourable or high minded they may be. The many millions who lost their own lives following Gavrilo Princip’s assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria- Hungary in June 1914. Not forgetting the multiple millions who perished as a direct consequence of the brutal nationalist agenda of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi compatriots. Surely our remembrance of these brutal events remind us that ultra nationalism and xenophobia are never and must never be the ways in which to conduct any political discourse.
What really is the point of all of this national introspection? I can do no better than quote Edmund Burke who observed that “those who don’t know the past are doomed to repeat it.” It seems to me that in the midst of the political uncertainty and instability which our country appears to be marooned in at the present, Burke’s words and this month of remembering have never been more important or prophetic.
The long history of these islands imbrued and guided by it’s equally ancient Christian heritage and especially the tolerant broad church christianity which has been established here remind us that extremism in whatever disguise it wishes to cloak itself never has or will be the way to create a flourishing, humane society. As Burke reminds us unless we learn and remember the lessons of the past then we’re doomed to repeat them.
I just wonder what future generations recalling us and our time will be placing on top of their bonfires?
Happy Remembering.
With my love and prayers as always
Ben