Remembrance Sunday
Posted on | November 1, 2010 | No Comments
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1917 the big guns fell silent and the end came to the so called Great War, the ‘war to end all wars’ and that was what it was supposed to be.
At the treaty signed in Versailles all the great powers lay down their ceremonial swords and solemnly swore never to take them up again.
Tragically that solemn pledge was broken and has been broken again and again and now the world has more and deadlier weapons than ever before in its history and all too frequently these are used causing immense human suffering and untold damage with civillians and poorer nations and people bearing the brunt of this always.
While it has become customary on this day to hold remembrance services for the people who fought and died especially in the two world wars, it is also customary for some to remember as well all the the other casualties too often forgotten, not only then but now.
People gathered in Chapelfield Park at the Peace Pillar Thursday 11th in time for 11am to stand in solidarity for a few minutes in silence with all those who are and have been casualties of wars and conflicts past and present.
People also gathered at the war memorial by City Hall on Sunday 14th to lay wreaths of white and red poppies to remember the dead and to draw attention to the need for peace in our times.
Press release from Norwich Quakers For immediate release
Remembering war, making peace
Wearing a white poppy is intended to challenge a culture that makes war inevitable.
It does not undermine the obligation to remember the dead, or care for the living casualties of war, the majority of whom are civilians. Many people now wear both red and white poppies to emphasise this unity of desire to prevent further war deaths.
Quakers invite everyone to join them in laying a wreath of white and red poppies at the new War Memorial at 12.15 on Remembrance Sunday, November 14th.
Some people may wish to walk together to the Peace Pillar in Chapelfield Gardens, to share readings and reflections, at the memorial donated by Japanese Mayors for Peace.
Young Quaker Alex Foxe, 19, from Thorpe Hamlet said ‘I wear both poppies thinking of the dead in past, present, and hopefully not future wars. It’s time we found better ways to get over our disagreements’
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