Remember peacemaking on Remembrance Sunday

A new resource for churches and others has been produced for Remembrance Sunday, which aims to bring together the idea of remembering those killed in war with a commitment to work for peace.

Produced by the Movement for the Abolition of War, and supported by the thinktank Ekklesia, 'Remembrance for Today: remembering war, making peace' is a collection of prayers, liturgies, poems, hymns and songs.

"Remembering has not always sat comfortably with a commitment to work for peace" the resource states.

"The last one hundred years of human history have been marked by conflict on an unprecedented scale. But at the same time there has arisen a tradition of remembrance and commemoration for those who have died as a result of war.

"Yet today at times of remembrance there is a growing desire to do more than repeat the same words from previous years. This is a new collection of resources which brings
remembrance and peacemaking together.

“How should we remember the horror as well as the courage of war? From cemetery to cemetery there would come only one answer from soldiers and civilians killed as a result of conflict: 'If you want to honour our memory, work for the abolition of war'.

"Those for whom the old formulas are growing stale will find this collection just what they wanted" writes General Sir Hugh Beach in the forward to the resource.

"We are led to repent and look instead to ways to seek peace and pursue it - not least in ourselves"

• www.abolishwar.org.uk/remembrance.shtml