During our service on Sunday November 11, our church member and deacon Dr Ros Otzen offered this reflection, prior to our observance of one minute of silence and remembrance.
At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, one hundred years ago today, an armistice finally brought an end to WW1.
Peace came to an exhausted world.
No family in Australia was untouched by this war. As remote as our country was from the rest of the world, and as young and new our small European-descended population was on this great continent, war found us even so. It dragged even our indigenous families into an alien horror.
Our young men died – and today we name the men of this church who never came back:
Arthur Burker
Jack Brown
Vaughn Lewis
Frank A Dixon
JAE Toone
We also remember the arrow of grief and loss driven into the hearts of their families sitting in the very pews we are sitting in today.
War comes so easily all over the world. The struggle for peace, for shalom between peoples so equally valued by our loving Father God is a hard road, but one we will walk with him, and must walk with him.
Ever-living God, we remember those whom you have gather from the storm of war into the peace of your presence. May that same peace calm our fears and guide our actions.
May the memory of this and other wars strengthen our efforts for peace.
May the memory of those who died inspire our service to the living.
May the memory of past destruction move us to build for the future.
O God of peace, O companion for our souls,
O builder of love and justice and shalom in the world:
Hear our prayer.