Remembering the beginning and ending of the
1914-1918 War
During WW1 8.7 million men from the UK served
in the Army from 1914-1918 – equivalent to the total Population of London in 2014
956,703 were killed or died from their wounds
equivalent to the total Population of Birmingham in 2014
For every soldier who died 9 came home.
Came home having seen and been part of the
horrors and reality of First World War.
They came home traumatised by what they had
seen and been part of.
They came home to a country, a city, a town,
a village where every man, woman and child had for 4 years done their part of
this modern war – Total War.
They came home to a nation of men, women and
children who had been traumatised, who had lived with the real fear of death be
it for the first time from aerial bombardment, starvation or the fear of defeat
in this titanic struggle.
Today we remember
Tuesday we will remember at the 11th
hour on the 11th day of the 11th Month that the guns fell
silent.
But will we really learn the lessons of our
past?
We teach our children in the play ground that
fighting is wrong.
We teach our children that there is another
way to resolving our problems than resorting to violence.
And yet for the last 100 years we have been
taught to hate the foreigner
we have seen how war turns family in to foes
we have seen how war turns neighbours into
enemies
we have seen the shattering of faith in Christian
nations
we have yet to find the other way to
resolving our problems that we tell our children can be done without violence?
Come let us go up to the mountain of God
to the house of the God of Jacob
That God may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in paths
For he law shall go out of Zion
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem
God shall judge between the nations
and shall mediate for many peoples
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares
and their spears in to pruning hooks
Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation
neither shall they learn war anymore Isaiah 2.3-4
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