Remembering, remembering...................November is such a month for the business of remembering, as well this year as looking forward, with the season of Advent beginning on the last Sunday of the month. Amid bonfires and firework displays we look back to 1605 and the failed gunpowder plot in celebrations across the country, and we also celebrate and give thanks for the lives of countless Christian saints and martyrs who have inspired and encouraged Christians, including ourselves, down through the centuries.

Most poignantly of course we remember and give thanks for our loved ones at All Souls Tide, lighting candles at the annual Commemoration Service and offering prayers of comfort and hope. This service brings many people together, including those whose loved ones have died during the past year but also many from previous years. And then, a week later on Remembrance Sunday, we commemorate and remember the fallen from the two World Wars of the 20th Century, as well as more recent conflicts. Gathering outside the Church Lych Gate and listening to the names being read out, and then the Last Post and the Reveille being played, is such an incredibly powerful and emotional experience. More than a century after the end of the First World War we can only hope and pray that this very poignant and moving part of our local and national life continues into the future.

Thinking about remembering, I am struck by two moments/events/aspects which took place during the lifetime of Jesus. The first was at the Last Supper when Jesus broke the bread and poured the wine and invited the disciples, and us today, to “do this in remembrance of me” and the second came from the lips of one of the two thieves crucified alongside Jesus: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”. Jesus’ response is equally striking: “Truly I tell you, this day you will be with me in paradise”.

All in all there is so very much to remember and give thanks for in this coming month, and may we all be touched and blessed in some way as we remember, but also as we move forward, in faith, hope and love.

The Revd Alec Brown.