2020 has been different in so many ways. So let us make our village Remembrance commemorations this year different too. Let us make it a ‘Silent Remembrance’.
Silence: the silence of a First World War battlefield when the guns have ceased and the scattered dead lie still. The silence of a COVID intensive care ward, save for the wracked oxygen aided breathing. The silence of grief of loved ones, bereaved by war or by disease. The silence of a peaceful country lane with wayside summer flowers mingled with birdsong, more still this year in lockdown. The silence of sunset, as the blazing orange ball slips below the horizon to close the day. The silence of dawn, light
wordlessly welcoming the day’s new life.
We can gather on Remembrance Sunday this year as is customary in our public 
spaces in Feniton and Payhembury at 10.55am (provided Government rules remain as they are when this goes to press). But we can’t gather in our usual manner. In Payhembury, as a public gathering, household groups (or six at the most) are not permitted to interact. Across the green and the road, we must distance. In Feniton, we will gather within the churchyard, offering a more open space than the lane, similarly distanced and
separate.
We cannot gather in our usual manner. So let us do so silently. Not that Remembrance is ever a chatter-y affair. But this year, let us come together in silence, and hold this silence throughout, save the liturgical words of Remembrance. Let us allow the Two Minute Silence to sit within a broader ocean
of stillness.
Some will wish to stay distanced in their homes, and mark silence there. Some will wish to continue into the church for the Remembrance service. These services too will be the same yet different. Social
distancing and the absence of permitted congregational singing offer a poignant symbol of our connection with all who are distanced by death and lie in peace. Fewer people will be possible in our churches. But we can still commemorate together, gathered or not.
‘And after the fire a sound of sheer silence…’. It wasn’t in the earthquake, wind or fire that God spoke to the ancient prophet Elijah in a transformational moment. It was in the silence. Silence embraces the
deepest of pain like no words can. And from its stillness beauty and new life arise too.
Let us this year mark a Silent Remembrance.
