At first glance Remembrance Sunday is not the optimum choice of subject matter when planning an All Ages Gathering. But with the second Sunday of the month (our designated monthly All Ages date falling just two days before Remembrance Day it seemed this was the topic on which we should focus, not because it was “easy” but because it was “right”.
The working title was “War and Peace” and soon a plan started to come together. Several people took on various aspects of the Gathering and it really came together. Blair chose some excellent songs and retooled the PowerPoint slides perfectly, Steve agreed to be our quizmaster for a boisterous round of “Name That Scripture Passage”, Heather was persuaded to animate the making of bookmarks for the Armed Forces Chapel at Richelieu, the Base on which an Officer was recently killed in an act of terrorism, Fred gave short and thoughtful keynote talk,
Liz led the Prayer time, during which we read out the names of 227 members of St. Stephen’s who had served in the two World Wars and Nick was our Moderator, reading a sonnet prior to the prayers.There was a mix of sombre reflection, silence, the busy hum of toddlers, laughter and voices raised in songs of worship. And, hopefully, the congregation went out into the world with a deeperunderstanding of why we, as Christians, take time, this Sunday to Remember.
