Lives remembered

Which brings me to the themes of departing and remembrance so closely associated with the month of November - All Souls and Remembrance Sunday. The former we shall mark on the evening of the 4th with a Requiem Eucharist (note: not the usual Evensong) with choral settings from Mozart’s Requiem. This is always a moving occasion. We shall put out a book at the back of the church in the preceding two weeks for people to write in names of family members and friends and these names will be read out as part of the service.

Reading out names will also feature the following week when the 100th anniversary of the ending of the First World War falls appropriately on a Sunday. We have booked a bugler to mark this special anniversary and we shall, during the service, be reading out the names of those recorded in a book kept at St Giles for the years 1915 - 1918 when each Sunday new names of the dead or wounded were entered and remembered, in addition to those from the second world war. That evening, at 6.30pm, a service around the theme of peace, with poetry and readings and appropriate music, may well be appropriate. Either way, do join us if you can, or join with a remembrance service wherever you happen to be that day.