CW79: Remembering Ryton

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A World War 1 German officer and a British ‘Tommy’ inch towards each other across No Man’s Land, hands nervously outstretched as an offer of friendship. Other men and boys follow, greeting each other with sweets and mugs of tea. They start a ‘kick about’ with a football and soon the game is in full swing.

But this is not the famous truce in the trenches in December 1914, despite the ragged tinsel Christmas tree. This is the recreation ground in Ryton on Dunsmore, Warwickshire, in September 2014.

CW79: We Shall Remember Them

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Commemorating the centenary of the end of the Great War in rural communities

Annual services of Remembrance are often significant occasions in rural communities. As our nation marks the centenary of the end of the First World War, we wanted to find out how rural churches were marking this significant anniversary…

CW79: All gave some, but some gave all

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John’s gospel contains these words: ‘Greater love has no-one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’. This verse has been interpreted in many ways but it is as Remembrance Day approaches that its most literal interpretation often comes to mind.

2018 is a milestone year: 100 years since the guns fell silent on the Western Front and in other lesser known but equally bloody theatres of war. Throughout the conflict soldiers were exhorted to fight for King and country but then, as now, friendship and camaraderie were equally – if not more – important to those on the front line. For me John’s words echo this sentiment and help situate acts of remembrance in the personal rather than political space.

CW79: Dulce et Decorum Est?

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They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

These famous lines, from the middle of Laurence Binyon’s poem For the Fallen forms the Exhortation within many services of Remembrance and is familiar, I imagine, to most of us. In many ways, these lines encapsulate what we think of as ‘remembrance’: the dead are crystallised in some sort of eternal fallen flower of youthfulness. There is a nostalgia there, with sunrises, sunsets and the memory of loss. The poem reminds us of the need to remember those who died in war; a sacrifice for all of us who enjoy freedom and peace. The rest of the poem sets the dead of war in a universe of eternal stars; heroes who proudly went to battle singing songs and whose lives are glorified in death.

CW79: Entrusted with bringing the hope of God

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‘You can’t be a Christian and be in the Army’, suggested a good friend over supper at Christmas, 2011. I disagreed strongly and I realised that something deeper had been kindled inside me. That conversation started a train of events in my life which saw me call in at an Army recruiting centre and eventually pass selection to join the Army as a chaplain.

CW79: From isolation to integration – Abi’s story

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Abi is 17-years-old and has an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. When her family relocated from Dorset to Derbyshire, Abi had to move from a specialist Learning Centre into a mainstream school that was unable to adequately support her socialisation and high anxiety difficulties. Finding herself bullied and humiliated by her new peer group, Abi withdrew from formal education, her self-esteem at an all-time low, unsure of her future and without qualifications.

CW79: Just a name?

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As a new curate preaching at my first Remembrance Service I wanted to get it right and do the best I could. I was very conscious of the war memorial that I passed daily each time I left the church. This is where I would be standing to give the two minute silence, a tradition inaugurated by George V in 1919.

I was aware that sometimes we go through the motions and do not really engage with the stories behind the names on the plaque or memorial. We know these men lost their lives in one of the World Wars but we don’t really know who they were.

So last year I picked a random name, Charles Lawson, and started to research who he was. From searching the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website I discovered his rank (sergeant), service number, regiment, when he died and where his grave was in France.

CW79: Lord Plumb – A farmers life

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Lord Henry Plumb has been described as probably the most important person in agriculture of the last one hundred years. Alongside a farming career spanning almost eight decades he served as Vice President and President of the National Farmers’ Union and as the only British President of the European Parliament. In November 2017, aged 92, he retired from the House of Lords. Country Way editor Louise Davis went to meet him on his farm in Warwickshire.

CW79 Online Exclusive: A fulltime ministry in the agricultural community

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In September 2017 the Church of Scotland began an exciting new ministry when they engaged Revd Chris Blackshaw, a Methodist Minister and part time Agricultural Chaplain from Cumbria, to work as their full time farming minister for the Presbytery of Ayr. Chris’s role, which is based around Craig Wilsons Auction Mart, has been well received by the agricultural community and people are now used to seeing him at the mart every week and they welcome him onto their farms as he travels around the locality. Chris covers an area that stretches from south of Kilmarnock to Ballentrae and into the Galloway Forest.

CW78: Growing Together resources section

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Each edition of Country Way magazine contains a pull-out resources section. Here are a selection of resources designed to help you grow together in your rural community.