November is a special month for remembering – for memory within the church and the community. At the start of the month, we remember Christians everywhere on All Saints Day (1 Nov).  The day after – we remember all those who have died in the faith. Together, in these two days, we are thinking about the “whole company of heaven”

But remembering has a powerful national and local resonance on 11th November – when the commemoration is of the fallen in war, the injured and those still bearing scars, the bereaved and their loved ones.

Memory matters, because it is a valuing of people and of the past. And on the occasions I have cited, it is a truly proper and appropriate thing to do.

And if, once we have acknowledged and honoured the memory, we turn to hope for the future, then we will have made firmer foundations for church and community alike.

Elsewhere you will read of the arrangements for a service of Holy Communion  on All Saints Day which falls on a Sunday. The following Sunday will be Remembrance Sunday with a service in St Paul’s Walden at 10:50am and at the War Memorial in Whitwell at 3 pm.

With every blessing

Stephen