大象传媒

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This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

Radio 4 Opening Announcement:听听
大象传媒 Radio 4.听 It鈥檚 ten past eight and time to go live to Holy Trinity Parish Church Dartford for this morning鈥檚 Sunday Worship.听 It commemorates the centenary tomorrow of the outbreak of the First World War and it鈥檚 led by the Vicar, the Revd Martin Henwood.听 General Lord Dannatt, former Chief of the General Staff and present Constable of the Tower of London, is the preacher.听 The service begins with Edward Bairstow鈥檚 setting of the words 鈥楯esu, the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast.鈥�

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Introit: Jesu, the very thought of thee (Bairstow)

Martin Henwood:
Welcome to Dartford Parish Church in north Kent. We are one day鈥檚 march away from central London, and lie on the old Roman road to Rochester, Canterbury, Dover and Europe. Countless pilgrims, people of commerce and soldiers have stopped by here.

Dartford has seen many armies marching out and marching back. A Requiem Mass took place in this church after the victory at Agincourt, and King Henry V鈥檚 body, guarded by 500 knights, was laid overnight here after his last military campaign in France.听 And so on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War we pause to reflect on the war that was to end all wars.

Heavenly Father, we recall the sacrifice of the men, women and children who were maimed in body, mind or spirit, or who died in the Great War. We recall the repercussions that have tumbled upon succeeding generations, including ours. Help us to let go of that which makes for evil and to be open to the Holy Spirit. May the actions of all faithful people release the very best of what you have wrought within us, so that with Christ we may be one with you, the Holy Spirit and all Creation, working for a Kingdom of prosperity, peace and love.听听 Amen.

We are delighted to welcome General Lord Dannatt as our visiting preacher.

Lord Dannatt:听
At 11pm tomorrow evening, lights will be going out across our country as we envisage the sinking feeling that our forebears must have experienced on 4th August 1914 as Germany failed to respond to the British ultimatum that could have prevented war. Diplomacy collapsed, mobilisation across Europe was ordered and by the end of the month the guns were roaring and crashing around the soldiers of the tiny British Expeditionary Force as it stood against the might of the German Army鈥檚 main attack into Belgium.
The first British soldier killed in that war is buried in a cemetery just outside Mons, only yards from where the last British soldier was killed and buried over four years later on 11th November 1918.听 In between those events, according to official statistics, 888,246 British and Colonial soldiers lost their lives.听 Millions more from other nations suffered the same fate. For families, for communities, for nations this was a tragic loss of life 鈥� and more sadly, it turned out not to be the Great War to end wars but instead the precursor to the World War that followed just twenty one years later and laid the foundations for the unstable world in which we now live.
听So, a hundred years later, we are faced with a great dilemma 鈥� what sense can we make of the Great War?听 I will try to give an answer, later in our service.

Martin Henwood:
We sing our first hymn, based on Psalm 90: O God, our help in ages past.

Hymn:听O God, our help in ages past,

Reader:
First and foremost - keep your heads. Be calm. Go about your ordinary business quietly and soberly. Do not indulge in excitement or foolish demonstrations.听 Think of others more than you are wont to do.听 Think of your duty to your neighbour.听 Think of the common weal.听 Try to contribute your share by doing your duty in your own place and your own sphere.听 Be abstemious and economical.听 Avoid waste. Remember those who are worse off than yourself.听 Pay punctually what you owe, particularly to your poorest creditors, such as washerwomen and charwomen.听 Explain to the young and ignorant what war is, and why we have been forced to wage it.
Martin Henwood:
A propaganda advertisement issued to Dartford Citizens at the outbreak of the First World War.

The choir now sings Psalm 23 to a chant written by Ivor Gurney. Gurney was a long-term patient at the City of London Mental Hospital in Dartford, where he died in 1937. He wrote this short chant for Psalm 23 from his time at the Royal College of Music and Gurney sang the psalm to himself, using his own chant, to steady his nerves when under fire in the trenches during the First World War.

Music: Psalm 23

Martin Henwood:
At the heart of most conflicts and strife lie a sense of grievance, and the desire to settle matters by our own hands. When desire and action is no longer set in the context of the love of God, love of our neighbour, or indeed love of ourselves we find ourselves far from the Kingdom of Heaven. These words from the gospel of Matthew mirror words quoted by Nelson Mandela: 鈥淥ur deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful and lovely beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that frightens us.鈥� In this reading Jesus unpacks what it is to live out of light and not darkness.听听听

Reader:
Jesus said to his disciples: 鈥楾herefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you鈥攜ou of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 鈥淲hat will we eat?鈥� or 鈥淲hat will we drink?鈥� or 鈥淲hat will we wear?鈥� For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.鈥櫶�听 (Matthew 6:25-33 NRSV)

Hymn: Dear Lord and Father of mankind

Lord Dannatt:
鈥極 still, small voice of calm.鈥�
What a contrast is that final line of the hymn we have just sung, to the tumultuous noise of the rifles, the machine guns, and the artillery of the First World War, as we recall the devastation and tragedy of a hundred years ago. Such huge events, and such massive loss of life, seem overwhelming to comprehend but it is the figure of 888,246 that I mentioned earlier in our service that shines a light on the dilemma of the Great War.听 Nations, armies and communities are not face-less collective entities but are made up of individual people - like you and me - each one created in the image of God.听 So we need to see the loss of life in the Great War not so much as an anonymous collective tragedy, but, as in the case of the British Army, as 888,246 personal tragedies.听 Each life lost was someone鈥檚 son, daughter, brother, sister, and friend.
If you go the Tower of London on Tuesday morning, or on any day over the next three months, and look into the moat you will observe not the green grass that you might expect, but a sea of red depicting the blood swept battlefields of the Great War.听 But on closer inspection, it is not just a sea of red that you are gazing at but an array of individual glazed ceramic poppies 鈥� 888,246 of them, and each one the size of a heart 鈥� one for every British and Colonial soldier who lost their lives in the Great War.听 Wars might be started by Governments for a variety of motives but they are fought by individual men and women - each one precious, not only to their families, but to our creator, God himself.

It may be asked of the Great War 鈥淲as God on our side?鈥� but I believe that is the wrong question.听 God did not create nations or states that might fight against each other and invoke God to be on 鈥渢heir鈥� side, but instead He made individual people.听 He made you and me, and he made all those British and Colonial soldiers who died 鈥� and all those from foreign lands too - be they friend or foe.
But the question for us, as it was for them, is not whether God is on our side but whether we are on God鈥檚 side personally, because the relationship that really matters in life and before death, is our own individual relationship with God. He made us and loves us and wants us to have a personal relationship with Him.听
It is often said that there are no Atheists in a foxhole, and those Great War soldiers who died would have had to confront the issues of life and death as they clutched their rifles and machine guns in the mud. We can only surmise something of the anguish that went on in their hearts a hundred years ago.听 But we do know what is going on in our hearts today. We know that surrounded by the turbulent times of 2014, like the horrific times of 1914, Almighty God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, wants us to reach out and take his hand and enter into an individual relationship with Him. That brings a whole new meaning to the war that was supposed to end wars, and by kneeling at the foot of Christ鈥檚 cross of sacrifice and by taking God鈥檚 hand, we end our personal war and are welcomed to walk and to work, side by side with him.

In our reading this morning Jesus asked his listeners to: 鈥淟ook at the birds of the air鈥� and to 鈥淐onsider the lilies of the fields鈥� - He could have talked of poppies rather than lilies, but his point is the same. He urges us to 鈥渟trive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness鈥�.听 What our Heavenly Father wants is individuals 鈥� like you and me 鈥� to have the courage to walk in peace and with purpose, in his footsteps.听 In an individual life lived with God, in peace or war, in happiness or tragedy, we - as St Paul wrote to the Romans - are more than conquerors through him who loves us.听 And, moreover, lives lived in tune with God, committed to Christ and open to the Holy Spirit can change families, can change communities and can change nations.听 This is not something done by mighty armies, it is done by ordinary individuals.
So, in our thinking about the Great War, if we can see beyond the catastrophe of the clash of nations and the mass casualties of the Western Front, and realise that this was a war fought by millions of individual human beings who, themselves, had to struggle to make sense of what was going on around them, then we have the chance to make sense of what is going on in our world today.听 And that sense comes from realising that it was never God鈥檚 purpose for nations to fight amongst themselves and invoke his name in support, but it is his great desire and purpose that we as individuals in 2014, as many undoubtedly did amidst the chaos of 1914, reach out to God on a personal basis and put our trust in him, look through the 鈥渆arthquake, wind and fire鈥� and listen out for that 鈥渟till, small voice of calm.鈥澨�听听 Amen.

Music: Expectans expectavi (Wood/Sorley)
Martin Henwood:
Charles Wood鈥檚 setting of a poem written by Charles Hamilton Sorley in 1915 and published in a Treasury of War Poetry.

General Lord Dannatt spoke of the Tower of London and a sea of red poppies, glazed in ceramic, depicting the blood swept battlefields of the Great War.听 This Centenary Poppy Campaign to cover the UK with poppies originated as a local idea from the Greenhithe and Swanscombe Branch of the British Legion. Its purpose is to remind us of the consequences of that war. So in collaboration with local schools, community groups, and Dartford Borough Council we too have been planting poppy seeds in remembrance of those men, women and children who fought and died in the First World War, keeping us ever mindful of the consequences of conflicts that are not peacefully resolved.
So let us pray with hope for the future of the world and for the needs of all people.

Reader:
For peace and justice in our world, for an end to war and conflict, for the leaders of all nations and peoples, and for those who make peace and foster reconciliation.
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.

For the unity of all Christian people, for the Church of God in every land, for all who seek God and the truth, and for all who follow the way of conscience with integrity.
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.

For the healing of memories, for those who suffer as a result of war, for communities where past wrongs and violence persist, for all in pain or distress and those who care for them.
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.

For friendship and trust amongst all, for an appreciation of our interdependence, for the new partnerships between the nations, and for a world that is in harmony with itself.
Lord, in your mercy
hear our prayer.

Most merciful Father, accept our prayers that we may know your peace in our hearts, and your love in our lives, through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Hymn: God be in my head

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.听 Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.听 Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.听 And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.听 For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.听 Amen.

Act of Commemoration
They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy.
They that now go away weeping, and beareth forth good seed,
shall come again with joy.

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.
We will remember them.

Hymn:听Eternal Father, strong to save听听

Martin Henwood:
Go forth into the world in peace;鈥╞e of good courage;鈥╤old fast that which is good;鈥╮ender to no one evil for evil;鈥╯trengthen the fainthearted;鈥╯upport the weak;鈥╤elp the afflicted;鈥╤onour everyone;鈥╨ove and serve the Lord,鈥╮ejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit;鈥╝nd the blessing of God almighty,鈥╰he Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,鈥╞e among you and remain with you always. Amen.

Music: Nunc Dimittis in D (Dyson)
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Half-muffled Bells to exit