大象传媒

听Opening Announcement: 大象传媒 Radio 4 and 大象传媒 Sounds. Sunday Worship today from Northern Ireland is introduced by the Reverend Doctor Lesley Carroll and begins with the ancient Irish hymn 鈥淏e thou my vision鈥�

Script of Programme:

Please note: This script may not exactly reflect the transmission. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors.
Music听 Be thou my vision (Irish traditional melody)
Huddersfield Choral Society from The Hymns Album (Parlophone)

Rev Dr Lesley Carroll 听Good morning from Armagh in Northern Ireland听 on this Remembrance Sunday. Armagh is known as the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland and as such it can boast two Archbishops who are with me. From the Church of Ireland, the Most Rev John Mc Dowell and from the Roman Catholic Church, the Most Rev Dr Eamon Martin. In June, they were in France during the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Archbishop Martin
Back in June, Archbishop John and I travelled to Northern France, not far from the Normandy beaches. In these days when war and violence threaten the stability of our continent and our world, we wanted to witness to peace and reconciliation

Archbishop McDowell
And just as people from all communities had fought together in the First World War, the horrors of which are very well known, much less is known about what happened in the Second World War on places like Sword beach, where again people from all parts of the community came together for the cause of peace and in the end for a reconciled Europe,

Lesley Carroll And later the archbishops will be reflecting on the lives and service of two army chaplains during the Second World War.

The Psalmist wrote: God is our refuge and strength,
听听听听a very present help in trouble.
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We pray:

Lord God, the Shepherd of our souls, the giver of life everlasting,
On this day when we commemorate those who lived and did in the service of others,
Help us to remember that your purpose for us is always good
That you gave Jesus Christ for the life of the world
and that you lead us by your Spirit
into the paths of righteousness and peace.

Faithful God, your purpose for us human beings is fulness of life 听
from lives that lives at peace with you that leads to us being at peace with others and ourselves We confess that in our heart we hold the passions and pride that lead to hatred and war
We are not worthy of your love nor of the sacrifices made on our behalf.

Music听 Kyrie Eleison (Karl Jenkins)
From The Armed Man-A Mass for Peace (HMV)

Almighty God, pardon and deliver us from all our sins
confirm and strengthen us in all goodness and bring us to life eternal
through Jesus Christ our Lord

God of grace, you have declared your reconciling love and power
in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
Teach us to forgive each other
and to seek healing for our divisions, cast out our fears
and renew our faith in your unchanging love and in your purpose for peace.

We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit-one God now and for ever. Amen

Reader:: A reading from the Book of Wisdom (Chapter 3 verses 1-9)

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment will ever touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,
and their departure was thought to be a disaster
and their going from us to be their destruction,
but they are at peace.

For though in the sight of others they were punished,
their hope is full of immortality.
Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,
because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;
like gold in the furnace he tried them,
and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them.

听In the time of their visitation they will shine forth
and will run like sparks through the stubble.
听They will govern nations and rule over peoples,
and the Lord will reign over them forever.
听Those who trust in him will understand truth,
and the faithful will abide with him in love,
because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones,
and he watches over his elect

Music Dear Lord and Father of mankind (CHH Parry)
Marlowe Brass Ensemble and the Choir of St George鈥檚 Chapel, Windsor from Abide with me and other Favourite Hymns (Naxos)

Archbishop McDowell

(Music under: The Ashokan Farewell [Jay Ungar] Nashville Chamber Orchestra from Harvest Home [EMI])

James McMurray-Taylor听 was a curate in the parish of Saint Mary鈥檚 on the Crumlin Road in Belfast in 943 when he volunteered as a Chaplain to the Forces and was assigned to the Royal Ulster Rifle As far as I know, there is no written record of why he volunteered but it is clear from all that we do know about him that he was a very dutiful man in an age when a sense of duty counted as a higher virtue than it does today.
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Duty to his country and, overwhelmingly, duty to his God and to his vocation as a priest.听 There was a soldier in another war who, in an attempt to explain to his distraught wife why he had to go to war, reminded her that听鈥淚 could not love thee half so well, loved I not honour more鈥�.听 Honour and duty 鈥� old fashioned words which are now lost to ordinary speech, but which explain a lot about people like James McMurray-Taylor.
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He was certainly someone who did not seek the limelight.听 All the accounts of how he conducted himself as a chaplain 鈥� blessing soldiers from every Christian tradition and none before battle, burying the dead, both British and German, with the respect due to human dignity, toiling in the warm stench of death and hot sun of a battlefield to recover name tags and personal effects also from German and British alike, to be returned to their loved ones 鈥� are evidence of deep faith and dedication.
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Although in every sense a hero, there is nothing of the heroic in his style and manner.听 He was a man dutifully doing his job.听 He received no special treatment when he returned to the Church of Ireland in 1947.听 He was curate in charge of a small parish in County Donegal and then one in County Derry before ending up with two rural and parishes in County Fermanagh, where he stayed until he retired in 1980.
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Interestingly he kept up his military connection after his demobilisation and was awarded the Queen鈥檚 Jubilee Medal for services to the Army Cadet Force in 1977.听 He clearly never sought preferment, was never made a canon of a Cathedral despite being editor of the Diocesan Magazine (the most thankless of all tasks) for twelve years.
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I grew up in Belfast in a housing estate which included a long terrace for disabled ex-servicemen. All of the residents had been physically damaged 鈥� usually with the loss of a limb 鈥� although I cannot remember any sense of bitterness. In other words, I was surrounded by men like James McMurray-Taylor.听 Extraordinary, ordinary people who did their duty and did it cheerfully in often very difficult circumstances.
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The Great War had been the end of faith for many. Those who were confident in the onward march of civilisation, because they had never had their self-confidence tested who did not know the wickedness that men were capable of. In the century before that war, the Churches had domesticated God and harnessed him to their purposes. He had become their asset and their patron, rather their Judge and their Redeemer. That was not so much the way with the Second War, where the moral case for the destruction of Nazi Germany was unambiguous even before the men we are remembering today fought their way across Europe and found the horrors of Belsen and Auschwitz. And perhaps the remarkable energy and clear-sightedness of that generation who fought in the war and then went on to create the welfare state in health and housing was a consequence of that moral clarity

That, of course, is speculation. However, what is not speculative, but concrete and clear, is a life like that of James McMurray-Taylor. Confident in the rightness of the cause for which those whose souls he had the care of were fighting-confident but not self-righteous. Putting his trust in the God of all the nations, a God of justice and humanity, he did his duty on the battlefields of Europe during the war and his duty after the war, in a quiet corner of the country he loved, serving the God who he loved 鈥� and in his eyes there was no incongruity between the Lord of Hosts and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace

Reader: A reading from the 8th chapter of the letter to the Romans

听What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?听听He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?听听Who will bring any charge against God鈥檚 elect? It is God who justifies.听Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.
听Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?听听As it is written, 鈥淔or your sake we are being killed all day long;we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.鈥�

听No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.听听For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,听听nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Music Psalm 121 (Walford Davies)
Choir of King鈥檚 College, Cambridge from A Requiem for Stephen (King鈥檚 College)

Archbishop Martin

(Music under: Adagio from String Quintet in C Major-02 [Schubert] Hungarian String Quartet from听 Movie Classics [Warner Classics])

Young Jack O鈥橞rien, from Donamon in County Roscommon, wanted to be a Missionary in the Far East. He was ordained as a Columban Missionary priest in 1942, but because of the travel restrictions during the war, his superiors gave him permission to train as an army Chaplain with the Royal Ulster Rifles. So his first parish was to be the battlefields of Normandy and his first mission was to accompany the Allied landings on Sword Beach, in June 1944.

听Fr Jack is remembered as positive and good-humoured. They called him 鈥渢he fighting padre鈥�, because he had been a boxer in his student days. He enjoyed visiting the men in their dugouts for a few hands of poker, bringing along some rum he鈥檇 scrounged from the quartermaster. Then there was the day he was doing a burial and a newly arrived officer fainted and almost fell into the open grave! Fr Jack grabbed him just in time and said, 鈥淣ow, there鈥檚 no need to be in a hurry. All in good time鈥�.

听According to his commanding officer: 鈥淛ack鈥檚 cheerfulness was the salvation of many a drooping spirit in the difficult days which confronted us鈥�. Fr Jack saw his mission as a chaplain as 鈥渢o give, and not to count the cost鈥�; to serve God by offering the consolation of prayer, compassion and hope amidst the brutality of war.

Like all who were caught up in that nightmare, the chaplains experienced the horrors and trauma of the battlefield, but the only arms they carried were the Word of God and the power of prayer. Faith gave them all the strength they needed to tend to the wounded, to comfort the dying, to ensure Christian burials for the fallen, to help identify the dead and to break sad news with relatives at home.

听It鈥檚 largely forgotten that tens of thousands of men and women from right across the island of Ireland - from all denominations and from every county - volunteered to serve during the Second World War. The tensions, sectarianism and suspicions of home were of little significance as they fought, and died, side by side - brothers and sisters in arms.

听Within six to ten months of D-Day, the Royal Ulster Rifles had helped to liberate village after village across northern France, Belgium and Holland. When at last they reached Bremen in Germany, Fr Jack O鈥橞rien wrote home saying that sadly not many of his original flock were left.

After the German surrender, his kindly and cheerful presence continued to be a source of great comfort to the many displaced and traumatised people they met along the way. Ever the missionary, Jack travelled on to Egypt, where the Battalion was helping to guard the Suez Canal, and by 1946 he was with them in Palestine - a long way from the beaches in Normandy where he had first landed.

听But Fr Jack鈥檚 superiors in the missionary society of St Columban had not forgotten about him. It was time for him to be recalled from his responsibilities as an army chaplain. In 1948 he was assigned as a missionary priest in Mokpo, on the southern coast of South Korea. There, his story of courage and self-denial was to continue.

听In 1950, when the communist forces invading South Korea were approaching his parish, Fr Jack refused an offer to be evacuated to safety by American troops. He preferred to remain with his people and to serve them to the end. He was captured and imprisoned, and after a long march at gunpoint towards North Korea, he was executed in the massacre at Taejon, a month before his 32nd birthday. His body was never found or identified. He was a martyr for his faith and his belief that 鈥渘either death nor life can ever separate us from the love of God鈥�.

Music Dona Nobis Pacem (JS Bach)
Monteverdi Choir from JS Bach Mass in B minor (Archiv)

Lesley Carroll Lord God, we remember and thank today all those to whom we owe the life and the privileges we possess.

听those who lived and suffered and died for a world free from exclusion and bitterness

A world where liberty or conscience, speech and worship can be enjoyed.

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We remember all who died in war, on land, at sea and in the air

And thank you for their example of devoted service and for their self-giving for they will not grow old as we who are left grow old

We thank you for those who in every generation have laid down their lives for their friends.

And above all we thank you for Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us;

He bore the Cross with all its pain and shame and rising to life he continues to love us day by day and hour by hour.

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Readers: We remember all in positions of great responsibility in this land for the Queen, the government, , Members of Parliament.; those who shape public opinion that they may have your guidance at all times and seek only what is best for all the people of this nation.

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听We pray for your world in this time of war and uncertainty. May your Spirit rest on all who those who lead nations. Give them wisdom courage and strength that they may strive to make and maintain a true and lasting peace that the peoples of this world may dwell together without enmity and without fear.

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听We remember today those who are denied a full life because of the wounds they bear on their bodies and minds and those for whom this day brings great sadness and loneliness that they may know that peace which you alone can give.

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We remember all who still put their lives at risk for the sake of others-members of the armed forces, those who uphold the law, fire fighters, and others whose work is dangerous that they may know your protection in all that they do.

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听We pray for children and young people remembering especially those who are hungry and poor,

those who suffer because of violence and war

those who face strong temptation

those who are unloved and lonely.

Make them strong we pray in the face of suffering and confusion and bless all who work with children in different ways that they may be conscious of the example of the one who said let the children come to me.

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听WE remember before you all who have need of your comfort and grace

the bereaved, the lonely, the sick, the depressed.

Assure them we pray of the deep abiding presence of听 your love.

And these and all our prayers we offer through Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us to pray.听听

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Lesley Carroll Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive

those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

for Thine is the kingdom the power and the glory for ever and ever.听

Amen

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Music听 听Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah (John Hughes)
Huddersfield Choral Society from The Hymns Album (Parlophone)

The Archbishops
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and His Son Jeus Christ our Lord

And may the blessing of Almighty God be upon you all, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit听 Amen

Music听听 Elegy( George Thalben-Ball)
Christopher Herrick from Organ Dreams, Vol. 1 (Hyperion)

Closing Announcement: Elegy by George Thalben-Ball ends听 Sunday Worship which came from Northern Ireland and was led by the Reverend Doctor Lesley Carroll with Archbishops Eamon Martin and John McDowell

The Producers were David Walker and Bert Tosh.

Next week, Sunday Worship will reflect on the experiences in church of a significant proportion of the population - those are on the autistic spectrum. With contributions from members of a 'Church For Everyone' - an online community of autistic Christians.