Remembering (Category: faith)

If you had asked me when I arrived in MLPK whether I had any intention of marking Remebrance Sunday in any special way I would have laughed and said something along the lines of "No way!" For me once of the beauties of being here is freedom from the hand of too much tradition.

So this morning, for the second year running, we gathered at the Airman Statue and its accompanying stones to remember.

Why the change? Have I been "got at" by the British Legion? leant upon by the worthies? No. I'm just doing something that actually feels appropriate for the context. MLPK is built on the site of a former RAF base. There are still landmarks to prove it. Old accomodation blocks converted into small-scale office space, the control tower (still awaiting a new lease of life, as a restaurant the last I heard) and scattered around the perimeter are a number of pill-boxes and even a platform on the water tower that once housed an anti-aircraft gun.

In a community with precious little in the way of history connections to the past are of greater importance. A simple act of remembrance, with a skeleton represetation from the local Air Cadet Squadron, provide some sort of temporal anchor to this new-build wannabee-community otherwise adrift in history.

Those who came were both regulars and fringe, the familiar with the unfamiliar, gathering to ponder, and be reminded of history, of the present, and the place in both of the ultimate act of sacrificial love in Jesus. Within the framework of the innovative perhaps it could be true to say that tradition is the new "fresh expression", and that the potentially dull label of "Church of England" is the strongest selling point?

Another holy paradox, perhaps?  ¶ 2:25 pm