Services of Remembrance

Written by the Reverend Canon Stewart Lisk, Ministry Area Lead of Roath:

My dear Friends,

We are approaching that time of year when we make our annual marking of Remembrance. In some of the recent years we have been prevented from our usual commemorations because of the pandemic restrictions. However, this year we have returned to normal and so at the time of writing I am much occupied in planning and creating various services both locally and nationally.

The first of these is the opening of the Royal British Legion Field of Remembrance at Cardiff Cardiff Castle at 10.45am on Thursday 3rd November. All are welcome to this service where individual poppy crosses will have been arranged with the names of family members and friends who have lost their lives in past conflicts.

On Saturday 5th November at 7pm the Wales Festival of Remembrance is at St David’s Hall where tickets may be obtained.

It is a great privilege to be involved with all these events, large and small, and to meet many people and hear their stories as they remember their loved ones. However, one of the services that I treasure the most is our evening service on Remembrance Sunday at 6.30pm at our war memorial church of St Edward the Confessor. I find it particularly moving for several reasons. We recite the names of the men and boys who from the Roath area died in the First and Second World Wars. This has been done with all members of the congregation taking part. Also, our uniformed groups take part carrying their standards, with young girls and boys who have learned that they attend the schools and live in the houses that those who died did before them. We know this because our local historians and archivists have researched the personal details of those recorded on our memorials. So, throughout the year we recall the actual dates and circumstances of when those individuals fell in battle. Finally, the prayers and music from our choir reflecting different decades of our heritage lift our spirits and enhance our worship.

The presence and participation of our young people remind us that Remembrance is not just about looking back to the last century but also something we experience today. My own generation lost friends and family in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, there was only one year, 1968, since the Second World War that no British serviceman or woman lost their lives on active service. Our young people now witness the war on the Continent of Europe with the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Fortunately, our own people are not directly involved in this present conflict though we are supporting the Ukrainian people with our weapons.