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Military Memorial & Thanksgiving Service, St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast
HRH The Earl of Wessex Attends Military Memorial & Thanksgiving Service, St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast
His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex attended a memorial and thanksgiving service in St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast today, 2nd December 2009, marking the return of 19 Light Brigade from operations in Afghanistan. The interdenominational service was hosted by the Brigade which has just recently returned to its home base in Northern Ireland after its deployment on Operation Herrick in Helmand Province.
Over 80 soldiers were killed in theatre and two soldiers were murdered in Northern Ireland a short time prior to deployment. The names of all the soldiers who did not return home were read aloud to the congregation during the service by Brigadier Tim Radford OBE, Commander 19 Brigade.
Her Majesty The Queen was represented by HRH The Earl of Wessex who is Royal Colonel of 2nd Battalion, The Rifles. The Battalion is based at Ballykinler in County Down and is one of the main units in 19 Light Brigade.
Over 600 guests made up the congregation who came together to remember and recall those killed and injured during the deployment and to give thanks for those who returned safely. Many families of those killed were represented at the service.
The Very Revd Dr Houston McKelvey QVRM TD, Dean of Belfast, conducted and preached at the service (extracts of his address given below), which was also attended by the Bishop of Down & Dromore, the Rt Revd Harold Miller, and the Bishop of Connor, the Rt Revd Alan Abernethy. Other guests included The Rt Hon Harriet Harman MP, Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal; The Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth MP, Secretary of State for Defence; and Sir Jock Stirrup, Defence Staff Air Marshall. The Rt Hon Paul Goggins MP represented the Northern Ireland Office.
The Earl of Wessex was greeted at St Anne’s Cathedral by Dame Mary Peters DBE Lord-Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast and he went on to meet, among others, Councillor Naomi Long MLA, The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor of Belfast; Councillor Francis McCoubrey, Sherriff for the County Borough of Belfast; The Rt Hon Peter Robinson MP MLA, First Minister of Northern Ireland; and the Dean.
Extracts from the address given by the Dean of Belfast at the Military Memorial and Thanksgiving Service:
I wish to share with you today four symbols in this Cathedral:
The Spire of Hope
The Poppy Wreath
The Advent Wreath
The Cross of Christ beyond the altar.
Most developments in this Cathedral were dedicated on the anniversary of its consecration - around June 4. The Spire of Hope was dedicated on 9/11 2007 - the preacher on that occasion was the Bishop of New York.
9/11, 2001, is a day that you remember where you were - that day when over 3,000 people were killed in a manner which outdistanced the fertile imagination of any fantasy film producer. Almost 70 of our fellow British citizens lost their lives in those most horrible of circumstances which changed for ever the way in which we live and view the world. That is one of the reasons we chose 9/11 to consecrate a Spire of Hope in a city which knows about violence but continued daily for forty years to pray for peace in this cathedral.
Today, I wish to speak to some of the distinct groups gathered here:
1. THE BEREAVED FAMILIES
We know what it is like to have members of our family serve in Afghanistan and elsewhere on active service.
Foremost in my thoughts and prayers today are those of you amongst us who have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother. I wish to thank you for having the courage to be here. Thank you for honouring us with your presence. Thank you for your pride and for your pain.
This Poppy Wreath represents patriotism, service to one’s country and sacrifice. It is a costly bought symbol.
The person that you honour and grieve for today is a special breed of person. If he had not been, you would not be here. He was a man who exercised his God-given free will when he committed himself to the defence of his country. He volunteered after due consideration, to stand and defend that vital line between right and wrong, between civilised society and tribal barbarism, between tolerance and fundamentalist intolerance.
That is the sort of man he was. He chose to stand there and to be proactive as a soldier even before the call came to the field of battle. We really are in his debt and yours.
In your grief and sorrow, I would point you to the supreme example of that sort of man -- Jesus Christ. He too could have opted out. But He also knew what was at stake in terms of values. And the Bible record is that he set his face and journeyed to Jerusalem -- where He too stood his ground for what he believed in, and had his life taken for doing so.
When you strip away the clamour and variable comment by the press, the pundits, and some politicians on Afghanistan, that is what your beloved family members have done. They have stood on that line for good against evil, for progress and peace, against barbarism and world wide war . And the price for doing so is high. It costs life itself.
You will miss that particular member of your family and this first Christmas without them will be very tough. I say to you professionally and from personal experience – be very cautious about that in-word ‘closure’. I know that from the widows of our policemen and soldiers who visit here and who have talked to me and written to me.
I also know it from my Grandmother. She had a son who forged his age to go to war and who survived the Somme. In time she had a small tribe of grandchildren. She was a woman of immense faith who lived a rich life well into her nineties, but to the end of that long and happy life, she still could be found having a quiet moment, and a wee tear, looking at the photograph of my cousin. He was killed the year I was born serving with the Inniskillings in the Far East.
This Poppy wreath is also a stark reminder that we have an immense duty to care for those who have been injured. It is a call to our consciences to make certain we care for the survivors.
2. CHAPLAINS
This conflict is about morality on a world-wide scale. With us today are the chaplains who served with this brigade. Military chaplaincy is a very specialised form and expression of Christian ministry. I speak to them from almost 30 years as a Chaplain with the TA, and from experiences gained of the regular army both at home and abroad.
But my experiences pale into insignificance in respect of the situation in which these chaplains served their parishioners and their Saviour this summer. It was hot and it was heavy. But they did the job - the work of Christ - and in God’s name, I dare to thank them. They brought the comfort and strength of the Sacraments, and the Word of the Living God to those who were almost literally fighting their way through the valley of death. They said their prayers with and for the injured and the dying. They were part of Christ’s bridgehead between this world and the next. For that I respect them.
But I would dare to say to them - You have returned, and you too, like everyone else on the deployment, will need to seek the healing of your memories. However, your ministry will be enriched. You will walk amongst us, you will be like the Risen Christ. In the words of Henri Nouwen, the Dutch-American Catholic theologian, you will be amongst us as “Wounded Healers”.
3. TO THOSE WHO SERVED THIS SUMMER IN AFGHANISTAN
To those of you who have returned, I salute you. Each and every man and woman is worthy of respect and esteem. Each of you have been exposed well beyond that, indeed beyond anything experienced since the Falklands War.
We prayed here for you and my own prayers were shaped and informed by my experiences in times past with some of the units deployed in the brigade.
At a time when the younger generation is criticised too often, let it be acknowledged that a significant percentage of those deployed were only in their late teens - younger than some of the members of many parish youth clubs - but they did the job. And none of them will think of themselves as heroes.
Doug Beatty, an officer who came up through the ranks in the Royal Irish, and who was awarded a Military Cross for his service in Afghanistan, in his recently published book, states simply, “I’m no hero, but I stood alongside heroes”.
Those of you who have served in Helmand this summer, will not claim that you are a hero, but I think that each of you know that you stood alongside heroes. You too stood on the line between good and evil, between barbarism and civilisation.
You helped to buy time to improve things in one of the poorest countries in the world. You have helped keep Al Quaeda from reorganising in Afghanistan. You have helped halt the wreckers and enslavers from imprisoning their own countrymen and women. You have helped stop the slide of disruption crossing the border with Pakistan where the ultimate prize of obtaining nuclear weapons would place the whole world at ransom. You have enabled your country to fulfil its obligations under international agreements with the United Nations and NATO.
From the oldest sweat to the newest recruit - Stand tall.
4. CHAIN OF COMMAND
I would like to acknowledge something which is not esteemed enough in respect of our armed services. That is the quality and integrity of its leadership.
It has been my privilege to know almost every General Officer commanding in Northern Ireland since Sir Harry Tuzo - some 40 years ago. I have a respect for them all, and indeed that respect has more than deepened in the past decade. Men like Sir Alistair Irwin of the Black Watch, Nick Parker of the Green Jackets/Rifles, and Chris Brown of the Artillery - are exemplars supreme of what is right about our army and forces.
And I do know - as a priest, I can smell that responsible, ethical leadership which is based on deep values - values which in the final examination are ethical and spiritual - because those who command are responsible to both God and man for the lives of those given to their charge.
That leadership permeates our army. From Generals, through brigadiers right down through the chain of command - to the most recently appointed lance corporal or bombardier. And I have no doubt that in Helmand this summer people not only stood up to the mark - but there were situations in which privates had to take decisions which might otherwise have been taken by platoon commanders, and so on up the chain of command.
To Brigadier Tim and the chain of command in 19 Light - all the way down and all the way up - thank you for responsible leadership displayed with courage and compassion in the most difficult of times.
There may be quite a bit to go in Afghanistan, but I believe firmly from what I have heard and what I have read in depth, that this summer 19 Brigade proved that in company with our allies from Denmark, Estonia and the USA, it was more than fit for role and in the most difficult of times.
For all that you have exemplified in responsible leadership in the most difficult of battle conditions, thank you. For your care of those committed to your charge, in God’s name - thank you.
ADVENT INTEGRITY
The Advent wreath is a reminder that last Sunday with Christians around the world we started on our annual pre-Christmas exercise - Operation Advent 2009. Advent is a time when we prepare not only to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the Christ child at Christmas - but when we also remember that Christ will come again, as the Scriptures say, in great power and glory, and to judge the earth.
Advent is about integrity - and more so than anything else we badly need integrity in our country at present. We have a press which in parts is only too willing to exploit the tears of a soldier’s mother in the very first days of her soul-wretching agony of bereavement and to do so in the crudest of manners.
But the principal political parties and their leadership need to refrain from using the current war and the resourcing of our forces as electioneering issues at the very time when men and women are giving their lives in a war zone. History will show that no party when in power has refrained from making defence cuts.
We desperately need a unity of integrity and purpose when as a nation our forces are deployed in a war. And we need to be able to face the cost of that. Peace here in Northern Ireland was costly. 20,000 soldiers were needed on our streets in the 1970’s. This province claimed the lives of 763 soldiers - 102 were killed in 1972 alone. There would not be peace here if the Troops Out of Ulster movement had succeeded in their campaign.
Advent reminds us that Jesus the judge shall come - and we will all give an account of ourselves, and our actions. That is one of the most fundamental messages of Advent.
The Christ who had the integrity to stand on the line between good and evil - will assess us accordingly. And his confidential report on us will be just and accurate.
I point you to the cross of Christ. It is the symbol of the greatest battle ever fought between good and evil.
The cross of Christ is the symbol of the greatest victory ever won - of eternal life over death, of divine love conquering hatred.
The cross of Christ is the symbol of the greatest sacrifice of all - God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
The Spire of Hope dedicated on 9/11 is a witness to the fact that the peace process here is an answer to daily prayers for peace offered each day for almost 40 years. We believe that this is also the key to international peace with justice.
We came here today to bring our prayers to God - prayers for those whose lives were taken, prayers for their families and friends. Prayers of thanksgiving for those who returned. Thank you and may God bless you all.
One particular gift we would like to give to you today is the anthem by the choir. It is our prayer - that God will hold you, your comrades, your families and your loved ones in the palm of his hand... both in this world and the next.
ENDS
Issued by the Church of Ireland Press Office
On behalf of the Dean of Belfast
For further information, contact:
Belfast Cathedral
on Tel. 028 9032 8332
or visit: www.belfastcathedral.org