Press Releases13 Nov 11

Archbishop of Armagh's Address at Remembrance Sunday Service, Armagh

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY 2011

Transcript of the address given by The Most Revd Alan Harper, Archbishop of Armagh, at St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh on Sunday 13 November 2011:

Who will separate us from the love of Christ?...I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
[Rom. 8.35, 38-30]

I returned less than two weeks ago from a short break on the island of Malta. To visit Malta is to visit a place that has undergone conflict, conquest and colonization for five millennia: the Phoenicians came to Malta, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Moors, the Hospitaller Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, the Ottomans, the French under Napoleon Buonaparte, and the British. Malta is an island of strategic importance, steeped in history, conflict and suffering.

The Great Siege of Malta took place in 1565 as part of the battle between a Christian alliance and the Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean. The Turks arrived on the 18th May and fled in defeat on 11th September despite having armed forces of 48,000 ranged against a defending force of 8,500. 20,000 people died, 10,000 of the besieging Ottomans, 2.500 defending troops, 7,000 civilians and 500 slaves. This was to be the last epic battle in the history of the crusading knights.

Malta was besieged a second time, in World War II. This time the siege lasted from 11th of June 1940 to 20th November 1942.

The losses were staggering: on the Allied side, 2,301 airmen killed or wounded;1,300 civilians killed; 369 fighter planes lost and 64 grounded; 2 aircraft carriers, 4 cruisers, 40 submarines and 19 destroyerslost; 30,000 buildings destroyed or damaged.

On the axis side 357 German and 175 Italian aircraft were lost; 72% of the Italian Navy’s transport fleet and 23% of the Axis merchant fleet were lost; 2,304 merchant ships were sunk; 50 German U boats and 16 Italian submarines went down; 17,240 men were killed at sea:all this in the context of a total land area for the Maltese Archipelago of only 120 square miles.

Although it would not be true to say this of armies and adversaries nowadays, back in the 1940s it is almost certain that over 90% of the people involved in the battles around Malta on both the Allied and the Axis side were Christians. Each of them was taught and entitled to believe that nothing could separate them from the love of Christ.Speaking of the Christian community of his day, Paul had already written,

'The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. …For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God…For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pangs of childbirth until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we have been saved…' [Romans 8.16ff]

This same gospel of election, and son-ship,and salvation in Christ was shared by almost everyone involved and almost everyone killed, maimed or traumatized by the events of the Siege of Malta.Whom among the living and whom among the dead - on either side- are numbered among God’s elect is not a determination amenable to human judgment. All we can declare, with St Paul, is that,

'Neither death nor life…nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.'

In my experience it is soldiers, sailors and airmen, those who have known the horrors of warfare, who are least likely to be dismissive or judgmental about those with whom they engage in the fight.

I came across these very profound words the other day, descriptive of the human condition. They date back roughly 17 centuries and were uttered by a hermit monk in the Egyptian desert.

'Once two brothers were sitting with Abbot Poemen and one praised the other brother saying: “He is a good brother, he hates evil.” The old man said: “What do you mean, he hates evil?” And the brother did not know what to reply. So he said: ”Tell me, Father, what it is to hate evil?” The Father said: “That man hates evil who hates his own sins, and looks upon every brother as a saint, and loves him as a saint.'

Teaching of that sort is not easy to accept. We have a tendency to think of those against whom we are joined in battle as evil persons on the side of evil, whilst we are good persons on the side of good. Our capacity for judging others and justifying ourselves is remarkably profound.

Another of the Desert Fathers put the position this way:
[Abbot John used to say:] 'We have thrown down a light burden, which is the reprehending of our own selves, and we have chosen instead to bear a heavy burden, by justifying our own selves and condemning others.'

If it is with thoughts of righteous self justification that armies are sent to war by national leaders I hope that it is only after the most rigorous searching of the heart to ensure that the justification for sending others into the field of battle is ethically inescapable.

I think of these things particularly on such a day as this when not only do we give thanks for the personal sacrifices of many which have enabled us to enjoy the freedom and peace we share, but also on which we call to mind all the casualties of war, on whatever side, and especially the living casualties, not all of whose wounds are wounds of the flesh but too often are also wounds of the mind.

The immense success of the 'Help for Heroes' charity and the 'Shot at Dawn' campaign represent something our generation can be proud of, but still I am aware that many ex-service people find adjustment to civilian life difficult, and earning a living with self respect equally difficult, after giving the best of themselves for their country.

The old cry used to be that we have an obligation to build a land fit for heroes to live in. I wonder whether the kind of society we have created remotely resembles such a land, and whether those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan find it such a place?

The distinguished commentator, Jeffrey Sachs, writes in harsh terms of what has happened to our society and what has brought our economy, indeed our civilization, to its knees:
'The relentless drumbeat of consumerism into every corner of our lives has led to extreme shortsightedness, consumer addictions and the shriveling of compassion. When we are distracted, we allow the lobbyists to run away with power that rightfully belongs to the citizenry',
.
Sachs continues,
'As individuals, we need to regain the balance of our own lives between work and leisure, saving and consumption, self-interest and compassion, individualism and citizenship. As a society, we need to establish the right relationship of markets, politics, and civil society to address the complex challenges of the twenty-first century.'
[Jeffrey Sachs: The Price of Civilization. Economics after the Fall]

I make a simple point: a land fit for heroes is much more than a land and a society whose goals are to maximize consumption;manipulate appetite; stimulate greed; distract attention from things that matter and direct attention towards the meretricious, currently in the form of 'so called' celebrity. The reason that the tabloid cult of celebrity, which is wholly a media creation, is so deplorable is that it has become the 21st century version of the Roman 'bread and circuses'; it is the contemporary 'opiate of the people'.

A land fit for heroes is one in which individual and societal compassion flies high and fairness is at the forefront of our concerns.

A land fit for heroes is one in which the vulnerable are protected; the sick are cared for well, irrespective of income; children are cherished and enabled to make the most of their God given abilities; the elderly are respected and enabled to live out their lives in dignity; and nobody passes by on the other side like a priest or a Levite.

This will not be a society in which the chasm yawns wider and wider between the rich and the poor. It will be a society in which the privileges of wealth are understood to include the privilege of taking responsibility for enhancing the life prospects of others.

It will be a society devoted to fairness in which every sinew is strained to enable men and women to earn enough to live in dignity but in which those who cannot will be provided for.

It will be a society in which family and especially the commitments of matrimony are cherished and not undermined.

It will be a society in which there is a clear principle of stewardship, of caring for others and caring for the earth and its riches.

The riches of the earth are ours not to despoil or exploit but to care for and hand on. When we damage or destroy the earth and its atmospheric envelope we steal from our children. Who among us wishes to be known as responsible for the destruction of the future of our children and our children’s children?

The plight of ex-servicemen,homeless, or behind bars, or struggling with addiction, or all three, will remain a reproach to us if we are not also committed to healing the psychiatric or psychological wounds they bear for serving us. For them Blighty is anything but a land fit for heroes. We compound our guilt if we look upon such men and women with less than complete love and a concern to help.

If it is true that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, it is also true that nothing can separate from that love those who are casualties of war. But to say this is not enough, we have to find effective ways to make what we say we believe real in the experience of victims of war and violence.That means demonstrating the love of God in sustained and tangible ways. I suppose we come closest to it around Armistice Day but it is little enough in all good conscience.

Under the arches of bridges in London, in shop doorways, on park benches, concealed under layers of cardboard and newspaper, are casualties of our society. Some of them were once members of the armed forces. To them a debt remains unpaid by the people of the United Kingdom. We need to set aside excuses for walking by on the other side, we need to stop the self justifying defence that we are not responsible and need not get involved, we need to stop feeling self satisfaction that we have not sunk to their level, we need to recognise that 'There, but for the grace of God, go I.'

For, remember this:

'Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

ENDS