Service Outline 1 a Service to Be Led by a Chaplain

Service Outline 1 – A service to be led by a chaplain.

Introduction

[Why this anniversary. If appropriate, outline the role and location of the regiment or formation in Aug 1914.]

Section 1 – Commitment

Scripture reading – [Old Testament, probably Prophets]

Reading – [Non-scriptural, poem, speech or diary]

Reflection and Prayer

Eternal God,

from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed:

kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all, the true love of peace

and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom

those who take counsel for the nations of the earth

that in tranquillity your kingdom may go forward,

till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn

[Some lights are dimmed]

Section 2 – Facing Conflict

Scripture reading – [Psalm, Old Testament or New Testament]

Reading – [poem or diary]

Reflection and Prayer

God our Creator,

we fail to seek your justice,

and swerve from the way of your righteousness:

look with compassion upon those facing danger, disaster, and devastation.

Guide us all along the path of life, and make us valiant for truth,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn

[more lights are dimmed]

Section 3 - Endurance

Scripture reading – [New Testament]

Reading – [Poem or diary]

Reflection and Prayer

Lord God, you hold both heaven and earth in a single peace.

Let the design of your great love shine on the waste of our anger and sorrow,

and give peace to your Church, peace among nations,

peace in our homes, and peace in our hearts; in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[last lights are dimmed]

Conclusion

Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your will. Amen.

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. Amen.

[Dismissal]

Collects are from Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England.

A - 2

Annex B to
Op REFLECT/FRAGO/Vigil

Dated 08 Jul 14

Service Outline 2 – A service which may be used in the absence of a chaplain.

Introduction

One hundred years ago this evening, our forebears were waiting for news. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo had sparked a conflict between powerful nations on the continent of Europe. The British Government, and especially the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, had tried to mediate, but when the army of the German Empire threatened Belgium, the decision was made that an ultimatum had to be given. Britain demanded an assurance that the German empire would respect Belgium’s neutrality. The deadline was midnight, in Belgian time, on 04 August. By the time that deadline expired, no assurance had been given and German troops had invaded Belgium. From that moment, Britain was at war with Germany.

On 03 August, Sir Edward Grey, spoke to the House of Commons. After the debate, he returned to his office. As the daylight faded, and the lamplighters came out to light the gas-fuelled streetlights, he said, “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

This service marks the beginning of First World War commemorations, which will continue over the next four years. Tonight we reflect that sense of the darkness fading, as Britain, and the British Empire, committed itself to a great and open-ended endeavour to protect international law and the rights of small nations against their powerful neighbours. We will hear passages from the Bible and from the literature of the time. As we bring to mind that summer evening, a century ago, let us recall our predecessors in the regiments and corps in which we serve, their families and loved ones, and all who faced the gathering darkness with courage, hope and fortitude.

Section 1 – Commitment

Scripture reading - A reading from the book of the prophet Joel.

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near— a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come. Fire devours in front of them, and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, you’re God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

Reading - From Sir Edward Grey’s speech in the House of Commons 03 Aug 14.

There is but one way in which the Government could make certain at the present moment of keeping outside this war, and that would be that it should immediately issue a proclamation of unconditional neutrality. We cannot do that. We have made the commitment to France that I have read to the House which prevents us from doing that. We have got the consideration of Belgium which prevents us also from any unconditional neutrality, and, without those conditions absolutely satisfied and satisfactory, we are bound not to shrink from proceeding to the use of all the forces in our power. If we did take that line by saying, "We will have nothing whatever to do with this matter" under no conditions—the Belgian Treaty obligations, the possible position in the Mediterranean, with damage to British interests, and what may happen to France from our failure to support France—if we were to say that all those things mattered nothing, were as nothing, and to say we would stand aside, we should, I believe, sacrifice our respect and good name and reputation before the world, and should not escape the most serious and grave economic consequences.

Prayer

Eternal God,

from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed:

kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all, the true love of peace

and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom

those who take counsel for the nations of the earth

that in tranquillity your kingdom may go forward,

till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
be thou my best thought in the day and the night,
both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.
Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,
be thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;
be thou my great Father, and I thy true son;
be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.
Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
be thou my whole armour, be thou my true might;
be thou my soul's shelter, be thou my strong tower:
O raise thou me heavenward, great Power of my power.

High King of heaven, thou heaven's bright sun,
O grant me its joys after victory is won;
great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be thou my vision, O Ruler of all.

[Some lights are dimmed]

Section 2 – Facing Conflict

Scripture reading - Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present* help in trouble.
2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3though its waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
46The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.*
8

Come, behold the works of the Lord;
see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.

10‘Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.’
11The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Reading -1914 by Wilfred Owen

War broke: and now the Winter of the world

With perishing great darkness closes in.

The foul tornado, centred at Berlin,

Is over all the width of Europe whirled,

Rending the sails of progress. Rent or furled

Are all Art's ensigns. Verse wails. Now begin

Famines of thought and feeling. Love's wine's thin.

The grain of human Autumn rots, down-hurled.

For after Spring had bloomed in early Greece,

And Summer blazed her glory out with Rome,

An Autumn softly fell, a harvest home,

A slow grand age, and rich with all increase.

But now, for us, wild Winter, and the need

Of sowings for new Spring, and blood for seed.

Prayer

God our Creator,

we fail to seek your justice,

and swerve from the way of your righteousness:

look with compassion upon those facing danger, disaster, and devastation.

Guide us all along the path of life, and make us valiant for truth,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hymn

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
forgive our foolish ways!
Re-clothe us in our rightful mind,
in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence, praise;
in deeper reverence, praise.
In simple trust like theirs who heard,
beside the Syrian sea,
the gracious calling of the Lord,
let us, like them, without a word,
rise up and follow thee;
rise up and follow thee.
Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace;
the beauty of thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm;
O still, small voice of calm.

[more lights are dimmed]

Section 3 - Endurance

Scripture reading – a reading from the Second Letter to the Corinthians

6For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.

Reading – an unnamed soldier describes his feelings as he waits to go into the line:

Silence was the atmosphere of all our night-work. Silence and solitude, for there is no loneliness like that felt going under fire at night. Though one could touch one’s pal in front, and the man behind followed on one’s heels, once the bullets flew, one was shut off from all the world – oneself, a bullet and God the only real things in the great world-emptiness of the night. Life and death were in the balance for each of us; and in peace and war alike man must needs walk the Valley of the Shadow of Death alone. Life was more appreciated as death loomed near, but death itself seemed easier as we faced it squarely in the dark. So we moved over the open to the trenches, in a quick thrill of excitement, fearful lest any of our superfluous gear should rattle or come loose, yet each alone in the world of his own thoughts.

Prayer

Lord God, you hold both heaven and earth in a single peace.

Let the design of your great love shine on the waste of our anger and sorrow,

and give peace to your Church, peace among nations,

peace in our homes, and peace in our hearts; in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[last lights are dimmed]

Conclusion

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. Amen.

As our forebears waited this night in the gathering darkness, so may we carry forward the remembrance of their service, and in the tasks laid before us keep faith with their courage and commitment.