Time for remembrance and healing

by Revd Heather Connell
From the Church of St Peter and St Paul, St Osyth

The poppy is the traditional symbol or remembrance

Remembrance Sunday is an important day in the village of St Osyth, as it is in most towns and villages.

It is a tradition that both the 8am and 10am congregations gather for a service of Holy Communion at 9am.

Then at 10.50am we begin our Service of Remembrance, keeping the two minute silence with the nation at 11am.

The British Legion together with some of the uniformed youth organisations bring their banners and wreaths are laid around the altar steps.

On Advent Sunday, at the end of November we shall have our quarterly Healing Service Revd Heather Connell

After the service the wreaths are taken to the Village War Memorial to remember all those who died in the two World Wars and the conflicts our troops have been involved in since then.

Many of our forces are involved in conflicts around the globe, and Remembrance Sunday is now more poignant for the younger members of village community.

A number of youngsters have relatives or friends that have been first to Iraq and now to Afghanistan.

The village War Memorial has recently been cleaned and restored, through the work of the parish council, so at this years ceremony of wreath laying there will be a short service of re-dedication and thanksgiving.

We are also hoping to be able to replace the war memorial in our churchyard next year.

The soft stone is crumbling, the names fading and the whole monument is now subsiding.

This will cost about £11,000, and we have about half of the money required and will be launching a programme of fund raising shortly to raise the remainder.

The week before Remembrance Sunday, our annual bereavement service will give people who have been bereaved an opportunity to come to church to remember loved ones.

The war memorial in Cowley Park, St Oysth

The relatives of all the people the clergy have taken funeral services for over the last two years are invited to the service, but of course the service is open to all who wish to remember relatives and friends who have died.

Hymns, readings and prayers hopefully help those who attend to experience God's peace and presence in their time of grief.

There is also the comfort that Jesus, Himself, wept at the grave of a friend, and that He understands our sense of loss, and that sorrow is the cost of love.

On Advent Sunday, at the end of November we shall have our quarterly healing service.

The service begins with a time of confession and prayer and then there is opportunity for people to receive the laying on of hands or if they wish to be anointed with oil, or to talk and pray with another Christian, supported by the praying congregation.

Some come for themselves, others for relatives and friends, to lay the particular situation into the presence of God and pray for His healing.

In the love of our Saviour Jesus Christ and through the power of God the Holy Spirit in our lives we pray that we may experience God's healing and wholeness increasingly every day.

Interregnum Update

Since the advertisement for the vacant post of Vicar here at SS Peter & Paul appeared in the church press in September a lot of interest was shown and we are happy to report that the Bishop of Colchester has received four applications.

Interviews will be held for the successful candidates in the middle of November, and we are praying that the person that God is calling to be our next Vicar is among them.

Chelmsford soldiers remembered

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