At one point we were not sure this service could take place with new rules for lockdown but with just days to go new regulations allowed us to have a socially distanced parade and outdoor service to remember those of our village who had made the ultimate sacrifice in two world wars and beyond.
The service was co-ordinated and organised, with almost military precision, by Church Warden, Charles Wimbush with a detailed minute by minute schedule that matched Government rules and guidelines whilst maintaining the dignity and solemnity expected of the occasion.
Charles tells us of the service:- ‘Over 65 followed Martin Soar our Vicar to the Memorial: about 30 from the parade, with flags, medals, wreaths and a confident solemnity together with Church goers from the Benefice. Decent weather without rain was a blessing.
The ‘outdoor’ idea was the only one possible in the circumstances, and probably the best anyway. It had all the traditional content: the bell, lovely singing from Diana, the Beatitudes, the classic words of Binyon, “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. We will remember them”. .read by Phil Cook and Lorelai, and Edmond’s Kohima Epitaph, read by David Holt; the Last Post and Rouse, faultless, by Tessa Pike.
A very moving but also optimistic service that might ‘calm our fears, bring justice to all peoples and establish harmony among the nations’.
