11 Nov 2025
As we mark Armistice Day, Rev Peter Crumpler, associate minister at St Paul’s Church, Fleetville, St Albans, reflects on the importance of Remembrance.
Remembrance gets more important every year. it’s one of those events that brings people together. It helps us recall the big stories that shape us as a nation, as a people. It’s about who we are.
As we remember, we stand together, reflecting on the men and women who died serving our country, fighting for ideals of freedom, of democracy. Fighting at a time when our nation was under threat, when we faced the darkest hours in our history.
We pay tribute to the people who are buried in local graveyards and in cemeteries around the world. We honour those who are commemorated on prominent memorials, and on the local street plaques found across our city.
Their sacrifice has helped to shape our nation and protect the freedoms we enjoy. To respect their sacrifice, we are called to be watchful of our rights. To call out political
parties of all types that seek to divide us, to ‘other’ people so they can be dismissed or excluded from the national debate.
Remembrance at its best includes people of all ages and backgrounds. Older people have lived through the wars and conflicts, maybe losing family members in the world
wars, in the Falklands, the Gulf Wars or numerous other conflicts.
Younger people, who will hopefully live long in our country, need to learn about the horrors of war, and work for a world where justice reigns and war is an outmoded way of settling disputes.
Maybe I’m a dreamer, as John Lennon sang, but maybe I can look ahead to a time when Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza/Israel and many other places have long-lasting peace, and peace with justice for all involved.
Blessed are the peacemakers, Jesus, said. And maybe we can find ourselves sometimes glamourising aspects of war – instead of focusing on the painstaking, probably laborious task of working for peace, seeking to bring people together.
We rightly celebrate the sacrifices made by people in wars fought around the world.
Maybe too we should celebrate the unknown heroes who worked behind the scenes, in smoke-filled rooms and around conference tables, to keep nations from war or bring them out of it,
We commemorate the unknown soldier. We should also celebrate the peacemakers who worked to ensure that the guns were never fired, or that the tanks were silenced.
In the Bible’s Old Testament, there’s a verse about a time when nation will not take up sword against nation, and people will not prepare for war anymore. It’s my prayer that one day that will come to pass.
Meanwhile, I remember the ordinary men and women who gave their lives for our country, and give thanks.
