Lucky Dip Number 19
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Remembrance Sunday 1987
"Go in peace" a celebrant finally would have said, had not ancient divisions and the cold hand of church authority marred the harmony of our ecumenical worship service. We were at a peace conference in the small town of Moy some fifty miles east of Enniskillen where another service was taking place on that Remembrance Sunday. "This is my body broken for you" and the bread would have been broken and passed among us. But for what were the bodies broken that day at the cenotaph when those men of blood perpetrated their plot to dishonour the dead and mutilate the living? For some crucified dream of a united Ireland? For some nurtured sense of injustice done? So many bodies were broken and eleven more dead were added to the myriad names listed on memorial after memorial in the cities, towns and villages of these islands for whom we observed silence in our broken fellowship in Moy - and also for those fallen millions named and unnamed in other lands. "Lord have mercy" "Christ have mercy" Men of blood have mercy! Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. |