Most years I miss Remembrance Sunday at St. Oswald’s, as I return to my family home and church in Birmingham to remember those who gave their lives in wartime service. It has a special poignancy as my father was a veteran of the Normandy campaign and of subsequent action across northern Europe in the later stages of the Second World War.
In its parish, All Saints Church, Gravelly Hill includes the notorious Spaghetti Junction but it is a lovely small church serving a part of the Erdington district, half-way between the suburbs of Birmingham and the inner city.
The All Saints war memorial is on the back wall of the church and the congregation turns around to face it for the Remembrance ceremony. This year, I was struck by the great number of names read out by the Vicar, Rev’d Richard Walker-Hill. When the First World War began the Gravelly Hill area had only just been built and those who served and died would have recently moved into the area, perhaps hoping for a new life.
Thinking about the St. Oswald’s service happening at exactly the same time, I realised how Remembrance Sunday does indeed bring the country together in a common cause at a particular moment every year.
David Morris
