麻豆约拍

Good morning.

During this season where poppies are almost ubiquitous, and, when there inevitably can be a wide range of different emotions, it is a challenge to remember well, honestly and accurately.

A week ago I had occasion to be aboard the HMS Duncan when she spent the weekend in the port of Belfast. HMS Duncan is a Type 45 destroyer, a state of the art vessel which has been adopted by the City of Belfast.

While talking with the officers, I found myself drawn back to memories of family I never knew. My seafaring grandfather, and his wife, my mother鈥檚 mother, who died aged thirty-six. I have聽 no doubt her illness was聽 brought on at least in part by the long years of fear, anxiety and stress of her husband鈥檚 absence, his being at risk of enemy attack, and his ship鈥檚 being torpedoed.

The effects of her early death and his coping mechanisms have passed on in various forms through my mother, aunts and uncle, to my cousins, siblings and myself. The costs of war are rarely counted in terms of the pressures brought to bear on those left behind, the families and friends of service people and support staff. This week end when we remember those who gave their lives, it is right that we should think too of all the other people whose lives were turned upside down by the effects of war.

God who breaks the bow and shatters the spear, have mercy on all the people affected by wars, violence and oppression: the homeless, the dispossessed, widows and orphans, the maimed and injured, as well as those facing their own death and that of their comrades. Speak peace, make us be still, to know that we are not God, and you are God with us. Amen聽