Emotional! Gut -wrenching! So much feeling! That Last Call!!! The trumpet music! The bag -pipe!!! These would all have been responses felt by those present at our Remembrance Service today . Indeed it was a service to remember --one that was special, emotive and purposeful from the beginning to the end . Emotional indeed, but emotion stirred lest we forget; emotion stirred to bring us in touch with the past; emotion stirred to give us cleared vision of the day when the lion and the lamb will lie together and war will be no more.

In addition to being just our Remembrance Day Service, this service specially commemorated the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in World War 1,where over 11,000 Canadian soldiers died. A very poignant moment was when L Col (Ret'd)Rev Bill MacLellan gave an Acknowledgement of Veterans and read an excerpt from the journal of the Chaplain during this battle. Then the list of St Andrew's  who gave their lives at both wars, was read .

Then came the Call to Remembrance with the Last Post by trumpeter Christy Lowry, A moment of Silence and the Lament by piper Jamie Letoumeau. The Scripture reading by the Dutch Ambassador was prefaced by a short history of the relationship that exist between Holland and Canada and particularly St Andrew's and the Ottawa Tulip Festival.

The sermon taken from Joshua 4 :1-7 and Romans 8:31-39 took us from the building of a memorial by Joshua, so that the Israelites would never forget the forty years they spent wondering in the wilderness to Paul reminding us of the Covenant of faithfulness from our God who gave us the promise in Romans 8:31-38.

Yes, with confidence in the Word of our God, we can tell our children the remembering the past gives us a common hope in the future that someday someone will find ways to resolve differences with Love.

Beulah P.