This morning I attended our annual Church Parade. It is a tradition carried out by the Royal Canadian Legion on the Sunday prior to Remembrance Day where we attend a local church for a service of remembrance.

Like many of the traditions we uphold in the Legion, they have their roots in the military service that previous generations of members experienced.

Today’s centerpiece made for Remembrance Sunday

For my American readers, our Remembrance Day Services, which takes place at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month (your Veterans Day) is more similar to your Memorial Day. The timing marks the official start of the Armistice which ended World War One.

The Legion Role

We march in the colours at the beginning of the service, sing O Canada followed by two minutes of silence which is broken by the Act of Remembrance.

The colour party is retired until the end of the service, when the colours will be retrieved, the Royal Anthem (God Save the Queen) will be sang and the colours will be marched out. The rest of the service is a normal church service.

I served as the Colour Sgt today.

What is Remembrance Day About?

The minister at this church is also our Branch Chaplain. Today he spoke of the role of Remembrance Day in our social life. Many make the mistake of believing that the two week poppy campaign which precedes the services held across the country on November 11th is about glorifying war.

It is not.

The minister spoke today about how he came up in the sixties when they thought that shunning traditions which honoured the sacrifices and horrors of war would do more to bring about peace in our time than any incentive of remembering past horrors to stop future horrors. It’s a time honoured debate.

Sharing coffee time with these two comrades and a member of our host church. All three were children during WW2. The gentleman on the left in Holland and the now married couple on the right in Belgium.

Remembrance Day Prior to the First Gulf War

I remember as a young Legion President, a civilian with family ties to war time service, leading the Remembrance Day service during the lead up to the first Gulf War. At that point it was known that Canada would be taking part in this conflict, but what the part would be, was still being debated in Parliament.

The parade had formed at the cenotaph on a cold blustery day as often happens on Remembrance Day. As the first notes of the Last Post sounded I raised my hand in salute toward the Veterans standing on parade.

As my eyes scanned across the time weathered faces, I saw something I’d never seen before at Remembrance Day. The stoic faces I normally saw were openly streaming with tears. The significance of those distant preparations struck me at that point.

These men and women who turned up to distribute poppies and to parade on Remembrance Day did so not to glorify the wars they had served in, but to remember those who never came home in the hope that by reminding the country of the sacrifice of those now distant wars, there would be no more war dead.

Those distant wars were now coming perilously close to another conflict in which Canadians would lay down their lives or live with seen and unseen wounds. Their hopes for peace lay in tatters.

The Cost of the Bag of Dirt

Today during the sermon the minister related a story which had occurred in his life. The minister worked a day job at an area garden centre this past summer.

One day an elderly gentleman hobbled into the centre to pick up some gardening supplies. He picked out several seedlings and some other supplies before resting on a chair for a few minutes.

The minister took time to chat with him and soon learned the gentleman was a veteran of the Italian Campaign in World War 2. Over the next few minutes he talked a little bit about his time overseas.

He had been injured over there and that was why he still walks with difficulty. He was thankful though, several of his friends never came home. He got to come home, marry, and raise a family in the freedom he and his friends had fought to secure.

The gentleman paid for his purchases and the minister helped him take them to the car. As they got to the car, the gentleman remembered he needed some bags of soil. The minister went to get them and brought them to his car as the two of them chatted some more.

The minister started to bid the gentleman good-bye when he was reminded by him that he had not yet paid for his soil. The minister paused for a moment and then told the gentlemen there would be no charge today.

The gentleman protested that he couldn’t give bags of dirt away. The minister shook his head and told him, “Sir, you and your friends have paid for that soil and the soil I so freely stand on. Today this is yours to have.” The gentleman nodded and climbed slowly into his car.

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