Remembrance Service

S Giles' Service of Remembrance takes place in church at 10am on Remembrance Sunday

The 8.30am and 10.30am are cancelled and we worship and remember as a whole community

Our Act of Remembrance and 2 minute silence will be held during the Parish Eucharist

with those wishing to lay wreaths and crosses being invited to come forward

and place them at the High Altar

Poppies, Wreaths and Crosses can be purchased from the Royal British Legion

Why We Wear Poppies

Poppies grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth throughout Western Europe. The destruction brought by the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th Century transformed bare land into fields of blood red poppies, growing around the bodies of the fallen soldiers.

In late 1914, the fields of Northern France and Flanders were once again ripped open as the First World War raged through Europe's heart. The significance of the poppy as a lasting memorial symbol to the fallen was realised by the Canadian surgeon John McCrae in his poem In Flanders Fields. The poppy came to represent the immeasurable sacrifice made by his comrades and quickly became a lasting memorial to those who died in the First World War and later conflicts.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields

By John McCrae 1915

Annual Bereavement Service

Our Bereavement Service takes place in the afternoon at 4pm

where whose who have died and we see no more will be remembered by name.

Page last updated 13.11.11 © S Giles Aintree 2005 - 2011