Well done my fellow villagers!

I was so very pleased to see the turnout at our new war memorial (next to our new cemetery, in a quieter part of the village) today.  I had spoken to our County Councillor during the week (at the wake for a very well regarded climate scientist, John Lanchbery, who had died suddenly a couple of weeks before) and he had said, "See you on Sunday."  I started to protest that I'd be at church (meaning Mass, and therefore another place entirely) on Sunday, but he merely replied (thinking that I meant the village's Anglican church) that the Act of Remembrance would be just before the service.

So I felt that I should be at a Remembrance occasion in my village, not at a nearby town's just because it is where I go to Mass.  So I did, and found the place thronged with people and kids in scout uniform.  I felt really quite emotional at the strength of community feeling that this represented.  And then at the Remembrance Service, a short procession away in the Baptist Church, there were few seats empty.  I didn't know all the hymns, of course, and the order of the service was new to me; but the Baptist Minister was very engaging and kept the proceedings on track.  It was a long service, but well worth it.