Good afternoon and I hope that all is well in your world. Today is a blustery and rainy fall day, and the leaves are flying by the window as I write.
Over the next couple of days we'll take pause to remember the war dead from last century and this one.
At the cathedral I work out of here in Vancouver is a stain glass window in honour of Herbert Owen who died in 1916. Both he and his father, Cecil, the then Rector of the church had volunteered in 1914 and had gone to France. On learning that his son had been killed in action, Cecil rode three hours through the mud to officiate at his son's burial. Returning to Vancouver Cecil resigned his post as Rector and became chaplain at the veteran's hospital, a post he held to the end of the Second World War. He and is wife adopted a son, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, Luder Keshishan. Luder joined the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, and was shot down and killed over France.
My friend David Kuhl upon hearing this story remarked, "imagine the courage it took to raise a second son and instill inĀ him the courage to go to war."
This week, I hope you find the time to remember the courage of the men and women who gave their lives so that we can make the world a safer place for everybody. May each of us find the courage to stand up for what we believe in, and the courage to help build peaceful lives for all people, everywhere.