SIR – I am loathe to bring a note of discord to what should be a day of remembering and gratitude, but I feel I have to write to complain about the prayer given by the clergyman at the Wick Remembrance Day parade.
Bar two, I have attended Remembrance Sunday services at various places throughout the UK since 1960. It has been an honour during those short services to remember and be grateful for those who fought and died for our freedom – freedom, in fact, for me to be able to write this letter.
This is the first time I have come away feeling angry and upset. I believe the clergyman was Father John Allen.
Remembrance Sunday is a day not for glorifying war but remembering with gratitude and some sorrow those who died to ensure that we today are all free to express our views – even the clergyman.
I may disagree profoundly with his views, but he has the right to hold them – but I object to him using this occasion to express them.
If I heard him correctly through the fairly quiet PA system, he started by bemoaning the breakdown of marriage and the effect civil partnership legislation was having on society.
He then appeared to scare children by telling them that in their adult life they will regret taking part in Halloween fun.
There was then bemoaning about churches being turned into pubs.
There were other things said that I could not pick up but it was only at the end that he got round to talking about the actual sacrifices that people had made for us. The first part of his sermon was all about religious dogma. The Catholic Church has long stated its opposition to civil partnerships. Did the Father, when expressing his views, consider that many military personnel who are now actively involved in fighting are in civil partnerships?
Some of the people who have died may have fought to obtain a society in which such partnerships would be allowed. Presumably they are damned in his eyes.
I could spend time counteracting his Halloween comments by saying that probably more people have suffered in Catholic children’s homes than through Halloween activities – but that might seem churlish. And if he thinks about what he said on Sunday, he might see why churches are empty and being turned into pubs.
I hope that the Royal British Legion Scotland which organises the service will also complain. In my view, what was said demeaned the remembrance of sacrifices made in the past and those that continue to be made. Dogma has caused so many wars in the past that surely we should have one day in the year when it is absent.
It may be that because of the PA system and my advancing years I misheard what was said – I know I missed some of it. That could easily be rectified by the Father passing his complete sermon for this paper to publish for us all to see.
George Budge,
South View,
Wick.
