Church Related Community Worker Mal Breeze reflects on the significance of Remembrance and what it means to him, to members of his Blackburn community, his faith and to everyone who has been touched by loss. Mal also reflects on how the face of the memorial day has changed in Britain and around the world, especially during the pandemic.

Remembrance today

The Revd Andy Braunston, Minister of Barrhead, Priesthill, Shawlands and Stewarton United Reformed Churches (URC) in the National Synod of Scotland’s Southside Cluster, has been appointed as the new Minister for Digital Worship.

The need for the role was introduced at General Assembly in July by the Revd Dr John Bradbury, General Secretary of the URC, to make the Daily Devotions and Daily Devotions Sunday service an integral part of the life and witness of the denomination.

Roo Stewart, United Reformed Church (URC) Programme Support Officer for Church and Society , and Debs Brooks, wife of the Revd Philip Brooks, URC Secretary for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, have recorded a hymn specially written for Remembrance. 

For the Beauty of the Somme was written by Pfarrer Martin Henninger, Minister of the Lutherkirche in Frankenthal, and the Revd Dr David Pickering, Minister of Emmanuel URC and Elmers End Free Church, following their joint pilgrimage to the Somme in 2018.