Friday, April 25, 2008

Lest We Forget

Pete ("bell") and I ("book") served Fr's 9 am Low Mass for the Feast of St Mark, with commemorations of the Greater Litanies and All the Faithful Departed. I said Lauds of the Dead after Mass.

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It was nearly 10 o'clock by when I finished, but I made it down a few blocks and caught a good part of the already-begun ANZAC Day parade, which finished about 10.50 am.

The very large crowds [a record, apparently - and some 40,000, could you imagine it, attended the Dawn Service at the WA War Memorial in King's Park!] enthusiastically applauded the returned servicemen, who marched together with the descendents of deceased Diggers. It was good to see the Vietnam Vets well respected.

One banner got me: that of one of the Western Australian regiments, which first fought for the Empire in the Sudan in 1885, to crush the fanatic hordes of the Mahdi, and restore Queen Victoria's civilizing rule. Over 120 years later, Australia again combats the same forces of perverted misbelief.


I was amazed to see, marching among the Allies, about two dozen Rhodesian veterans, behind a proud "Rhodesia" banner bearing such campaign names as Matabeleland 1893 and Rhodesia itself, 1965-1980. How I wish one of them had rid the world of Mugabe! There was also a sizeable contingent of former members of the South Vietnamese armed forces, behind flags and banners of the former Republic of Vietnam. Lest we forget.

Furthermore, as well as many Brits, there was a very small contingent of combined North American veterans, marching behind side-by-side U.S. and Canadian flags. I suppose some of the half dozen Normandy D-Day veterans that marched separately may also have been such - how astounding to see men who had faced that hell, and lived!

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At the foreshore reserve we all gathered for the 11 am Commemorative Service, His Excellency the Governor taking first place at the ceremony.

I think the Order of Service instructive and moving:

The WA State President of the Returned and Services League welcomed all and gave an address; then all stood for some verses of the Kipling hymn -

God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies;
The captains and the kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!


(This was first written for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria: now it is we Aussies who rule "over palm and pine", but must remember that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and the will to defend what our ancestors won.)

An Anglican chaplain next read a prayer for The Queen and those who govern us under her. Following that, we sang the opening of the Royal Anthem -

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!


The same chaplain then read prayers for our armed forces, and for those who suffer because of warfare.

The massed choir followed this with "In Memoriam" by Summers -

Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends. (St John xv, 13)

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
we will remember them - lest we forget.

An army bugler played the Last Post, followed by a minute's silence in honour of the fallen, and then the Rouse; I always use the silence to say a private De Profundis for the dead.

Next, the Ode -

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
we will remember them -
(all repeated:) we will remember them.
Lest we forget -
(all repeated:) lest we forget

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.


The hymn concluded, there was a special address from a young lady, who last year was selected to go on the WA Premier's tour of the W.W.I battlefields; she spoke well, as did the Governor who next addressed us. We must remember the ANZAC's, and practise their virtues, lest we forget.

The choir then sang part of the patriotic "My Country" by Dorothea MacKellar:

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,

I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown Country
My homing thoughts will fly.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold;

I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown Country
My homing thoughts will fly.

To conclude, there was a prayer of remembrance of the fallen by the chaplain, and finally the first verse of the National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair:

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We've golden soil and wealth for toil,
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in Nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia fair!
In joyful strains then let us sing,
"Advance Australia fair!

******

The Service being ended just before noon, I made my way to a pub as the custom is, and where to go but the Belgian beer hall? My forefathers died for Belgium and France. The large numbers of navy personnel in the pub must have agreed! Two beers and some pommes frites later, sufficit for me.

******

ANZAC Day always moves me to tears: over 102,000 Australians have given their lives in war, most of them younger than I am. As our P.M. Billy Hughes reminded President Wilson at the Versailles peace conference, "I speak for 60,000 dead".



I regard ANZAC Day as one of the closest approaches our civil society makes to pietas, to the praise and inculcation of virtue, true manly valour, and sacrifice, and to religion. It is a sign that the old tried and tested character of Australia is not yet dead. The ever-larger crowds of recent years seem to agree: people are searching and reaching out for something, something to aspire to amid so many distractions from the good.

Please remember in your prayers and at Mass those fallen in war, and especially my great-uncle Neil, who died for King and Country in World War II; he was sent to the Dominion of Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, and perished there in the crash of an aircraft he and and a trainee were in.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis: requiescant in pace. Amen.

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