CHURCHES around Peasedown St John, Wellow, and Shoscombe will be holding special services on Remembrance Sunday, honouring the sacrifices made by those who have served in the armed forces.
Peasedown St John’s annual Remembrance Sunday service will be held in St John’s Parish Church on November 10. The service will start at 10.30am and will feature presentations from the uniformed groups and civic leaders.
Last year, more than 200 people packed the church to remember those who have given their lives in conflict. Revd Matthew Street, chaplain to the uniformed groups in the local area, will be leading this year’s service. The previous event highlighted the important work of the Red Cross and marked the 80th anniversary of the Dambusters Raid in 1943.
This year’s theme will focus on D-Day, also known as the Normandy Landings, which took place 80 years ago. It was the largest seaborn invasion in history beginning with the liberation of France, and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front a year later in 1945.
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Revd Matthew Street said: “Each year it is important to collectively remember those that have laid down their lives for the freedom and civil liberties we all enjoy today.
“At this year’s village remembrance service, we will especially mark and remember D-Day, and how significant that historic event was to the eventual end of the war and victory in Europe a year later.
“We shall also take time to read aloud the names of the fallen from Peasedown St John, one by one.”
Wreaths will be laid during the service at the war memorial in the church by members of the uniformed groups, B&NES Cllr Gavin Heathcote, plus representatives from the Peasedown Community Trust, the Parish Council, the WI and the Head Boy and Head Girl from Peasedown St John Primary School.
The chairwoman of Bath and North East Somerset Council, Cllr Karen Walker, will deliver the reading during the service. Prayers will be led by Revd Matthew Street, with Cllr Gavin Heathcote from B&NES Council and a representative from the Parish Council also participating.
Meanwhile in St Julian’s Church, Wellow, a trumpeter will lead the Last Post during the Remembrance Service which starts at 10.45am.
In St Julian’s Church, Shoscombe, the Remembrance Service will start at 11.15am, and a two-minute silence will be observed.