Trinity-St. Andrew’s United Church
Order of Worship
Sunday November 10, 2024 – Remembrance Sunday
Prelude
Words of welcome, announcements
Lighting the Christ Candle
As we light this candle we are reminded that we gather in the name of God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of the Earth and all its creatures! As the seasons turn, may our hearts turn to seek reconciliation and peace with all our relations.
Choral Introit: In Flander’s Fields
Call To worship
We gather on the first day of a new week to give thanks to God who is the source of all life. May the light of God’s love shine on us today. For we also gather to remember the suffering and loss that wars bring on us all. We honour the sacrifice people made on the battlefield and also here at home. We defiantly proclaim that the darkness and doubt of the world which threatens to consume us is not the ultimate power over us. In the face of our fear and hopelessness we celebrate God’s presence among us. For God offers us the way of peace. Come, let us open our hearts to God’s healing words of hope. AMEN.
Hymn Now Thank We All Our God VU 236
- Now thank we all our God, with heart,
and hands, and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom this world rejoices;
who from our mother’s arms has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
- O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessèd peace to cheer us,
and keep us strong in grace, and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ill in this world and the next.
- All praise and thanks to God
for all that has been given,
the Son, and Spirit blest
who dwell in highest heaven,
the one eternal God, whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
Prayer of Approach
On this Remembrance Sunday we gather to pray for a world where no one will learn war anymore. On this day when the guns once fell silent, we gather to pray for peace to reign in every heart, home and nation. On this day of hope, we come before you, God, to remember all those who gave their lives so we could be free. In this time of story, song, and prayer, help us to catch a vision of how the world could live together. And so, we echo the old prayers—make us channels of your peace. Be with us we pray, that we may be peacemakers who follow the way of Jesus. Amen.
Hymn Blest Be the Tie That Binds VU 602
- Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the unity of heart and mind
is like to that above.
- Before our Maker’s throne
we pour our ardent prayers;
our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
our comforts and our cares.
- We share each other’s woes,
each other’s burdens bear;
and often for each other flows
the sympathizing tear.
- This glorious hope revives
our courage on the way;
that we shall live in perfect love
in God’s eternal day.
Act of Remembrance
Remembering the Home Front- Kurt Johnson
Presentation of “On the Homefront” by Kurt Johnson and Peter Raaphorst
KURT: Nearly 80 years ago, more than one million men and women — from a population of only 11 million — served overseas in the Second World War — 42,000 were killed or died in service. Another 55,000 were wounded.
Back in Canada, on the homefront, the whole populace mobilized in many different ways. The Second World War was a TOTAL WAR, through six long years — Few were left untouched by the war. It involved everyone.
Families struggled with food rationing. The people willingly supported the war effort buying Victory Bonds. Even children were encouraged to empty their piggy banks to buy war saving stamps and paste them in booklets – after the war, they could be redeemed.
There were children’s competitions for collecting wastepaper – even Dad’s evening newspaper — and scrap metal or tin cans for recycling. For their efforts, children could win movie tickets to the Saturday matinees.
Families grew their own vegetables in Victory Gardens — Renfrew Horticultural Society supplied seeds and held Renfrew school contests for the best gardens with the Renfrew Mercury featuring the winners’ names.
We had asked our congregation for homefront stories: Here are a few of their stories.
Our Norma Abercrombie recalls as a little girl going grocery shopping with her parents in Shawville, using food stamps. And her father, an insurance agent, had to cope with gasoline rationing as he drove to see his rural customers.
Our Chuck Ross remembers at his Cobden school that they would knit wool squares to make into afghans or quilts sent overseas. He says his were always too tightly woven so the teacher would have to loosen them to fit into a quilt.
Our Doris Handford was in a group of eight girls calling themselves the “Blue Ribbon Club” who would hold teas at home and raise money for the Canadian Red Cross. She remembers her mother and grandmother taking their knitting with them to the theatre so they could knit socks as they watched the movie. Everyone wanted to do their bit for the war effort.
PETER: On the streets of Renfrew, you often saw young men in uniforms since trains stopped daily at our railway station enroute to the training camps up in Petawawa. There upwards of 20,000 troops at a time were undergoing training for artillery, engineering or infantry regiments. And they all came back by rail to ship out for overseas duty. Caravans of trucks often rolled down our Main Street.
Our Barbara Carriere was a young girl in those years. Her family, the Aikenheads, lived across the tracks on Raglan Street.
She worried about her older brother Don Aikenhead who at 18 joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He served overseas as a navigator on Halifax bombers. He did come home and later ran the family business, Aikenhead Drug Store.
Barbara has special memories of “handsome young men in uniform” — soldiers and airmen who came for Sunday dinner at the family’s house. Throughout the war years, her father Bill Aikenhead often invited them home after meeting the young men at his drugstore or just downtown. He also gave this open invitation at the army bases in Petawawa and the pilots flying school in Arnprior.
Why did he do that?
“When he was in the forces for World War One, Barbara said, a family did the same for him in Nova Scotia. It felt so good for him to have a family meal away from home.” He never forgot that. “Mother would get Christmas cards and letters from the enlisted men, thanking them.” Bill Aikenhead had served in WW1 as a medic with the Canadian Medical Corps in England and France.
PETER: Our Doris Quinlan as a teenager also remembers those troop trains passing her home along the tracks on Jeannette Street. She would wave back to the soldiers looking out the coach windows.
These were the struggling years after the Great Depression. Men would go door to door looking for odd jobs or something to eat. Her mother made sandwiches for some of them — the children called “hobos”.
Food rationing made it difficult for her mother to bake the children’s cookies or pies. Doris remembered how the precious sugar was saved for these treats. When Aunt Agnes from the United States stayed at their house, her mother used up that week’s sugar for her sister’s regular coffee. It was the only time Doris says she saw her mother crying when she had to tell the kids there would be no cookies that week.
KURT: Trains were truly the main public transport throughout the Ottawa Valley. The most popular was the Pembroke Local 550.
In 1942, on December 27, a wartime tragedy happened on the homefront with the Almonte Train Wreck.
After celebrating Christmas with family and friends, the overloaded passenger train was packed with holidayers leaving Petawawa, Pembroke, Cobden, Renfrew and Arnprior, heading back to the city. Many were young people going back to war jobs in the capital city. Some were soldiers on holiday leave.
On that stormy winter night, a large troop train from Camp Petawawa was carrying new recruits headed for Halifax and then overseas to Europe. At 8:30 pm that Sunday, this train slammed into three wooden coaches at the rear of the passenger train that was stopped at the Almonte station.
The weekly Mercury’s front-page headline on Dec. 31 told the sad news — Renfrew had 18 dead, 40 Injured.” In all the disaster would claim 38 dead, 150 injured.
This was one of the worst disasters in Ottawa Valley history. Lots of families in our Valley towns and villages had people on that train. There were many stories of hurt and heroism.
HEROINE: One true hero’s name is found on our WW2 Honour Roll – Hilda Toner — whose brothers Rene and William Toner are also listed on our TSA honour roll.
Nursing Sister Hilda Toner was aboard that train – she raced to the back of the train to treat injured passengers. Using a jack-knife, she cut up her shirt sleeves to make bandages. And then she stripped her undergarments into more wrappings – Nurse Hilda gave first aid to 14 passengers until doctors arrived to relieve her.
King George VI sent her a commendation certificate. Hilda Toner went overseas and came back from WW2 to establish a lengthy career in the nursing home field in Renfrew.
Hilda lived to be 92 years old. Her funeral in 2001 was held at Trinity St Andrews. She is buried in North Horton Cemetery.
There were so many funerals at Renfrew churches. St. Francis Xavier church held a mass funeral for five victims of the crash.
BESSIE McPHAIL: At Trinity St. Andrews, a funeral was held for Elizabeth “Bessie” McPhail, a 20-year-old stenographer who had spent Christmas at her parents’ home, she was active in our Young People’s Society and the choir at Trinity St Andrews. On our Honour Roll, there is the name of her brother, Bruce McPhail who served in the RCAF.
RAE BURGESS: Another victim was Rae (Rachel) Burgess whose death was mourned by our Betty Hart and her mother and sister. Miss Burgess was “a very good family friend” having been a boarder at their house while working at Frieman’s store. Miss Burgess, later employed with the War Department in Ottawa, had come home for Christmas in Renfrew. She had catastrophic injuries and died hours after the crash on an ambulance train taking her to Ottawa Civic Hospital.
Betty Hart also has memories of the great joy when older sister Patricia married her sweetheart Bob Perry. Before the soldier shipped out in 1941 they got married at the Renfrew United Church. But throughout those war years, the family worried about the dangers he would face overseas. He did come back home.
PETER: We hear about nazi propaganda during the war — BUT we had our own brand – patriotic words, mostly supporting the war effort and boosting morale. Schools were plastered with posters encouraging students to do their bit.
We did ridicule the enemy, especially the leaders — Hitler was shown as skunk or a jackass, Mussolini as a monkey and Tojo Japan’s prime minister as a snake.
Our Chuck Ross remembers these images on wartime posters on the wall of his school, growing up in Cobden. He said “We were told to hate people” of the Axis armed forces. In the Valley, many newcomers came from European countries.
Chuck says it always bothered him that they were taught to hate. In later years in his 34-year teaching career, he was “so glad I did not tell my students to hate anybody.” Who were Different than them.
And on Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945, Chuck remembers boys in the school made a scarecrow of Hitler, parading it around Cobden before it was set on fire.
During the war, Renfrew’s population in the 1941 census was only 5,511. But 15 years later our population swelled by 56 percent to 8,634 in 1956. Sadly, our population slowly declined to 8,190 in 2021.
The return of enlisted men to their hometown certainly boosted the numbers. That’s why so many wartime houses were built here –165 were recorded in 1949. Look off Hall Street or Stewart or Harry Streets.
Another factor changing our homefront was the immigration of refugees and displaced persons from war-devastated Europe. A significant influx of Dutch farm families came to Canada. A lot of the Dutch immigrants learned about Canada from the Canadian soldiers who liberated the Netherlands from nazi tyranny. Many Dutch people had lost their livelihoods in the war, they were fearful of the uneasy political situation in Europe. . Canada was the land of opportunity for new beginnings.
Here in our congregation, we have -Canadians of Dutch descent — Jack and Ellen Groenewoud and Jane de Snaijer and Peter Raaphorst.
Our Bert Brisco says that his parents had sponsored two different Dutch couples to come over to Canada in the 1950s.They had a two-year commitment to work on his family’s three large farms and bustling sawmill in Northcote.
Herman and Dorothy Homsma were the second couple working on the farm. After the war, Herman had served in the Dutch Army in Indonesia from 1946 to 1949 before deciding to come to Canada. He became a member of Renfrew Legion Branch 148.
As a boy, Bert especially remembers the cookies Dorothy baked. And he “became this little waif who showed up at the door” for her Dutch vegetable soup – Groentesoep — with little meatballs and noodles.
As a teenager, he saw the couple for years after they moved into Renfrew where Herman drove buses for Colonial Coach Lines. They were very grateful for their start here as Canadians and had good memories of their time at the Brisco farm.
It really is a small world – for our research, Kurt contacted their son, Charles, who also retired as a bus driver. He discovered Charles Homsma is a neighbour and walks his dogs in the same Hunter Gate neighbourhood as Kurt does.
KURT: Remember — Wherever you are tomorrow at 11 o’clock, take two minutes to remember all veterans who went off to war in distant lands. And the people on the home front also served Canada — doing their bit in the national war effort.
After our service today, we encourage you to view our collection of images about the HOMEFRONT on the large TV in the Narthex.
“For the Fallen”
They shall grow not old, as we that 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.
Last Post
Moment of Silence
Reveille
O Canada
Scripture: Mark 12:38-44
Special Music “Fare Thee Well Love” Melissa Friske
Homily “The Sacrifice”
Hymn Make Me a Channel of Your Peace VU 684
- Make me a channel of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me bring your love;
where there is injury, your healing power,
and where there’s doubt, true faith in you:
- Make me a channel of your peace:
where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope;
where there is darkness, only light;
and where there’s sadness, ever joy.
O Spirit, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love with all my soul.
- Make me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
in giving to all that we receive,
and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
The offering
We give thanks for everyone who continues to support TSA and our many ministries. Your gifts of support and encouragement mean a lot to us. You can get more information about making a donation by contacting the church office or by visiting our website. For all the gifts you share, for all the people you bless by your serving and giving as a disciple of Jesus, we give thanks.
Offering Song God is So Good
God is so good, God is so good,
God is so good, He’s so good to me
Offering Prayer
Loving God, we are thankful that there are opportunities to give every day, through the gifts of our time, our talents and our tithes. We are also able to serve your kingdom through acts of courageous action, faithful service, and loving devotion. Gracious God, bless these gifts and these givers. May all we seek to share be used well to foster peace and joy in this world and in the lives of those who cross our paths. May real and lasting change start now, with us, through us, and with God’s blessing. Amen.
Hymn O God, Our Help in Ages Past VU 806
- O 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 its frame,
from everlasting thou art God,
to endless years the same.
- A thousand ages in thy sight
are like an evening gone,
short as the watch that ends the night
before the rising sun.
- Time like an ever-rolling stream
soon bears us all away;
we fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.
- O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
be thou our guard while troubles last,
and our eternal home.
Benediction
By looking back at the past, we learn how to go forward with a renewed inspiration to do the work of God. In all that you do going forward, seek the common good, work for reconciliation, and establish justice. The greatest offering we can make is to let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream. May the grace of God fill you with love for all our neighbours so all the world might dwell in peace.
Postlude Blowing In the Wind – John Fife, Barb Fife, James Murray
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Yes, and how many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
And how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
“The Sacrifice” Text: Mark 12:38-44.
Remembrance Sunday, November 10, 2024
By Rev. James Murray at Trinity-St. Andrew’s United Church, Renfrew.
On Remembrance Day, we usually speak of the soldiers and the great battles they faced. I am thankful for Kurt’s research on life on the home front. We rarely get to hear the stories of the women and the families who had to shoulder a great burden. For it is the families who have to pay the true price of war when the battles are finally ended. There were 61,000 Canadian soldiers killed in the First World War. Another 150,000 were wounded. Sometimes those injuries were a fate far worse than dying. The poison gas attacks left a scar on the lungs of tens of thousands of soldiers who were never even listed as being injured in battle. And the price did not end there. The returning soldiers brought home with them the Spanish Flu. That epidemic killed 50,000 Canadians here at home and left many more with life long health problems. All of these deaths and injuries and illnesses left many Canadian families destitute. All of these losses had a huge impact on the lives of their families and on our communities.
Despite their losses and suffering, so many widows and destitute families just kept on giving. This morning we shared another story, of a generous widow who still kept the faith and supported her church and her community. The bible story of the widow and her small offering is told as an example of what faithful giving looks like. Most of the time we miss the irony of this story. For a ‘generous widow’ was in Jesus’ day, an oxymoron. Widows were usually destitute. To be a woman alone in that society made you the most vulnerable of all. They needed all the money they had, because they weren’t going to get any more. To be generous in such a perilous state was a dangerous thing to do.
Yet still she gives. She gives of her heart. She gives out of gratitude. She gives because she still cares. Even though she only gives two pennies, Jesus says her gift is the greatest of all. For no gift of love is ever too small. Every gift of love counts when it comes from the heart. Even the smallest gift can reveal the glory of God. It’s not how much you give that matters, it’s how you give.
This is one reason why pause on November 11th each year. So many families in our community gave a lot of themselves, in order for us to enjoy the freedoms we have today. They gave years of their lives, and sometimes their very lives, to the cause of justice. Because of the war, the people of Renfrew lost family and friends. They lost dreams and hopes for a happy future. They lost the best years of their lives. Because of the sacrifice they made, our world is changed forever. And for that sacrifice, for this gift, we pause to remember the price they paid, and to give thanks.
So today we gather to give thanks for the generous gifts that have been given to us. We pause to remember the terrible price so many people have had to endure because of war. We pray for the innocent lives that have been lost, and for the lives that have been changed forever because of these ongoing conflicts. We remember, so we can learn to avoid making the same mistakes a second time. We give thanks for their faithful example that teaches us the importance of perseverance as we seek to be generous souls. For by our simple acts of selfless generosity the glory of God’s redeeming love is revealed for all to see.
For their sacrifice, which was their generous gift to future generations, we say a heartfelt “Thank You”, and “Amen”.
