Bilston Church Remembers! (Remembrance Day)
Many of us of Jamaican heritage don't share the ravages of war as those native to the UK. Yet even so, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, a spiritual family that share in the lost and pain of each other and that includes the heritage of the great wars, of those who suffered. Has such, has seventh day Adventist, our heritage has a Church, an organised denomination, suffered too. In ways too terrible to talk about by some, on both sides; the allies and the Germans. Pain and sorrows still very much alive even today.
This year marks the century of the Great War. A hundred years (1914-2014). Each year we remember those who served and died as a result of that brutal shedding of innocence, lost youth and blood. Each year we honour the solders that lived and died in the trenches of the western front of Europe.
Yet as it is, no one mentions the fact that there were actually Seventh - day Adventist who were caught up in this global conflict. Many fighting a battle of conscience as to whether to serve King and country or the King of Heaven. Many on both sides of the war decided to follow their personal convictions.
A hundred and thirty men, Seventh-day Adventist everyone of them became conscientious objectors in the conscription draft of 1914. These men spent the war in prisons in the Uk and France, where they suffered from grievous injuries inflicted by their own country men, some even died due to injuries suffered. Of these men, some became eventual leaders of the English conference, such as W. W. Armstrong and H. W. Lowe, both becoming British Union Presidents.
The courage of these men were noted by all. Due to the fact that Seventh-day Adventism was only a decade old in Britain, with a membership of little more than two and half thousand at the time of the war, the Adventist church was not recognised as a Church. The government showed no sympathy for the Church. It was a religion imported from "over there" (the United States), its members are of the working class and as such they were to do as they were told.
This was the attitude of those who came across the men who stood up for their beliefs and would not work on the Sabbath or bear arms. They were brutalised, in many cases, even tortured in prisons such as Dartmore and the prison camps in France.
It is commonly known among historians that it is the victors that write history. So it's unsurprising that little is known of how Seventh-day Adventist in Germany suffered for their beliefs during the war. It is certain that there was a difference in opinions on the matter of bearing arms and keeping the Sabbath that lead to the split of the Adventist Church in Germany. One that is still in the process of healing today.
The thoughts of this weekend should be for the brave sacrifices of the many men and women who served and protected the freedoms we hold dear today. Without a doubt for some the sacrifice was complete - death in prison or on the battlefield. Some may argue that death comes to us all, but in no way like what these young men faced:
With the furious sound of a fright train from the heavens, the artillery came and left little or nothing behind to identify its victims,
The piecing pain of rifle fire,
Or the ripping roar of machine gun fire,
Or the howling horrifying shut of gas, just before the sudden immersion into complete agony,
Or the excruciating pain of bones broken by constant beatings and the scorn of cowardice from loved ones and our own countrymen.
For the pioneers of our faith who stood for their beliefs has modern Davids in the crucible of the western front or the home front of towns, villages or prisons such as Dartmore; they defined what Seventh - day Adventist should be today. To the men and women who served so that we are free today. A heritage shared by a spiritual multicultural family. A family determined to remember their sacrifices. We should all remember them.
Written by E. Vickers
Updated 14 November 2014
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Website last update: 21 November 2014 18:50
