Thank you for these reflections and images, and for the poignant letter and story from WW2 which brings alive what we are remembering on Sunday in the UK.
Thank you, Mark. Yes, it is moving to read Alan's letter, knowing that just a few days later he went missing.
As part of my research I have traced family trees of many of the Sisters and supporters. There is a grim familiarity surrounding the findings I have made about families based in the UK - time and time again I get to the generations that were of 'fighting' age during WWI and WWII and I know that there will be casualities - very few families were spared.
I went to the US national WWI museum with Cabot Sweeney whilst I was in Kansas City. And it is an excellent museum. How pleased I would be if we could say to the children of today, 'We only find war in museums today because as a human race we have turned our backs on that way of being!'
Well, I am back here quicker than I expected. I was reading one of Adela Curtis' published works from the late 1930s, not expecting to see anything related to your question, Mark, but there it was. She is commenting on a book in the bible: Jeremiah chapter 23, verses 5 -8, which talks about God bringing the House of Israel back to their land from exile. Adela Curtis argues, 'Today that Work is appearing before our eyes: for we are living in the very age foretold by Jeremiah as "the days to come"'. She usually saw situations in black and white and this was no different. For her, therefore, the land belongs to the Jews alone and that position should be the one adopted by the British Government in her day. This is not a position I hold - for me the goal is for everyone who lives in that land to live in peace and safety.
Some of you may be interested that in the late 1930s, Adela Curtis was writing and publishing a series of Studies in the 'Collect, Epistle and Gospel for each Sunday in the Year...' For those unfamiliar with Church of England terminology, the Collect is a special prayer written for a particular Sunday, the Epistle is usually a passage from one of the New Testament letters, but some Sundays would have an Old Testament reading set instead and the Gospel reading was chosen from one of the four gospels in the New Testament. These prayers and readings from the bible can be found in the old Book of Common Prayer, which dates originally from the 1660s but is still in use in some churches. Adela Curtis published her studies in 14 parts and I was reading from part 7, in which the Epistle set for the Sunday just before Advent was in fact the passage noted above from the prophet Jeremiah. Her comments came on p11.
Thank you for these reflections and images, and for the poignant letter and story from WW2 which brings alive what we are remembering on Sunday in the UK.
Thank you, Mark. Yes, it is moving to read Alan's letter, knowing that just a few days later he went missing.
As part of my research I have traced family trees of many of the Sisters and supporters. There is a grim familiarity surrounding the findings I have made about families based in the UK - time and time again I get to the generations that were of 'fighting' age during WWI and WWII and I know that there will be casualities - very few families were spared.
I went to the US national WWI museum with Cabot Sweeney whilst I was in Kansas City. And it is an excellent museum. How pleased I would be if we could say to the children of today, 'We only find war in museums today because as a human race we have turned our backs on that way of being!'
Yes, alas, war is not yet confined to the museum.
In the light of the current conflict, I wonder if Adela Curtis had views on jewish-christian relations and the founding of Israel?
That is an interesting question Mark and I don't know the answer as yet. I will post a further response here if and when I discover anything.
Well, I am back here quicker than I expected. I was reading one of Adela Curtis' published works from the late 1930s, not expecting to see anything related to your question, Mark, but there it was. She is commenting on a book in the bible: Jeremiah chapter 23, verses 5 -8, which talks about God bringing the House of Israel back to their land from exile. Adela Curtis argues, 'Today that Work is appearing before our eyes: for we are living in the very age foretold by Jeremiah as "the days to come"'. She usually saw situations in black and white and this was no different. For her, therefore, the land belongs to the Jews alone and that position should be the one adopted by the British Government in her day. This is not a position I hold - for me the goal is for everyone who lives in that land to live in peace and safety.
Some of you may be interested that in the late 1930s, Adela Curtis was writing and publishing a series of Studies in the 'Collect, Epistle and Gospel for each Sunday in the Year...' For those unfamiliar with Church of England terminology, the Collect is a special prayer written for a particular Sunday, the Epistle is usually a passage from one of the New Testament letters, but some Sundays would have an Old Testament reading set instead and the Gospel reading was chosen from one of the four gospels in the New Testament. These prayers and readings from the bible can be found in the old Book of Common Prayer, which dates originally from the 1660s but is still in use in some churches. Adela Curtis published her studies in 14 parts and I was reading from part 7, in which the Epistle set for the Sunday just before Advent was in fact the passage noted above from the prophet Jeremiah. Her comments came on p11.