Page 7 - Moravian Messenger November 2019

1919. Even before the war ended plans were afoot for war memorials across the country. Villages, towns and cities with individual companies started to raise monuments to the fallen. We hope it gave some connection to those at home who were unable to visit the graves of those buried in locations across the world.
Class distinctions can be seen with the great and good of the locality unveiling the local memorials in many cases. Manchester was one notable exception. There the memorial was jointly un- veiled by the Earl of Derby who had devised one of the schemes for compulsory enlistment necessary to fill the ranks of Britain's first citizen army. He was joined by Mrs Dingle from the city's working-class district of Ancoats who had lost three sons in the war. What different thoughts must have gone through their minds during that ceremony. Most carried the names of the dead with some recording social distinctions with the local gentry etc. listed first.
This thankfully never occurred on the monuments in France. Most are recorded in alphabetical order while some are listed under street names, a relic of the sacrifice of the famous Pal's battalions. A mute concentration of grief and remembrance in the tight working-class industrial communities they came from.
As the remnants of the war continued how could William and Mary Begley of 23 Upper Dorset Street in Dublin explain to their neighbours that their son Henry of the Connaught Rangers had died in Siberia. The result of a bungled attempt by the politicians to intervene in the Russian Revolution, despite the carnage that had gone on for the previous four years, cost them his life along with 6,000 other officers and men. Now largely forgotten it must have been hard for Mr and Mrs Begley to remember his death as anything other than a tragic waste. Private A Tong of the Middlesex Regiment perhaps lived on in the memory of his family but all that remains to show he ever lived is his name on a plaque in the Russian Naval Cemetery at Churkin.
We gratefully remember the men and women who have died but perhaps we should also think of those who were left to mourn. Did Private Begley live on in the thoughts of his mother, his father and his siblings until they too passed away or is he still recorded in a faded photograph that no one can now identify. Just part of the dust of history.
From the 'Roll of the Drum' - F B Wells 1916:
He sleeps; he only sleeps
God be her trust
Her Hope and comforter
To ease the burden of the years Assuage the grief and pain ,
of her silent tears, Until they meet again.
Br Henry Wilson
Ballinderry
© University of Minnesota Institute of Advanced Studies
Germany - Thirty Years On
Around mid-day on 10th October 1989, we received a telephone call. Two Moravian friends from West Berlin were in London for a short visit and wondered if they could come and see us that evening. 'We'd be delighted, and you'll be able to give us a first- hand account of what has been happening in Berlin.' Their reply was puzzled, and it soon became clear that in spite of having left home, a stone's throw from the Wall, less than 24 hours before, they had no idea that the Wall had come down. So later that evening we sat together watching TV and shared their excitement as thousands of Berliners, East and West enjoyed 'the biggest street party ever'! A night to be remembered!
Life changed that day and has never been quite the same since - for better or for worse. For the British Province I suspect that there has been less knowledge of and connection with the Continental and Czech Provinces than there was during the time of the Wall and the Iron Curtain. At that time the British Church tried in whatever way it could to support and keep in touch with our brothers and sisters in Continental Europe, not just at the 'official' level but through ordinary members.
For many years, the Moravian Women's Association invited a sister from East Germany or Czechoslovakia to its Annual Meeting and arranged for the sister to visit a number of congregations and interesting places. Friendships were formed that have lasted to the present. Ministers from these areas were invited to the British Ministers' Conference. Coach tours were arranged to give British Moravians a chance to visit Moravian sites behind the Curtain. Through these and other ways, contact was strengthened, and many British Moravians became more aware of their continental brothers and sisters than they ever
had been.
Sadly, I don't think that has continued since the Wall came down. There has been some contact among the young people and some group and personal visits but I suspect this interest has not touched the whole Province. A recent letter from the British Province PEC, written against the background of Brexit, reminds us of our oneness in Christ as set out in the Ground of the Unity and adds 'This affirmation . applies to our relationships with all the provinces and particularly, at this time, to the Czech Provinces and to the European
Continental Province.' Perhaps this 30th Anniversary will give an opportunity to renew our fellowship with sisters and brothers across the channel and in that renewing to find renewed vision for our own province.
Br Fred Linyard
Ockbrook
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