As Remembrance Day approaches, we pause to remember those who gave their lives and those who are serving to protect the peace from war we now experience.
Dr. Gord Heath writes on the role of the church during the First World War and the lessons learned in subsequent war times in his article published on the Canadian Baptist History Society website.
Photo Credit: John Steadman
“The guns went silent on the Western Front on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.
The cost of the long and torturous war was atrocious. Never before had there been a bloodbath like the First World War…
Such sacrifices needed to be remembered, and remembered they were through a massive post-war building project of memorials and cenotaphs (over 100,000 in the UK alone), posting of remembrance rolls, as well in church and public services on 11 November. This year marks the centenary of what we today call Remembrance Day,2 and it is a good time to be reminded that the “church learned a lesson” from its First World War (1914–1918) experience.”
Dr. Gord Heath is the Professor of Christian History at MDC since 2004 and holds the Centenary Chair in World Christianity. He also serves as Director of the Canadian Baptist Archives, the official archives of the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (CBOQ) and as Secretary for the Canadian Baptist Historical Society (CBHS).