St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne
Anzac Day, 25 April 2017: Truly, we will remember them (pdf supplied by Rev. John H. Smith).
The order of service is headed, ‘An Ecumenical Service of Lament, Repentance and Hope for the Centenary of the First World War, especially in 1917, the Battle of Passchendaele, those who said no to war, the Aboriginal wars’. Reverend Smith has worked with an inter-church group that, since Anzac Day 2015, has been organising an Ecumenical Service in St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne.
‘The aim of the service’, says Reverend Smith, ‘is to remember the Great War truly and honestly, in the hope that it may contribute to a change in the narrative that currently holds sway over Anzac in the public realm. The service includes poetry, and stories about the reality of the battles, those who opposed the war, and the forgotten Aboriginal Wars.’
Read the complete order of service. A video of the service.
St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, 1935 (Culture Victoria/SLV)
Tyne Cot cemetery, Belgium, c. 1919 (The Sun)