Worship & war
Before this series signs off (next month, after four years; believe it or not, it replaced Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in the paper), and before postmodernism is eclipsed by something else, let's try out a bit of pm-ism here. That is, the text you are reading and singing from may sometimes be crucially defined by its context or its readers, whatever the author thought it meant.
For example, however you chose to remember September 11, November 11 still reverberates at least in the older national British consciousness. 'Armistice Day' may have been transferred to 'Remembrance Sunday', but it is 11/11 which defines the relevant religious observance-for some, the last surviving vestige of a liturgical year.
The choice of hymns, even by those who choose to ignore the silence, carries its own message to insiders and outsiders alike. Earlier this year, as Iraq appeared to explode in death and destruction, I found myself at a cathedral service where only one congregational hymn was sung. Argue about that if you like; the point is that someone (the Dean?) had chosen Henry Kirke White's words ('altd.' as ever), 'Oft in danger, oft in woe'.
