Bill Rusin, Principal
This week we will participate in the Remembrance Day service in Kurrajong. This event is arranged by the Kurrajong District War Memorial Club at Kurrajong Memorial Park.
We are so pleased to be able to contribute to this event, giving our students the opportunity to engage with the wider community and serve them through reading, laying a wreath, and playing the bugle.
Kurrajong District War Memorial Club has kindly provided the bugle for the school, and lessons for our bugler so that we can serve in this important way into the future.
Remembering the past is important in the life of any society, if for no other reason than to avoid repeating mistakes. However, honouring the sacrifice of those who died for the betterment of others is a privilege.
The commemorative address for this event reads:
At 11am on 11 November, 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous war. The allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months. In November the Germans called for a suspension of fighting, in order to secure a peace settlement. They then accepted the allied terms for an unconditional surrender.
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month attained special significance in the post-war years. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who died in the war. The first modern world conflict had brought about the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between nine and thirteen million of them dead. As many as one third of them have no known grave.
This explains the gravity of the saying “Lest We Forget”. We pray that our children and our children’s children will understand this well.
We are also reminded of the One who gave His life for the forgiveness of sins, for those who put their trust in Him. May we also say of this sacrifice, “Lest We Forget”.