Page 6 - BNVTA News November 2020

4
campaign Summer 2020
Why remember?
In the past thirty or so years, Remembrance has become steadily more important in our national life. As memories of the two World Wars began to fade, for understandable reasons, people thought it better to forget the horrors of war and ‘move on’.
The Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan, together with modern media coverage of those and other conflicts, have brought sharp awareness of the realities of warfare to new generations.
Add to this, significant anniversaries - the centenary of the end of the First World War, the seventy-fifth of the end of the Second - and it is not surprising that there has been a change of mood.
November 11th, even when it falls on a working day, is much more often observed these days, and Remembrance Sunday is marked by people of all ages up and down the country.
This is as it should be. In an age when war is glamorized in the cinema and home ‘entertainment’, we do well to reflect on the reality of combat, and the cost paid by our servicemen and women in notorious and lesser conflicts. Those who have served in the armed forces assist this process by sharing their own memories and handing them on.
This story-telling has always been at the heart of our Association since
its formation, because the costliness of injury and illness, ‘attributable to service’, has so often been denied or belittled. Our members, their widows and their descendants, know better. It is why the present Medal campaign really matters....
For the Nuclear community, Remembrance is especially important, as fewer people are aware of the service given, and its dreadful consequences in the later lives of many Veterans and their children and grandchildren.
During my thirty plus years as your Chaplain, the Association has weathered many storms. Today, sadly, is no exception; but the one feature that unites all our people
- if you like, the common factor - is our obligation to Remember.
It has been my privilege to Dedicate almost all the BNTVA Memorials the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, which are listed in this Magazine. Those Dedications have all been deeply moving occasions, and in every case, civic and political representatives and community leaders have said ‘Why didn’t we
know about this?’ Memorials matter, because to remember is to pay tribute. As we look at our Memorials, and ‘remember our remembering’, may we be led to make fresh efforts on behalf of the living; may we come together to tell the story of the Tests in fresh and new ways; and, with God’s help, may we strive for a more just, inclusive and caring society. Those who have gone before us would expect nothing less.
With my heartfelt prayers for all our people, for the whole Community of Atomic Veterans throughout the world, and especially for all for whom the legacy of the Tests is a painful and ever-present reality.
If any members would like to be in contact, an email to info@bntva.com will find its way to me.
With all good wishes
Very Rev. Nicholas Frayling KStJ BNTVA Chaplain