Central East Region of the UUA
Central East Region of the UUA
https://www.uua.org/worship/words/time-all-ages/honoring-fallen-soldiers
By Erika A. Hewitt, Paul S Sawyer
Think of where you feel safe and at peace. Whatβs the signal that tells you itβs okay to be at peace?
For people in the United States military, thereβs a special signal that says βyouβre okay, and youβre at peace.β It's a melody called "Taps," and it's only 24 notes long. It was composed by a general in the Civil War and his bugler.
Itβs hard to remember how important bugle calls were in the military once upon a time. In the days before radio, bugle calls were the only way military units could communicate to groups over a large area.
In the 1860s, the end of the day was important. If there was time and peace enough to play Taps, that was a signal that the camp was relatively safe. It meant that you were not under attack. It meant that there were no enemy soldiers to worry about.
To a camp of soldiers, the notes of Taps meant that, unless you were on duty, you could close your eyes and sleep in peace.
They say that the first time Taps was played at a service for fallen soldiers also took place during the Civil War. In those days, the traditional military salute was, as it still is, the firing of a three-round volley of rifles. But this one time, they say, was after a long battle, when finally a cease-fire had been called, and both sides had stopped to bury their dead.
In one camp, as the work ended and the memorial service began to take shape, the soldiers knew that sounding the artillery salute might be taken as a return to fighting, and not as a sacred memorial. Someone had the idea of sounding a bugle, and that sound would never be taken as an aggressive act of war.
Taps came to mean the same thing. It meant the safe and quiet end to the day, time to rest, time to turn the lights out, to let their eyes close, and as best they could, to be at peace.
Thatβs what Taps means: it's like a powerful prayer.
We try to make our congregations places where people can feel safe and at peace. We work outside of these walls to create a community like that, too: a world where everyone feels at peace in their neighborhoods and towns.
This week, many people in the U.S. are remembering and honoring all those who have died while serving in our military... so you might hear Taps again. If you do, maybe you can stop what you're doing and think of every soldier who might have been afraid, and then let Taps remind you that they're now at peace.
Karen Hutt
,Lauren Wyeth
,Jen Crow
We can build on our traditions to keep pushing our boundaries.
"Remembering the Future"
Sunday, May 29, 10:50 am, Worship Service Livestream
War continues to rage in the Ukraine and elsewhere, and, on top of everything else we are facing, nuclear Armageddon increasingly feels like a realistic fear. Memorial Day was started as Decoration Day to honor Union soldiers who died in the Civil War, through drawing upon memorial traditions in both the North and South. On this Memorial Day weekend, let us meditate on past, present, and future war. What does it mean to remember the dead while continuing a global practice that guarantees more dead to remember in the future?
Rev. Millie Phillips, Guest Minister; Mari Magaloni, Worship Associate; Richard Fey, Song Leader; Reiko Oda Lane, Organist
Jonathan Silk, Communications Director; Joe Chapot, Live Chat Moderator; Remigio Flood, Sexton; Kelvin Jones, Sexton; Carrie Steere-Salazar, Flowers; Linda Messner, Head Usher; Ralph Fenn, Les James, Tom Brookshire, Zoom Coffee Hour