Blessed are the Peacemakers

Being part of a nonconformist church, we don't have the parades and so on - though our minister's sons were doing their bit (trumpet and bagpipes respectively) in other places and we did observe the two minutes silence - so anyway, we went straight to Sutton's main square to see the ceremony after our service had finished. The young female cadet in the photo had been trembling and crying with cold before being allowed to march off, poor girl.

Our minister did, however, preach a powerful sermon on - contrary to what the new atheists say - how opposed to war God is and how, in his kingdom, there will be no war - Psalm 46:9, for instance:

He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.

And therefore, how we also need to be peacemakers wherever we are - if we learn the art of peace in our individual lives, we will carry that over into our national lives. Thought-provoking words.