Holocaust Memorial Service, Sunday 30 January 2022

by Ian Trimnell · 30 January 2022

Led by Revd Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga

Please note that the video feed will go live from around 9:50 am and will be switched off after the service.
A separate video feed of the choir is available here.

Gathering Music

Welcome

Opening Prayer

God who knows us,
who never forgets us, we thank you that, when you ‘remember’ us,
you gaze on us in a way that makes new worlds possible.

Help us to remember the horrors others have faced and face.
Help us to remember the people we’d rather forget.
Help us to remember the dark corners of our own lives,
for you transfigure everything, bringing light and life.

Amen

Hymn: Immortal, invisible

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes;
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light;
now wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might –
thy justice like mountains high-soaring above
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all life thou givest, to both great and small;
in all life thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree,
and wither and perish; but naught changeth thee.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all laud we would render: O help us to see
’tis only the splendour of light hideth thee.

W. Chalmers Smith (1825–1908)
CCL31580

A small station of Treblinka

Here is the small station of Treblinka.
Here is the small station of Treblinka.
On the line between Tluszcz and Warszawa.
From the railway station Warsaw – East
you get out of the station and travel straight.
The journey lasts
five hours and 45 minutes more.
And sometimes the same journey lasts
a whole life until your death.
And the station is very small;
three fir trees grow there
and a regular signboard saying,
Here is the small station of Treblinka …
here is the small station of Treblinka … .
And no cashier even.
Gone is the cargo man
and for a million zloty
you will not get a return ticket.
And nobody waits for you in the station,
and nobody waves a handkerchief towards you.
Only silence hung there in the air
to welcome you in the blind wilderness.
And silent is the pillar of the station,
and silent are the three fir trees,
and silent is the blackboard,
because here is the small station of Treblinka …
here is the small station of Treblinka … .
And only a commercial board stands still:
‘Cook only by gas’.
Here is the small station of Treblinka …
here is the small station of Treblinka … .

Władysław Szlengel
Translated from Polish to Hebrew by Halina Birenbaum
and from Hebrew to English by Ada Holtzman

Prayer of the Week

Lord God and Father,
we remember before you all those who bear the inner and outer scars
of the Holocaust and of subsequent acts of genocide.
Let them not be overwhelmed by the horrors that engulfed them.
Be close to them.

Help them to see that you suffer with those who suffer,
and that no wickedness can ever extinguish your infinite love.
Restrain those who are filled with hatred and use violence to pursue their ends.
Change their hearts.

May remembrance make us alert to the reality of evil and its deceptive allure.
Help us
to recognise our own capacity for evil, and allow your Spirit to purge it from our beings.

Help us
to stand up against evil and oppression, even if that means we have to suffer ourselves.

Enable us to defend those who are not strong enough to defend themselves,
and to be ready to bring the light of your truth into the dark areas of human experience.

Deepen our respect for everything you have made,
and help us to share in securing the maximum good of every person who is alive in your world.

We ask this in the name of your Son Jesus Christ,
who died for our sins, carries our sorrows,
heals our wounds, and is risen for our freedom.

Amen

Ministry of the Word

Psalm 71: 1–6

¹ In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
² In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;
turn your ear to me and save me.
³ Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
⁴ Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.

⁵ For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord,
my confidence since my youth.
⁶ From my birth I have relied on you;
you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.
I will ever praise you.

NIV®

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Choral song

Luke 4: 21–30

²¹ He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’

²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. ‘Isn’t this Joseph’s son?’ they asked.

²³ Jesus said to them, ‘Surely you will quote this proverb to me: “Physician, heal yourself!” And you will tell me, “Do here in your home town what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.” ’

²⁴ ‘Truly I tell you,’ he continued, ‘no prophet is accepted in his home town. ²⁵ I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. ²⁶ Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷ And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed – only Naaman the Syrian.’

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

NIV®

This is the Gospel of Christ.
Praise to Christ our light.

Never Shall I Forget that Night

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp,
that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw
transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith for ever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God
and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.

Elie Wiesel

Hymn: When I needed a neighbour

When I needed a neighbour, were you there, were you there?
When I needed a neighbour, were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter;
were you there?

I was hungry and thirsty, were you there, were you there?
I was hungry and thirsty, were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter;
were you there?

I was cold, I was naked, were you there, were you there?
I was cold, I was naked, were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter;
were you there?

When I needed a shelter, were you there, were you there?
When I needed a shelter, were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter;
were you there?

When I needed a healer, were you there, were you there?
When I needed a healer, were you there?
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter;
were you there?

Wherever you travel, I’ll be there, I’ll be there.
Wherever you travel, I’ll be there.
And the creed and the colour and the name won’t matter;
I’ll be there.

Sydney Carter (1915–2004)
CCL31580

Shema

You who live secure
In your warm houses,
Who return at evening to find
Hot food and friendly faces:
Consider whether this is a man,
Who labours in the mud
Who knows no peace
Who fights for a crust of bread
Who dies at a yes or a no.
Consider whether this is a woman,
Without hair or name
With no more strength to remember
Eyes empty and womb cold
As a frog in winter.

Consider that this has been:
I commend these words to you.
Engrave them on your hearts
When you are in your house,
when you walk on your way,
When you go to bed, when you rise.
Repeat them to your children.
Or may your house crumble,
Disease render you powerless,
Your offspring avert their faces from you.

Primo Levi (1919–1987)

Act of Commemoration

We light this candle in memory of all people, each known to you by name,
who perished as a result of human action.
We light it as a sign of our determination to dispel darkness wherever we may find it
and of our commitment to live for the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Amen

Choral song

Prayers and Intercessions

Led by Robin Kyd

Eternal God, bless your Church,
always at risk of forgetting its true vocation, and turning inward in conflict and fear.
Guide all who guide us
and the prophets you send on and beyond the margins of the Church.