On the first day of Term 2, Monday 30th April, RPCS will commemorate Anzac Day. This year Anzac Day occurrs during the school holidays but it is considered appropriate and worthwhile to gather as a school community to reflect on the events that are remembered annually around Australia on Anzac Day. In 2015 Australians marked the 100th anniversary of the first Anzac Day, the landing at Gallipoli on 25th April 1915. Since then the focus of Anzac commemorations has increasingly been towards remembering involvement on the Western Front during World War One. Indeed, later this year the 100th anniversary of the end of that war will be marked on Remembrance Day, November 11th.
As a result it is important to realise that Anzac Day does not only commemorate the service and sacrifice of so many Australians at Gallipoli, or even during WW1 alone, but rather the ongoing sacrifice ever since through World War Two, the Korean War, Vietnam War, and numerous peacekeeping missions in places such as East Timor, the Solomon Islands, Iraq and Afghanistan. Australian forces continue to serve in places of conflict, striving to bring an increase in peace and stability. We ought to remember them, and to pray in an ongoing manner for them. Well may we pray:
Eternal God, the only source of peace;
we pray for all who serve us in the defence forces of this land.
Give them courage and comfort in all dangers,
and help us we pray, to seek for all people
the freedom to serve you and each other in peace and justice.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
