Gallery
WITNEY SERVICE OF REMEMBRANCE
Timings
10am – Road closures take effect
10:45am – Cadets and local organisations march to War Memorial
10:50am – Service takes place
11am – 2 minutes silence followed by laying of wreaths
11:30am – End of Service & groups to disperse followed by Church service at St. Mary’s
Any personal wreaths may be laid at the Memorial once the service has concluded.
Road closures to be lifted after Service – no later than 1pm
From around 10:30 am you will find members of Witney Town Council staff handing out Service Sheets at various points through Market Square, Buttercross and the roads leading to these.
We encourage you to share a copy, to support our efforts to use less paper. You will also see recycling points in which you can place your used printed service sheet.
Better still, you can access our Remembrance (this) page with its service sheet and other information via a QR code which will be displayed in and around the Market Square and Church Green and the approaching roads. The service information is also available on the Home Page of our website throughout the weekend.
Missing Children
Head to the Town Hall Undercroft
First Aid
Located at the Wetherspoon’s side of the Buttercross
THE SERVICE
HYMN
O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home;
Under the shadow of your throne
your saints have dwelt secure.
Sufficient is your arm alone,
and our defence is sure.
Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received its frame,
from everlasting you are God,
to endless years the same.
A thousand ages in your sight
are like an evening gone,
short as the watch that ends the night
before the rising sun.
O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
still be our guard while troubles last,
and our eternal home.
ACT OF REMEMBRANCE
A Minister says:
Let us remember before God, and commend to his sure keeping
Those who have died for their country in war;
Those whom we know, and whose memory we treasure:
And all who have lived and died in the service of mankind.
A Member of the Royal British Legion says:
“They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them”
And all shall repeat:
“We will remember them”
THE LAST POST is sounded
Here follows THE TWO MINUTE SILENCE
REVEILLE is sounded
A Member of the Royal British Legion says:
“When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today”.
A Minister says:
Almighty and eternal God from whose love in Christ we cannot be parted, either by death or life,
Hear our prayers and thanksgivings for all whom we remember this day, fulfil in them the purpose of your love, and bring us all, with them, to your eternal joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
THE LORD’S PRAYER:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever, Amen.
THE OFFICIAL WREATHS WILL BE PLACED ON THE WAR MEMORIAL
A respectful silence is requested during the laying of the wreaths, thank you.
Please note: The service does not change from year to year, though the wreath laying information may differ from the order listed
HYMN
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done, in whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next.
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
BLESSING
A Minister says:
God grant to the living, grace;
to the departed, rest;
to the Church, the King, the Commonwealth, and all mankind,
peace and concord,
and to us and all his servants, life everlasting,
and the blessing of God almighty
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always.
Amen
THE NATIONAL ANTHEM (1ST Verse)
The Remembrance Service is Organised by Witney Town Council.
Please join the Town Mayor for the Civic Service at St Mary’s Church immediately following the service of Remembrance
Your Guide
Fallen servicemen and women who paid the ultimate price in conflicts across the globe will be remembered on Remembrance Sunday, with a Service at the War Memorial on Church Green and afterwards at a Church Service at St Mary’s Church, Church Green.
The Remembrance Day Memorial Service is organised by the Witney Town Council.
From 10am onwards groups and organisations gather around the market square and form up into their groups.
As people gather, Ministers and congregation from St Mary’s join the others at the War Memorial. A short service follows which includes The Last Post, followed by 2 minutes silence and then the Reveille.
The wreath laying element of the Act of Remembrance then takes place. The names of the wreath layers will be announced by pupils from Henry Box and Wood Green School and the wreath laying is being coordinated by leaders of Witney’s Army and Air Cadets.
The closing prayers and the National Anthem draw the service at the memorial to a close.
Many individuals, groups and organisations will continue on to take part in the Civic Service afterwards at St Mary’s Church, at which all are welcome.
OTHER INFORMATION
There is a First Aid point alongside the Buttercross and Lost Children point beneath the Town Hall.
Alternative bus stops can be found outside the Methodist Church in High Street and in Welch Way for the period that the road closures are in place.
