05.12.2012
Second annual Christmas Truce lecture to be delivered by Bishop Geoffrey Rowell
All Hallows College in conjunction with the Church of St John the Baptist, Church Avenue, Drumcondra, will host the second annual Christmas Truce lecture on Saturday 8th December at 3pm. The talk will be delivered by Bishop Geoffrey Rowell, representing the Archbishop of Canterbury, who will give the perspective of the Church of England to the truce and the commemorations of World War I as the 100th anniversary of the beginning of this ‘War to End All Wars’ approaches.
The First World War lasted four years. It consumed the lives of an estimated 18 million people. Yet, there was one day, Christmas Day 1914, when the madness stopped and a brief peace, inspired by the Christmas story, broke out along the Western Front.
As night enveloped an unusually still and silent Christmas Eve, German soldiers lit candles and started singing “Stille Nacht” – Silent Night. Troops on both sides gradually came out of their trenches and eventually met at the heart of No Man’s Land, surrounded by their fallen comrades. They shook hands and agreed a truce the following day. Shortly after dawn on Christmas morning they met again, exchanging food and drinks, swapped cap badges and buttons, posed for photographs and showed one another pictures of their families and loved ones.
The story of the 1914 Christmas Truce has captured the imagination of people across the world for almost 100 years. It is not simply a story for Christmas, but a story that touches people wherever and whenever they hear it, irrespective of the season.
The Christmas Truce project is a concept by journalist and All Hallows collaborator, Don Mullan. Don has identified projects across sporting, musical, cultural and spiritual themes to collaboratively remember the 1914 Christmas truce and establish a way of commemorating a story that touches people everywhere and which has the seeds of optimism and inspiration that our world so desperately needs today.
“… a moment of humanity in a time of carnage… what must be the most extraordinary celebration of Christmas since those notable goings–on in Bethlehem.”
– Piers Brendon, British Historian