By Andrew Wade on 13th November 2018
Hundreds have visited an installation of silhouettes of fallen British soldiers linked to Leigh Road Baptist Church (LRBC). The stories of these serviceman has been on display for visitors from the community at the home of Leigh Road Baptist Church, Leigh-on-Sea from Saturday 10th to Wednesday 14th November.
The ‘There But Not There’ installation was part of the centenary commemoration of the end of the 1914-1918 First World War and the exhibition at the church surrounding this was curated to give opportunity to educate, commemorate and heal.
LRBC joined thousands of other locations to place representative figures for every name on local war memorials around the country, into their place of worship, their school, their workplace or wherever their absence was keenly felt.
As well as the transparent silhouettes, poetry, sound effects of war, WW1 artefacts and lighting were used to help transport visitors to the battlefields where such sacrifices were made. Visitors were also introduced to those from the church that lost their lives through photography and stories of their lives including family, work and church life in interactive displays. Tours were also available for those that wanted to go deeper into the history and lives from volunteer researcher and church member Trevor Pawsey who lost his own Grandfather at Ypres, Belgium in WW1.
Rev Andrew Cowley, Minister at LRBC commented, “There but not there was a highly interactive and accessible instillation that really brought home some of the realities of the effects of WW1 on our community. It caused me to reflect on the words of Jesus of Nazareth “Greater love has no one than this, than one lay down their life for their friends”.
The installation formed part of a Service of Remembrance on Sunday 11th November, which saw a packed occasion where young and old remembered together with a live big screen link to the Cenotaph, London where 2 minutes silence was held.
The installation runs until Wednesday 14th at Leigh Road Baptist Church, Marguerite Drive, Leigh-on-Sea.
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