Our gathering was, of course, on Remembrance
Sunday. We opened lighting our chalice
candle to the words of Dulce et Decorum
est by Wilfred Owen, followed by a moment of silence. Later, while we lit our candles of concern
and intent, we would recall those individuals in our own lives who had served
during such difficult times.
Our silent ritual of sharing led into our theme of the
day. The president for the day had
chosen the theme “The Journey of Truth”. We heard a reading from John Henry Newman's Grammar of Assent, a seminal work on the
philosophy of faith, and William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116. The president
drew out reflective thoughts from all present on how Truth is like Love. And the summing up was that we can grow
closer together or grow further apart. But staying still is not an option.
SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/116.html
