Armistice 2018 – How Birmingham will Remember

Special services and events at Birmingham Cathedral to remember the fallen.

The area surrounding Birmingham Cathedral (St Philip’s) on Colmore Row will fall silent at 11am on Sunday 11 November as part of a day of remembrance.

Birmingham will remember the fallen with an Armed Forces parade including ex-service personnel and regular, reserve and cadet units. From 10.55am a service will begin on Colmore Row with the Lord Mayor of Birmingham Yvonne Mosquito and Chaplain Reverend Monsignor Canon Robert Corrigan.

More about how other cathedrals will be commemorating Armistice this year.

A two-minute silence will be observed at 11am, after which wreaths will be laid at the Cenotaph by representatives from the Armed Forces, veterans and dignitaries. The service will finish with a march past at 11.40am.

The Dean of Birmingham, The Very Reverend Matt is leading the cathedral’s programme of services and events to mark Armistice 2018 and the Centenary of the end of World War One. The programme includes:

• A WW1 commemorative candle being lit every day since 8 August to remember WW1 and launch the Royal British Legion’s Thank You campaign.
• A concert featuring Farewell Songs on Saturday 10 November at 7.30pm. Come and enjoy music by Parry and remember those who fought and supported the nation during WW1. The rest of the concert is Remembrance-tide music by Victoria, Tomkins, Schutz, Bainton and Brahms.
• A lone piper in Cathedral Square at 6am playing to commemorate the signing of the armistice – Battle’s Over – Sleep in peace, now the battle’s over. The sound of 1,000 bagpipes will fill the air before dawn has broken on 11th November 2018. In cities and towns throughout the land individual pipers will play Battle’s O’er – a traditional air played by pipers after a battle. Heralding the start of the day’s commemorations, they will play the haunting tune outside churches and cathedrals, in market squares and muddy fields, on hilltops and high streets, in valleys and village greens throughout the United Kingdom
• A Choral Eucharist Service at 9.30am on Sunday 11 November inside the cathedral with Reverend Canon Nigel Hand preaching.
• A Choral Evensong Service at 3.30pm on Sunday 11 November inside the cathedral
• The cathedral bellringing team will ring out for peace at 12.30pm and also at 7.05pm on Sunday 11 November as part of a national Battle’s Over – Ringing out for peace! Bells in 1,000 churches and cathedrals will ring out in celebration of the end of the First World War. Many people in Britain live within hearing of church bells, which call congregations to prayer and mark special occasions. But the sound of mighty bells, some of which are hundreds of years old, also provides a stirring soundtrack to historic events.
• The ringing of bells to celebrate the end of the Great War is being organised in association with the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, the representative body for groups who ring bells in the English tradition with rope and wheel. It was founded in 1891 and represents 65 affiliated societies of local ringers from all over the British Isles and many other countries from Australasia to North America to Africa.

The stirring sound of church and cathedral bells will provide a fitting conclusion to a day of contemplation, commemoration and, ultimately, celebration as our country and other nations reflect on events a century ago on the battlefields of Europe and at home in our factories and farms.

Everyone is invited to join us at any or all of our commemorative services and events listed above. You are welcome to spend as little or as much time as you wish, light a candle, sit in quiet reflection or just be here, our doors are open.