Armistice Day 2020: 'We need silence now more than ever' - Leeds Reverend Canon Sam Corley

Well moments of peace and calm are certainly special aren’t they.

But silence can also be many other things. It can be uncomfortable at times when it allows things we would rather avoid to bubble up to the surface.

It can be difficult too: it is sometimes hard to concentrate and our minds wander to thinking about all kinds of trivial stuff.

Silence can also be dangerous when we are threatened or forced to maintain it against our will, and we can cause harm if we keep silent when we should be speaking out in defence of others or ourselves.

Silence might well be golden, but it can also be complex.

No wonder there is a trend towards clapping and cheering for two minutes as a way of honouring people and things we value. It is much easier to make noise than to be silent.

One of the things that silence does is it reminds us that there are some things in the world that are bigger than us.

That helps to put things in the right order and the right perspective.

And as we are part of observing two minutes of silence, so we are reminded that we are not alone; we see and feel the presence of others alongside us doing the same thing.

We find ourselves united with people who are like us and people who are very different to us and we discover that, deep down, however we express it, we are all longing for the same kind of things – peace, love, security.

Justice, freedom, a future. And silence does not stop there. It also gives us the courage and resolve to make sacrifices, as others who have gone before us have done in the past, to defend and secure those things.

So in a time of real challenge and uncertainty we perhaps need silence more than ever.

As we are reminded that there is much in the world that is bigger than us, we need to be reminded of the presence of others alongside us and to be given renewed strength to undertake all that is being asked of us.

We need the gifts of silence.

When it works like that, silence really is golden.