From the archive: Christmas in wartime
Janet Scott selects some extracts from issues of the Friend published over the Christmas and New Year period of 1914-15
The war had not finished by Christmas, as some had optimistically predicted, and its impact was being widely felt. It would be some years before Christmas was again a season of peace.
Scarborough
‘Friends gathered for worship at Scarborough on Sunday morning under a solemn sense of fellowship in the sorrow which had come to the town as the result of the bombardment by German warships. Three of those who have often met with them were lying in hospitals suffering from wounds caused by the bursting of shells. The meeting-house was not damaged, but within a stone’s throw were many buildings which had suffered severely from the effects of the firing. Many families in the town were mourning the loss of loved ones who had been taken suddenly from them, and whilst the meeting was sitting there were being landed in the harbour men who had just been injured by the explosion of a mine which they were seeking to remove in order to prevent further loss of life. Very early in the meeting the note of thankfulness was sounded for the protection granted to so many in time of danger, and earnest prayer was offered that those in pain and sorrow might know the healing power of Divine love…
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