Community members gathered at Nanaimo's downtown cenotaph to remember the sacrifices of war and pray for peace.
A Remembrance Day ceremony was held Monday, Nov. 11, at Dallas Square Park.
After a parade to the cenotaph, there was a program led by master of ceremonies Ian Thorpe, and the anthems of both Canada and the United States were performed by Samantha Cashmore and the Nanaimo Concert Band. The ceremony included a gun salute at 11 a.m. sharp by the 5th B.C. Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, followed by the Last Post by bugler David Bamford, two minutes of silence, and then a lament by pipe major William Alderson.
Archdeacon Brian Evans, who led the day's prayers, said 30 years ago the number of veterans at the ceremony filled a city block.
"It's an offering of thanks given that for the last number of years we've not had a major armed conflict … or a major theatre of war that our country has been involved with, at the same time recognizing recent conflicts in the likes of Afghanistan and other parts of the world," he said.
He acknowledged the Scouts and Guides participating in the ceremony who are several generations removed from world wars, but there nevertheless to meet veterans and take on responsibility for remembrance.
"We pray that we may carry the torch, the torch that has been entrusted to us, so that their sacrifice will not be forgotten until all the peace-loving people of our world, in all purposes of life, will defend those freedoms and principles … for which these valiant hearts lived and died," Evans said. "Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me."
