Ritual and remembrance: the Church of Scotland and national services of thanksgiving and remembrance after four wars in the twentieth century

Abstract

Over recent years scholars have become increasingly interested in the nature and development of the rituals of remembrance after war. Little research, however, has been conducted into these matters in relation to Scotland, and the Church of Scotland in particular, and this thesis attempts to fill this gap.

During the course of the twentieth century the people of Scotland have on many occasions been united in a bond of bereavement after war as they grieved for their dead and sought to come to terms with their losses. The principal objective of this thesis is to assess the extent to which the national services of thanksgiving and remembrance after four major wars - the First World War, the Second World War, the Falklands War and the Gulf War - served to meet the needs of the Scottish people.

In order to achieve this each of the four national services have been examined in turn, focusing firstly on the ritual context, then the ritual act and finally the functions of the ritual. In this way it is hoped that the extent to which the services were able to give comfort to the bereaved will be illustrated, and that some insights will also be given into the development of remembrance rituals in Scotland during the twentieth century.

Research has shown that in the services after the First and Second World Wars the political function of the ritual was dominant, but that in the services after the Falkland and Gulf Wars the pastoral function was prevalent. In this sense it can be argued that the national services have increasingly come to meet the needs of the Scottish people.