There were many heros on both sides of the Norwegian-Swedish border during the second World War.
Men such as John Mulholland, James McAra Davidsson, John Pearl and Duncan Anthony Connolly, people who were prepared to sacrifice their lives.
Today, as we mark the sacrifice made by Mulholland, Davidsson, Pearl and Connolly we should remember this sacrifice was so that we could live in a democracy with extensive civil rights.
It is particularly meaningful for me as a vicar to preside over this memorial service, because my paternal Grandfather, Gustav, served just a few hundred metres from here, as a reserve soldier with hundreds of young men enlisted from all over Sweden. Prepared to defend the same values as Mulholland, Davidsson, Pearl and Connolly. All no doubt in the belief that they would soon again return home to their wives, children and parents, to familiar streets and to be surrounded by familiar sounds.
But that was not to be the fate of your relatives and friends. They never made it home.
In my work as a vicar I hear stories of bravery and courage on both sides of the border. Of people who risked their lives to organise the movement of refugees. Of members of the resistance who set ambushes for the occupying forces.
Standing here today we may think that everyone would have taken a stand against the occupying forces. But during the Second World War and the occupation of Norway this was not a certainty. To oppose the enemy meant risking one’s life. But one had to take a conscious stand.
Many military analysts believe that had it not been for the Norwegian Resistance Movement and their three attacks which prevented the Germans obtaining heavy water, and thereby the nuclear bomb, the war would have ended very differently.
All these men and women who risked their own lives, have secured for us democracy and freedom, and among them Mulholland, Davidsson, Pearl and Connolly paid the highest price.
And so it can happen, as it did here at Lake Röjden, the life that was planned is shattered, but life must go on, leaving someone without a husband or a father. A child who loses a father bears that scar throughout their life. Even subsequent generations, several of whom are here today, experience the loss of an important person. You may never have met the man in question, but there is still a feeling of loss, a void that can never be filled.
And this void has a price. And the price is called loss. And loss brings with it a challenge – because I believe that in your life story there is an opportunity to be a father figure – whether biologically or symbolically among your fellow human beings.
My Grandfather Gustav also died as a result of the war. He developed pneumonia just a few hundred metres from here in the winter of 1944. In spite of all efforts he died of complications associated with the sickness.
The future, like it was for your relations and friends, took a completely different turn.
The loss of a father affects many families deeply. And I know from my father’s experience how lonely it is to grow up without a father. How abandoned one feels, how different and vulnerable.
I believe that the best and most worthwhile thing that someone who has experienced this loss can do, is to ensure that this feeling of loss and vulnerability is not transmitted to subsequent generations, or transferred into other aspects of our lives.
If we can´t transform the loss and the pain into kindness and compassion, than it has been in vain.
Jesus teaches us to do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
This begs the question ”how do I want to be treated”?
Of course I want to be seen as the person I really am. I want to be respected and taken seriously. We live in a time when the need for courage and integrity is tremendous. Young people particularly need adult role models who take life and its challenges seriously.
The forests of Värmland are a source of inspiration for both courage and leadership, which every adult generation should pass on to the next generation.
Whatever the outcome, we, like those who have gone before us, must be prepared to stand up for the ideals of freedom, participation and democracy.
It is not without reason that the Christian church, throughout the centuries, has been attacked by world leaders who want to create dictatorships.
Jesus adheres to and inspires a way of life that no dictator could ever overpower, a freedom of spirit and soul. And a promise of closeness and guidance whatever lies in store for us. Whenever we experience difficulties Jesus our Lord is always there, close to each and every one of us, taking our hand and leading us forward to the kingdom of love, caring and closeness.
This was captured by David in psalm 23 when he wrote :
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Speech held by Vicar Johan Bonander at the memorial service at the lake Röjden, 10th May 2014.