Controversy now surrounds the upcoming Veteran’s Day parade and service at Mike Miller Park in Marshall County.
The Marshall County Veteran’s Support Group announced last month that they were planning the first ever Veteran’s Day parade to be held here locally. An annual memorial service has taken place in the past to honor and celebrate the veterans at the Veterans Honor Plaza at Mike Miller Park, the group hoped to grow the event by adding a parade to further honor those who have served their country. The ceremony has traditionally been held at 11:00am on November 11 each year to honor the time and date of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I.
This year, however, November 11th falls on a Sunday. Some members of the community feel that a parade and service should not be held on a Sunday morning during the time that is set aside by Christians to attend church services.
Pastor Tommy Miles of Calvery Baptist Church in Gilbertsville says the event should not be held on a Sunday morning “We’ve come down to the commands in scripture to honor God first. We are thankful for our veterans and want to honor them but we must honor God first.”
The Veterans Support Group parade contact, Richard Sullivan, explains the group’s stance on the timing of the event “We had a very long discussion, we discussed the fact that it’s during the normal church service time and that a lot of people who might want to go wouldn’t because of church. But this is the 100th anniversary of the signing of the armistice and it’s been the tradition since 1919 to have a solemn and serious ceremony at 11 regardless of the day. In a November 15, 1971 Tribune Courier article they even encouraged that this be considered a public church service and so we were looking along those lines that churches could come to the ceremony or along the parade route and then conduct a public church service.”
Pastor Miles responded to the rationale and logic of the planning “While I understand the significance of the 11:00 hour, I still go back to the idea of what is the priority? If we look away this time because it’s a situation that we agree with… what are we going to do next time? It’s the principle of we’re going to put God first and stand on the scripture and not forsake the assembling of ourselves together”.
Mr. Sullivan says the group would invite churches to come be a part of the parade and ceremony and hold their service publicly along the parade route if they choose to and that the groups intent was not to make anyone choose between church and the festivities.
“God is always first in all of our minds, we’re all Christians. This is not going to be some joyous… let’s go out and have fun… let’s go shopping and see what kind of sales we can get… we would rather have somebody attend church rather than skip church and use this as an excuse to have a good time. This is a solemn respectful thing to remember those that have given their time.” Sullivan said.
“In a perfect world I would prefer them to change the day, however, I would be pleased if they just held it at a different time not during normal service hours. That’s our goal. We’ve talked about the possibility of offering an alternative for veterans who prefer to honor God first. Our church is discussing the possibilities. But we want to give them the opportunity to make a decision about what they want to do and then we’ll respond to that.” Pastor Miles added.
The Marshall County Veteran’s Support Group meets on Tuesday afternoons and it is expected that this subject will be discussed further in this week’s meeting. As of right now, the parade line up is scheduled to begin at 8:30 AM on Sunday morning November 11 with the ceremony starting at 11:00 AM at Veteran’s Memorial Plaza at Mike Miller Park.