On 30 May, the Central Committee and Holy Trinity Brussels were delighted to host this year's annual Belgian Ministry of Defence interconvictional ceremony for veterans. This year, the Belgian Ministry of Defence invited their British counterparts to celebrate the Invictus Games at which both countries participate Invictus Games. The four chaplaincies of the Belgian Service d'Assistance Religieuse et Morale (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Secularist) together with the four new chaplaincies in the process of being recognised (Anglican, Orthodox, Muslim and Buddhist) played a full role in the ceremony. The Chaplain-President gave the welcome. General Régis Bornain, Director-General of Health and Well-being in the Belgian armed forces, introduced the ceremony. Air Vice Marshal Giles Legood, Archdeacon for the Royal Air Force (and long ago a university chaplaincy colleague of the Chaplain-President) spoke on behalf of the British armed forces. Eric Sibomana, Project Manager for the future Anglican Military Chaplaincy, preached. Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Founder of Invictus, gave an excellent speech by videolink. There was beautiful music. The main part of the ceremony was given to the Belgian and British veterans themselves, who spoke movingly of their experiences of injury and of how Invictus had been an important part of their ongoing recovery. Two veterans with disabilities showed their skills on rowing machines, to thunderous applause. The ceremony was followed by a delicious high tea provided by the HTB Community Kitchen, who prepared the tea on top of their normal quota of 1,000 meals per day for the refugees of Brussels.
The Chaplain-President and Secretary-General were delighted to end the day by accepting an invitation to dinner from the British and Belgian delegations.
Our special thanks and admiration go to the veterans who spoke or performed: Vincent Vanpuyenbroek, Jean-Bernard Mathieu, Jean-Christophe Génicot, Stef Wolput, Stacey Denyer, Peter Saunders and Thierry Dutrieux, and thanks too to Stacey and Peter for their kind present to the Central Committee of an Invictus UK team medal, which we will treasure. God bless you all.
