One of the first major changes I made when I became OC was removing the requirement for all cadets to attend church after our parade and remembrance service.
We now say that if cadets want to attend then they are absolutely free to do so, but as individuals with their parents and not as part of our event.
That still means we have a vicar lead our remembrance and have associated hymns and prayers which I personally disagree with, but it is better than being forced to sit and endure a 45 minute church service.
The same would apply for anyone who wanted to go to a Muslim, or Jewish, or Hindu, or Sikh service after the parade and I think that meets the needs of everyone better.
To add - i did that because as a cadet, i didn’t get the choice and was forced every year to go in and sit in church despite it being of no interest to me.
This also raises the very valid concern of ATC Sunday.
I have yet to tackle this one (easier to just let it slide by unnoticed), but that entire thing is currently a church service, and so I think I’ll be challenging it, especially as I saw a recent job advert mandating (or strongly encouraging) attendance at such church parades.
The day commemorating the formation of our shared organisation should not be, in any way, linked to a religious service or religious leader.
Slight tangent, but it’s clearly related if being logically consistent.
The whole “event” ends when i dismiss the squadron from the parade. Parents meet us there and collect the cadets, or the cadets walk back to the squadron if they want to be collected from there (along with staff who have parked there).
The RAFAC part effectively ends at the dismissal of the sqn. What people do from then on is their own choice and responsibility of their parents.
To add - we have a banner form part of the route in to church but once the main people are in they come back to us rather than following in to the church. Obviously if they wanted to go in they’d give the banner to someone else and go in with their parents.
We are a reasonable sized town, and get a pretty good contingent of regulars (who all go in to church it seems). We don’t line routes or anything like that and the parade has to be held in the town square rather than at/in the church/war memorial (which is outside church grounds anyway) because of the space required.
Walk in a controlled, cadet-like bimble, 5 minutes to the memorial park, form up parade, service, lay wreathes…
The sqn marches through the town to the church.
Fall out into church. Our cadets routw line the paths.
45-60 minute service.
Cadets reform, route lining paths.
Then walk, in a controlled, cadet-like bimble, 5 minutes back to the squadron, where the cadets are collected.
So if cadets dont want to do the service, what do you do? Dismiss straight to parents? Have a staff member supervise them for 45 minutes? Escort those cadets back to the sqn?
They tried that one year… the old n bold werent happy…
Our sister town (where half the sqn parades) does service first, parade 2nd.
The memorial is one side of town, crossing the river via a bridge, through the high street, past the kebab house (an important sqn landmark for supplying those late night staff meetings), further down the road, over the river again, to the church…
I’d suggest the Act of Remembrance needs to be first and religious services in places of worship after: otherwise co-ordinating timings so that the various denominations and faiths arrive at the war memorial at the same time (factoring in different travel times, depending on distance, etc.) would be difficult.
Based on this description it sounds like you just need to bin off the last route lining after the church service and you can dismiss the cadets after the parade, before they go into the church.
You could even still line the path as people go into the church, just make sure the cadets don’t go in.
I think there’s a really delicate balance to be found between creating a space where people don’t feel pressure to conform to implied expectations (ie “I have to go to the church service because it’s expected or proper”) and yet not putting any barriers in place or making it more difficult for those who want to attend a religious service from doing so.
That’s why I favour a clear separation between the two events without physically leading everyone to the door of the religious service.