I know the Corona virus has curtailed the
marking of VE day, but I was rather disappointed to see no mention of God at
all at the national commemoration on Friday.
That is in stark contrast to the original VE
day when both Churchill and the King made reference to thankfulness to God.
In fact, on 8th May 1945, when the
Prime Minister made a short speech in the House of Commons announcing Victory and
then he said:
“[Mr Speaker,] Sir, with your permission to
move 'That this House do now attend at the church of St. Margaret, Westminster,
to give humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God for our deliverance from the
threat of German domination.'”
Likewise George VI began his VE day broadcast
to the Nation by saying:
“Today
we give thanks to Almighty God for a great deliverance. Speaking from our
Empire’s oldest capital city, war-battered but never for one moment daunted or
dismayed – speaking from London, I ask you to join with me in that act of
thanksgiving.”
And he concluded:
“There is
great comfort in the thought that the years of darkness and danger in which the
children of our country have grown up are over and, please God, for ever. We
shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if
the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace, founded on
justice and established in good will. To that, then, let us turn our thoughts
on this day of just triumph and proud sorrow; and then take up our work again,
resolved as a people to do nothing unworthy of those who died for us and to
make the world such a world as they would have desired, for their children and
for ours. This is task to which now honour binds us. In the hour of danger we
humbly committed our cause into the Hand of God, and He has been our Strength
and Shield. Let us thank Him for His mercies, and in this hour of Victory
commit ourselves and our new task to the guidance of that same strong Hand.”
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