Transcripts For CSPAN3 FDR Churchill New Years 1942 Church Service 20171219

Cable or satellite provider. President franklin d. Roosevelt proclaimed a national day of prayer for january 1st, 1942, following the japanese attack on pearl harbor. Fdr and british Prime Minister Winston Churchill worshipped together that day in George Washingtons hometown church. American history tv visited Christ Church in alexandria, virginia, to hear the story. Hi. Im john lawson. Of the former senior warden here at Christ Church in alexandria, virginia. With me is our rector. The story that i will describe today, to me, is really a lesson in leadership, from perhaps the greatest leaders of the 20th century, president Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. These are men who are willing to commit their countries to a long, bloody conflict in the name of freedom, to support the freedom and independence of their own homeland, but to support freedom and democracy for other people around the world. They combine that with a deep humility. They believe that our countries had to be worthy spiritually and morally, of the victories they were asking god to grant us. So on january 1st, 1942, president roosevelt and mrs. Roosevelt came here to Christ Church with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, lord halifax, the British Ambassador and lady halifax, and others in their party to commemorate what roosevelt had called for the national day of prayer. And they prayed for three things. They prayed for strength in the coming conflicts. They prayed for a just peace. And above all, they prayed for forgiveness of our national sins. So that we would be worthy of the victory they were asking god to grant us. And that combination of the willingness to commit military power in the name of freedom and also the humility to know that we cant prevail with military strength alone is really the trait of these two great leaders that i think has legend for us today. They had crossed the atlantic for the second time, this was a very dangerous crossing. The atlantic was infested with uboats taking a tremendous toll on allied shipping. He came here in the previous august, in 1941. He met roosevelt secretly off the coast of newfoundland. And even though america was not yet in the war at that time, they discussed war and they agreed on what became the Atlantic Charter and the freedoms we wanted for the world if the democracies prevailed. Churchill came back a few days, he landed in virginia. A few days before christmas, 1941. And he and roosevelt and their combined military staff conferred on strategy for the war. America was in the war by this time. It was a couple weeks after pearl harbor. And there was a lot to discuss. We had the same goals, but there were tremendous questions about allocation of supplies and material and men to europe and africa. So they had a lot of work to do, but roosevelt and churchill got along famously. After christmas, churchill took special train to canada, gave a famous speech to the Canadian Parliament in ottawa. He came back on the overnight train on new years eve, and the next morning, he gets off at union station, goes to the white house, where roosevelt had arranged for him and mrs. Roosevelt and their party to come here, to Christ Church, for a commemoration of the national day of prayer. Churchills granddaughter wrote a book about churchills travels, and she said it would be hard to find a more evocative setting for this service because this was the home of george washington. Its a beautiful setting and a sacred space. And so they sat here in the washington family pew and the service was special at many levels. The church was packed. A lot of secret service were in the church. Troops in steel helmets with bayonets rang the church. They sang for him one of the was the battle hymn of the republic. Churchill had never heard this before, and the director reports as he sang it, tears were streaming down his face. Unashamedly at the beauty of it. In fact, churchill picked that to be one of the hymns at his own funeral years later, which he said was in honor of his american mother. The service was not about nonviolence. It was about the war and winning the war. And above all, it was a service of humility and asking god to forgive americas sins. This was roosevelts goal. He had in his proclamation for the national day of prayer, had described that goal for the day. And so thats what they did. And the director at the time, the reverend edward wells, was known for his antiisolationist views. And he gave a very powerful sermon that was very fitting for the day. The sermon was reprinted in magazines and newspapers around the country, excerpts of it, and it was put into congressional record, and reverend simmons is going to read excerpts from that. From pardon, power, and peace, by the reverend wells. Our president has appointed this first day of 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration for the tasks of the present, of asking gods help in days to come. We are to pray for three gifts from god. Pardon, power, and peace. Pardon for past shortcomings. Power for the present task of achieving victory. And peace, enduring peace, by gods help in days to come. He continues. By far our greatest sin as a nation is the sin of international irresponsibility. We want our country and our people to have power and prestige, pleasures and poti possessions, but we balk at the responsibility those privileges impose. Thanks to the foresight of our president , were not entirely unprepared in a military way for this war, but spiritually, were in bad shape. Pearl harbor resulted in a new National Unity based on resentment. But that is not enough. We must have a deep spiritual unity that will make us ready, even eager, to sacrifice our material goods and when necessary, even life itself for the moral principles for which this war is being fought. I think its important to recall the historic and emotional setting for this service. This was the winter of disaster, it came to be known as. Not only was pearl harbor attacked, there was carnage in the north atlantic. Great britain had held on by the skin of its teeth. The japanese were conquering bases, american and british and dutch bases throughout the far west, throughout east asia. And the german army had reached the gates of moscow. And if they had succeeded in taking the soviet union out of the war, it would have taken a tremendous counterweight to hitler and the german army out of europe, which would have been very bad news. On top of it, making it even more poignant for roosevelt and churchill, when churchill came the first time, in that august off the coast of newfoundland, he arranged a very bright but solemn Anglican Service on the deck of prince of wales. Roosevelt and churchill were both anglicans. The church had split off from the church of england after the american revolution, but the liturgy and the hymns are very similar. So they had this very emotional service, uplifting service on the deck of prince of wales that august. Well, not only were all these bases falling, and not only was the carnage in the north atlantic continuing, but prince of wales itself had been sunk just three days after pearl harbor. It was the first time that air power alone had sunk a capital battleship on the open ocean, and over 300 of the same men that roosevelt and churchill had worshipped with that august had died when that ship went down. So it was it was a time of tremendous stress, but the faith that was exhibited that day was remarkable. And im sure it had a lot to do with the morale and unity that america and the british people had throughout the war. Very interesting the way that the service was handled by the church itself. The secret service had asked that there not be publicity about the visit in advance, so the vestry and the rector, the vestry is the board of trustees, they delegated a group of men to go out in the predawn hours of that sunday morning with special passes. We actually have one of these in the church archives. And people could present this and be admitted to the church. I think no more than 220 parishioners were admitted. The rest were secret service. And so it was these people were called modern day paul reveres by the daily press that covered this event. So it was a major day for the church and alexandria. Word did get out, and the street were lined with citizens as well as soldiers. After the service, the leaders went down to mt. Vernon, and churchill laid a wreath at the tomb of george and mrs. Washington. That itself was a symbol of reconciliation from the revolutionary war, but it was remarkable that during the service, the rector wells had asked the congregation to sing the battlehymn of the republic. Because the need for unification during that, from that war, it was time for us all to come together. So they left mt. Vernon in the rain, in the cold rain. They came back to washington. They stopped at the lincoln memorial. And went back to the white house where churchill was staying. And that evening, they were joined by the ambassadors of the soviet union and china to sign the first declaration of the united nations. And churchill was amazed that his friend Franklin Roosevelt had persuaded the soviet ambassador to sign a document that called for freedom of religion. And he jokingly said to roosevelt afterwards, if you lose reelection in 1944, ill ask the king to make you the archbishop of canterbury. And of course, that never happened. So the relationship between those two men is famous. They met many times. But i feel in a way that this special service they had at the beginning of our involvement in the war calling for gods forgiveness and for his blessing really set a tone for Anglo American relationships. I think the important thing today is really to remember and understand what that kind of leadership looked like. You had president s who were willing to do their duty. They knew what they were asking their countries to do in terms of sacrifice. But they understood it had to be done. At the same time, they had the humility to understand that it was not entirely in their hands. It was not purely a question of military and economic strength. It was also a matter of spiritual and moral strength. And so they humbly asked god that day to bless our countries and make us worthy of the victory we were asking god to give us. Were live on capitol hill this afternoon, as House Administration is meeting to consider a bill that would require each house member and employee to complete a workplace rights and responsibilities Training Program during each session of congress. The measure is designed to prevent sexual harassment. We do expect this to get under way in just a moment live here on cspan3