Transcripts For CSPAN3 FDR Churchill New Years 1942 Church Service 20171220

Tell you about wednesday night. There will be more American History tv in primetime with a focus on the legacy of the nations 35th president , john f. Kennedy. That begins at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. 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 worshiped together that day in George Washingtons hometown church. American history tv visited christchurch in alexandria, virginia to hear the story. Hi. Im john lawson. Im the former senior warden here at Christ Church in alexandria, virginia. With me is the rector, the reverend noelle york simmons. The story that i will describe today to me is really a lesson in leadership from from perhaps the greatest leaders in the 20th century, president franklin d. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. These are leaders that were willing to commit their country to a long bloody conflict in the name of freedom, to support the freedom and independence of their own homelands but to support freedom and democracy for other people around the world. They combined that with a deep humility. They believed that our countries had to be worthy spiritually and morally of the victory they were asking god to grant us. So on january 1st, 1942, our 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 conflict. 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 lessons for us today. Churchill had crossed the atlantic for the second time. This was a very dangerous crossing. The atlantic was infested with uboats that were 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 aims and they agreed on what became the atlantic charter, and the freedoms that 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 staffs conferred on strategy for the war. America was in the war by this time. It was just a couple of 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 materiel and men to europe or the pacific or north africa. And 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 the commemoration of the national day of prayer. Churchills granddaughter celia sandys 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 on many levels. The church was packed. A lot of secret service were in the church. Troops in steel helmets with bayonets ringed the church. They sang four hymns. One of which was the battle hymn of the republic. Churchill had never heard this hymn before, and the rector reports that 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 rector at the time, reverend edward wells, was known for his antiisolationist views. And he gave a very powerful sermon that was very fitting for the day, and this 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 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 to 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 possessions, but we balk at the International Responsibility which those privileges impose. Thanks to the foresight of our president , we are not entirely unprepared in a military way for this war. But spiritually, we are 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 wehrmacht, 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 hms prince of wales. Roosevelt and churchill were both anglicans. Roosevelt belonged to the Episcopal Church. Churchill the church of england. The Episcopal 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 the 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 hms 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 battleship on the 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 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. Its 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. 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 streets 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 battle hymn of the republic. And so 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 about it 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. Of course that never happened. The relationship between those two men is famous. They met many times. I feel in a way 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 angloamerican relations. I think the importance for us today is to really remember and understand what that kind of leadership looked like. You had president s willing to do their duty. They knew what they were asking their countries to do in terms of sacrifice. 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. So they humbly asked god that