Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 20, 1982
PAGE 10
claim him as an asset for one nation or group rather than�
other,"he said. •.•
By this point several members of the Cabinet were looking less
inspired. Irritation flickered on certain faces.•.when he [the
Archbishop) equated bereaved in Britain and in Argentina•.•.on
the Services' side of the aisle, Rear Admiral Woodward [commander
of the Falklands task force] stared impassively forward at the
magnificent gold lectern for much of the sermon.
The July 27 TIMES of London report on the same service added some other
interesting points:
Both the style of the service and the tone of the sermon preached
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie, discouraged
any spirit of rejoicing. Mrs. Margaret Thatcher is known to have
objected to some of the ideas for the service first put around by
the Dean of St. Paul's,•••Alan Webster, such as the Lord's prayer
in Spanish.
In the event, her objection was met in the letter but not the
spirit, for the final third of the service concentrated on the
theme of peace and reconciliation, with prayers written by Dr.
Kenneth Greet, secretary of the Methodist Conference. He never
made any secret that he was appalled by the sending of the task
force to the South Atlantic. He asked the congregation to thank
God for the contemporary peace movements, and to supply the will
to fight against poverty and disease "instead of against each
other."
Another of Dean Webster's original ideas, that the Pope's Coven
try sermon on peace and reconciliation should be printed in the
order of service, also disappeared in the course of negotiation
between church and state. It, too, was not lost entirely; the
archbishop quoted the nub of it, calling it "particularly memor
able."
The service itself was the most ecumenical national religious
event that has been held. In addition to Dr. Greet, [Roman Cath
olic] Cardinal Hume had been invited to lead the congregation
with prayers of his own composition on remembering the dead.
The point about ecumenism is a very important one, since the Church of Eng
land has been cozying up to Rome for a number of years, culminating in Pope
John Paul II's visit this spring. An ecumenically-oriented church could
hardly be expected to offer praise for victory over an overwhelmingly Roman
Catholic nation such as Argentina.
The lead article (editorial) in the next day's TIMES generally approved of
the service, and its attempt (obviously successful) to separate the Church
and its contemporary views on war, the "brotherhood of man," etc. from the
goals of the state and of any particular political party in power. Not all
"letters to the editor" agreed however. A reader from Edinburgh responded
two days later:
Sir, So the nation is ashamed to thank God for victorv in the
Falklands War, the prayers were"""'"written s'c,"as"to be able�o be