UNITED NATIONS DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 137, 12 June 1942, Page 3

UNITED NATIONS DAY

OBSERVANCE BY THE CHURCHES

Churches in New Zealand will observe Sunday as" United Nations Flag Day as requested by President Roosevelt. The following prayer for the United ■ Nations,: composed by Stephen ViH&nt ~Behet; will"' fee read throughout the Allied countries:

"God of the free, we pledge our hearts arid lives today to the caus* of all free mankind. Grant us victory over the tyrarits who would enslave" all free men and nations. Grant us faith and understanding to cherish allthose who fight for freedom as if they were our brothers. Grant us brotherhood in hope and union not only for the space of this bittar war* but for the days.to come .wlv.ch shall and must unite rail the children o± earth. Ow earth is but a small star in the greit universe, yet of it we can make if we choose a planet unvexed by war.j untroubled by hunger or fear, undivided by senseless distinctions of race, colour, or theory. Grant us the courage and foreseeing to begin this task today that our children and our children's children may be proud of the name of man. The spirit of man has awakened and the soul of man has gone forth. Grant us the wisdom and the vision to comprehend the greatness of man's spirit that suffers and endures so hugely for a goal beyond his own brief span. Grant us honour for our dead who died in the faith, honour for our living who work and strive for the faith, redemption and security for all captive lands and peoples. Grant us patience with the deluded and pity for the betrayed and grant us the skill and the valour that shall cleanse the world of oppression and the old base doctrine that the strong must eat the weak because they are strong. Yet most of all grant us brotherhood not only for this day but for all our years, a brotherhood not of words but of acts and deeds. We are ill of us children of earth. Grant us that simple knowledge—if our brothers are oppressed then we are oppressed, if they hunger we hunger, if their freedom is taken away our freedom is not secure. Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace, that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security and equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best, not only, in our own lands, but throughout the world. And in that faith let us march toward the clean world our hands can make. Amen." ' ~. , , The text of the prayer is published for the information of churches desiring to use it. Those churches which do not propose to use the actual prayer will adopt prayers appropriate to the occasion. '