CAIRO EVENSONG

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 102, 1 May 1943, Page 6

CAIRO EVENSONG

A GENERAL'S MESSAGE

Referring to General Montgomery's dramatic appearance at Easter services in Cairo, the Rev. G. W. Hunt, Knox Church. Miramar, forwards a letter from "a distinguished general on active service in the Middle East to his wife in' England," reprinted, by. the British Ministry of Information from the "Salisbury Diocesan Gazette." Mr. Hunt comments:— ■ "It comes to us at a fitting time when the leaders of the Christian Church are calling our people to •prayer on Sunday, May 2. Readers of this letter •nay draw their own conclusions as to the writer of it. Whether it is General Montgomery or another general it greatly adds to our faith and confidence in our leaders, and our own assurance in a victory that must be based on those spiritual factors which so many of our leaders humbly and prayerfully recognise." The general's letter gives a vivid impression of evensong, in Cairo Cathedral and his firm belief, "when all this war madness is, over," there must be a mighty co-operative, effort. •'The Church is the only co-operative body of us all that can lead and do and act. If we don't, what is the good of Dunkirk? What is the good of Singapore, of Hong Kong, of Crete, of Greece, of our Western Desert here, of all the grand work done and doing?"' • •'Something to remember." writes the 'general. "All Saints' Cathedral, Cairo. Sunday evening.; September 6, 1942. The Cathedral quite full; perhaps 700 soldiers and airmen, with about 60 women, mostly Army hospital nurses, Q.A.1.M.N.5.. and V.A.D.s, and all singing, fit to raise the roof, Church Hymnal 202—last two lines:— 'O God, to us may grace be given i To follow in their train.' "You .iust couldn't help being moved to be up and doing—'to follow in their train.' "I wrote the above last night when I got back, with the vivid impression still on me. I don't think I am an emotional type, but these crowded services in the Cathedral here get me. All this mass of men there, I think, as much as anything, because it gives them a feeling of nearness or link with their own home. They are, every one of them, taking part in the service. The acoustics are bad, but the clergy are good; the reading is excellent, the whole service is a corporate effort of everyone. The Bishop catches them and holds them. "Over it all there is a feeling of genuine, wholesome religion; a getting together with God, and with Him and through Him getting in touch with home. Out here somewhere — four of us from our little Wiltshire village, perhaps others from the parish I don't know about. All just doing pur bit, and all on Sunday night thinking, I'm sure, of our homes. And that Cathedral service, just one magnificent wholehearted prayer from all of the 700 of us for our families at home. It was all alive, all true, all wonderful. Why shouldn't the home village service be the same? It can be. it should, it must be. Out here the Church is giving the lead and delivering the goods. The whole lot of us feeling it, meaning it. doing it, loving it. Trying like mad to'follow in their train.'Now. if ever, the whole body of the Church just must get together—man, woman, parson, child—the whole village, the whole of England, and realise what a mighty co-operative effort is needed from the whole lot of us, if this world of ours is to be a decent world for us all when all this war madness is over. "The Church is the only co-opera-tive body of us all that can lead and do and act. If we don't, what is the good of Dunkirk? What is the good of Singapore, of Hong Kong, of Crete, of Greece, of our Western Desert here, of all the grand work done and doing? It is all good, every bit of it, every day of it, every man. woman, and child in it. "But there must be a great co-opera-tive effort—all of us together, just as we 700 were all together last night in the Cathedral, together in the desert, ! together at Dunkirk, at Singapore, all day and night on the seas of the world, on land, and in the air. I know God is with us in all this. We've been given the lead all right by those who have gone before — ~ 'O God. to us may grace be given, 1 To follow in their train.' t "Give this to the padre' and tell him to put it across. My ■ message to the village at horne —with the Church, and through the Church 'to follow in their j train.' "'