DAY OF PRAYER

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22043, 16 August 1941, Page 4

DAY OF PRAYER

Sunday, September 7

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 15. The Governor-General (Sir Cyril Newall) has received the following message from the private secretary to the King:— “The King desires that Sunday, September 7, being the Sunday following the second anniversary of the outbreak of war, should be observed as a national day of prayer.”

A cable message from London says that referring to the King’s desire tnat Sunday, September 7, tjhould be observed as a national day of prayer in Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr.-Cosmo Gordon Lang) writes that it will have a ready response from his people. “It is only right that the nation should humbly acknowledge its dependence on God and commit its cause to the Judge of ail the earth on the Sunday immediately following the second anniversary day When it entered the greatest crisis in its long history. As the third year of the war begins there is much for which we have reason to give thanks. There is a special call to remember in prayer the armies and people of Russia in their heroic resistance to the military might of Germany, and the new and grave anxieties which are rising in the Near and Far East. We know not what trials or dangers may be coming. Pray we, therefore, for courage to meet them and strength to overcome them. So far as the Church of England is concerned, it is not proposed to issue any new forms of prayer. Clergy already have copies of the forms issued for May 26, 1940, and March 23, 1941. These may still be used, adapted to the needs and circumstances of their several congregations. A desire sometimes has been expressed for some short simple form for use on special occasions other than the customary services of the Church, but no one form can meet the very varied circumstances of such occasions. There is room here for exercise by the clergy of their own initiative ahd discretion, subject to the sanct’ n of their Bishops. It is to be hoped that those who are responsible locally for the arrangement of working factories and workshops and for the tfaining of the Home Guard and other branches of civilian service may make it possible for all on this Sunday to join in the united national act of remembrance of God, and of prayer for help and strength in the great struggle.”