Deliverance from an Enemy, the Book of Common Prayer, and the 80th Anniversary of D-Day

The eve of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. I was seeking words from the Anglican tradition which would suggest something of the significance of the commemoration. (And how could a victory over dark, evil tyranny not have meaning for a Christianity mindful of the apostolic call to "lead a quiet and peaceable life"?) My thoughts turned to a funeral in the parish during the past year, of a wonderful old gentleman who was a junior officer on a ship of His Majesty's Navy off the coast of Normandy on 6th June 1944. Leading prayers at the funeral, and to recollect with gratitude his naval service in a time of war, I adapted one of the prayers "to be also used in his Majesty's Navy every day", from the Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea in the Church of Ireland BCP 1926 (the same as in BCP 1662 and PECUSA's BCP 1789; the Canadian BCP 1962 also contains 'Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea', retaining much of the 1662 material). It was a prayer this godly gentleman would have heard and used during his war time service, a prayer that almost certainly would have been offered on Royal Navy ships preparing to cross the channel in the early hours of 6th June 1944. And it was to this prayer that I returned on the eve of the 80th anniversary of D-Day:

Preserve us from the dangers of the sea, and from the violence of the enemy; that we may be a safeguard unto our most gracious Sovereign Lord, King CHARLES, and his Dominions, and a security for such as pass on the seas upon their lawful occasions; that the inhabitants of our Island may in peace and quietness serve thee our God ...

The morning of 6th June 2024. I sought for a form of prayer that would be appropriate to the day; prayers that would give appropriate expression to the deliverance achieved by Allied forces on D-Day. The prayer provided by the Church of England for the anniversary was, to be polite, rather lacklustre, devoid of any sense whatsoever of the existential significance of D-Day. In the Forms of Prayer for Use at Sea, however, there is a suitably solemn, meaningful short office for use 'After Victory or Deliverance from an Enemy'. 

It was an office deeply appropriate for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, an operation which was - in the words of the speech given by the King at the British Normandy Memorial, Ver-sur-Mer - the "vital start to the liberation of Europe". The office opens with 'A Psalm or Hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving after Victory'. Uttering these words, the images of the landing craft approaching the Normandy beaches inevitably came to mind:

Yea, the waters had drowned us, and the stream had gone over our soul : the deep waters of the proud had gone over our soul.

But praised be the Lord : who hath not given us over as a prey unto them.

The Lord hath wrought : a mighty salvation for us.

Then came the Te Deum, the traditional hymn of praise offered when deliverance from the enemy has been granted. We praise thee, O God. How could we not praise God for the success of D-Day, the beginning of the liberation of the peoples of Europe from an evil, vile tyranny?

The office then provides a collect in which "We bless and magnify thy great and glorious Name for this happy Victory", praying that from victory would come a just and good peace:

And, we beseech thee, give us grace to improve this great mercy to thy glory, the advancement of thy Gospel, the honour of our Sovereign, and, as much as in us lieth, to the good of all mankind. And, we beseech thee, give us such a sense of this great mercy, as may engage us to a true thankfulness, such as may appear in our lives by an humble, holy, and obedient walking before thee all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Here was a form of prayer and thanksgiving suitable for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. A short office, yes, but this itself reminded us of how it would have been prayed on ships of the Royal Navy off the coast of Normandy in June 1944. Above all, however, it had a reverence, gratitude, and depth of meaning which potently expressed the success of D-Day as a blessing, as 'deliverance' from a cruel tyranny.

Evensong on the 6th June 2024. I turned to the Prayers and Thanksgivings in the Church of Ireland BCP 1926, for a collect suitable for use in the occasional prayers on this commemoration. Here was to be found a 'Thanksgiving for Peace and Deliverance from Enemies', a slightly amended version of that found in 1662:

O Almighty God, who art a strong tower of defence unto thy servants against the face of their enemies; We yield thee praise and thanksgiving for our deliverance from those great and imminent dangers wherewith we were compassed, and for thy gracious gift of peace: We confess that it is of thy goodness alone that we have been preserved; and we beseech thee still to continue thy mercies towards us that we may always acknowledge thee as our Saviour and mighty Deliverer; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

'Our deliverance'. Yes, our deliverance. Those sailors, soldiers, and aviators who secured the beaches of Normandy for the Allied powers delivered us - the generations who followed them - from a dark, evil tyranny that cruelly, brutally scarred the soul of Europe. The victory of D-Day was indeed our deliverance. So at Evensong on 6th June 2024, thanksgiving was offered "for our deliverance from those great and imminent dangers wherewith we were compassed".

Will Yale, an Episcopalian who is a serving officer in the United States Navy, recently wrote of his use of the 1662 Form of Prayer to be Used at Sea:

I currently keep three prayer books onboard my ship - the Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer and 2008 A Prayer Book for the Armed Services, and IVP’s International Edition of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer - but I find myself turning to the 1662 BCP most often. In no small part this is because I am naturally attracted to the archaic vernacular. It is also true that the 1662 BCP provides resources peculiar to my profession not found in the 1979 BCP, or even the 1928 BCP. Towards the back of the 1662 BCP is a section entitled, “Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea.” The prayers, which supplement Morning and Evening Prayer, recognize the inherent danger of going out to sea.

He went on to point to the robust realism of the Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea, with the recognition of both "the contingency and frailty of life" and the judgement that - in the words of one of the prayers contained in the Forms - "when we have been safe, and seen all things quiet about us, we have forgot thee our God". Here is the significance of The Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea. They are not shaped by the delusions of the comfortable West at the end of the 20th century, as we celebrated 'the End of History'. Rather, these are prayers rooted in the uncertainties, anxieties, fears, and pains of a fallen world. 

In an age of ever-increasing material comfort for many of us in the developed world, too often we blanket ourselves in that false sense of safety as described by the author of this prayer. We attribute our wealth and success to our own efforts. Some techno-utopians even believe that humanity can save itself and defeat death. Not even a pandemic that has killed millions of people can rid us of these illusions. It is difficult for us to accept that “none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For if we live, we live unto the Lord; and if we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.”

The world of 1662 is much more like the realities of 6th June 1944 and of 6th June 2024 than the delusions of 'the End of History'.

Which is to say that the Church needs liturgies which reflect this, addressing our uncertainties, anxieties, fears, and pains by proclaiming the One - to again quote from Forms of Prayer to be Used at Sea - "who alone spreadest out the heavens, and rulest the raging of the sea; who hast compassed the waters with bounds until day and night come to an end". 

The Church of Ireland BCP 2004 - while a very fine contemporary revision and much superior to Common Worship - has no Forms of Prayers to be Used at Sea. It includes some of the occasional prayers and thanksgivings found in BCP 1926, but not the 'Thanksgiving for Peace and Deliverance from Enemies'. Also omitted are the prayers for rain and fair weather, and that for 'In the time of any Common Plague or Sickness'. As for Common Worship Daily Prayer, it too lacks such prayers. 

We have, in other words, liturgies written for a world in which the climate and weather are assured, there are no plagues, and we have no need to seek deliverance from tyrants and their violent ambitions. It is little wonder, therefore, that we are seeing something of a revival of the use of the traditional forms of the BCP - a liturgy written not at the supposed 'End of History', but firmly within history; a liturgy composed for our earthly pilgrimage through this transitory life, in a world which knows fear and evil, pain and death, enemies and war, while seeking deliverance and peace.