Diocesan News05 May 25

Belfast Cathedral Civic Service to mark 80th anniversary of VE Day

Dean Stephen Forde’s words of welcome at the beginning of the Civic Service in Belfast Cathedral (Sunday, 4th May) to mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day:

This afternoon, as Dean of Belfast, and in partnership with the Lord Lieutenancy of Belfast, let me welcome you all to St Anne’s Cathedral, as we share in this Civic Service of Thanksgiving, to start the week when we will mark the 80th Anniversary of VE Day on 8th May, 1945. In particular today, we welcome to this cathedral the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of the Northern Ireland Executive, along with Dame Maria Eagle, Minister of State in the Department of Defence, and the Deputy Lord Mayor and the High Sheriff of the City of Belfast. We also welcome the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Dr Richard Murray, our preacher, the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, Dr John Alderdice, the Rt Rev Alister Bell and Father Colin Grant, representing the Bishop of Down and Connor, along with our many distinguished guests this afternoon.

But today we bid a special welcome to each of you, old or young, who represents those members of the armed forces who fought to win the Second World War in 1945, and also those whose contribution to the war effort on the home front was essential to ensure Victory in Europe eighty years ago.

Today some of you present carry your own personal memories of those years of war, whether you fought on land, air or sea. More of you may carry the memory of a childhood lived during the war years of blackout, and rationing. Perhaps you hold a vivid childhood memory of the Belfast Blitz of 1941, or being a child evacuated to family, or to strangers, in rural Ulster. Others of you here today, do not have a personal memory of the war years, but you wear with pride the medals of those who fought on behalf of your generation, and you hold their stories from those years of wartime endurance. And some of you represent the youth of today. Your youth, whether as members of the Cadet Forces, or the Boys Brigade, the St John Ambulance, or the Scout Association, represents the youth of that previous generation whose commitment to service and sacrifice, ensured 80 years of peace for us all in the continent of Europe.

So today, we look back with a deep sense of gratitude and thanksgiving. But today we have another sacred duty, represented by candles and prayer for peace. For our task today is to strive against all forces that would seek to plunge this continent and our world backwards towards war and destruction, hatred and armed conflict. Instead, our duty before God is to strive courageously to maintain and strengthen that peace for our day and for our generation which was won at such a cost, eighty years ago.

And so let us pray:

O God, who would fold both heaven and earth in one single peace; may the design of your perfect love for our humanity

give to us peace among nations, peace to our communities , and peace in our hearts;  through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.