Pastoral Letter
Dear Friends,
On Sunday November 13th many of us will be in Church remembering those who gave their lives for their country in the two world wars and in conflicts since. Whenever I hear the long list of names being read out I am always deeply touched, especially when I hear a number of young men's names being read with the same surname, and I remember the terrible price that many families paid during those times of conflict. The flame of a nation's youth extinguished in the carnage and clamour of battle, and families left to grieve and struggle with the awful impact of the loss of precious young lives.
One of the strangest tales to come out of World War II concerns the story of two young men who were captured by the Americans in Germany near the end of the war.
The two were shipped to a POW camp in the USA, but attempts to integrate them were to no avail. They would not or could not speak to the American authorities. They kept to themselves and refused to talk to anyone, even their fellow German prisoners. In fact, the other German prisoners insisted that they knew nothing of the pair.
The American officers were puzzled. The two men seemed frightened and bewildered, but not sullen or rebellious. After a few weeks in their new quarters they even seemed willing to cooperate, but when they finally did speak no one could understand a word they said. There was something else too. They did not look like Germans. Since their features were more Asiatic in appearance, an expert in Asiatic languages was called in. He soon solved the mystery. The two were Tibetans, and they were overjoyed that at last someone was able to understand them and to listen to their incredible, almost unbelievable, story.
It seems that in the summer of 1941 the two friends, lured by a desire to see something of the world outside their tiny village, crossed the northern frontier of Tibet and for weeks wandered happily in Soviet Russian territory. Abruptly they were picked up by Russian authorities, put on a train with hundreds of other young men, and shipped west.
Outside a large city, at an army camp, they were issued uniforms and rifles and given some rudimentary military training. After a few days they were loaded onto trucks with the other soldiers and shipped to the Russian front.
They were horrified at what they saw. Men were killing each other with artillery, rifles--even hand-to-hand fighting. Because they were good Buddhists, killing was against their moral principles. They started to flee to the rear, but in their flight they were overtaken by the Germans and made prisoners. Once again they were loaded onto a train and shipped, this time to Germany. After the Normandy invasion, as the allied forces neared Germany, they were put into an auxiliary service in the German army. As the allies continued to advance the two were given guns and told to fight with the Germans. Once again they tried to flee, but this time they were captured by the Americans.
When they had finished their story, the interpreter asked them if they had any questions. They had only one: "Why were all those people trying to kill each other?"
It is a good question isn't it? Why indeed were all those people trying to kill each other?
Jesus Christ commands us to "love each other as he has loved us", and inevitably that means that when we wage war we are disobeying Jesus' command. War has surely to be seen as a failure - a failure not only to obey JesusŐ command, but also a failure of diplomacy, of human decency and of common sense. Yet the world is still fighting wars somewhere or other, and our task must surely be to pray for God's protection of those who are serving our country in our armed forces "in harms way", and for their families, and to pray and work for peace. Because as the prophet Isaiah prophecies, one day people will:
"beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more." (Isaiah 2:4/5)
May God bless you all,