York Minster

Thanks for our Future

The 60th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War

VE Day: 8 May
VJ Day: 15 August 

Sunday July 10th 2005. 2.00 p.m.

The Dean and Chapter welcomes you to York Minster.

This service of thanksgiving and celebration is offered to the City of York and County of North Yorkshire by the York and District Council of Ex Service Associations, in conjunction with the City of York Council. Gratitude is expressed to the Dean and Chapter of York for their welcome and cooperation.

The music is led by the Lancashire Artillery Volunteer Band, directed by ????????

Private cameras, tape and video recorders may not be used before or during the service.

The congregation is asked to make sure that all mobile telephones and pagers are switched off.

Copyright hymns are reproduced under the Christian Copyright Licensing scheme.  
Licence number 270217.

At 1.50 p.m. The Lord Lieutenant of North Yorkshire and Lady Crathorne and the Civic Party will be welcomed at the West Doors by the Canon in Residence and the Precentor.

Please stand as they are accompanied to their seats, taking your seat when they are seated.

¶	
Gathering

	Processional Hymn

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation;
O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation:
come ye who hear,
brothers and sisters draw near,
praise him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,
shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth:
hast thou not seen
all that is needful hath been
granted in what he ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work, and defend thee;
surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee;
ponder anew
all the almighty can do,
he who with love doth befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
who, when the elements madly around thee are raging.
biddeth them cease,
turneth their fury to peace,
whirlwinds and waters assuaging.

Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath life and breath come now with praises before him!
Let the amen
sound from his people again:
gladly for ay we adore him.

	Words: Joachim Neander (1650 - 80), tr Catherine Winkworth (1827 - 78) and others
	Music: LOBE DEN HERREN German C17th

	Introduction and Bidding

The Canon in Residence says

In the name of Christ and in his peace I welcome you.

We meet to give thanks to God, rejoicing that this thanksgiving is not ours alone, but shared by people in this nation, in the Commonwealth and across the world, many of whom are taking part in services like our own.

One of the greatest architects of victory, Sir Winston Churchill, said: “In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity; and in peace, goodwill”.  The last of these is predominant in our minds today.

Those who survived the war, and those too young to remember, join together today in giving praise to God for what was achieved sixty years ago.  Out of suffering came the broad alignments of peace, and the desire that the world should never again be engulfed in conflict. 

Our first motives, then, for coming here today are those of remembrance and thanksgiving.  Devoutly and sincerely, we give thanks to God for what has been, and for those who gave of themselves.  But we cannot simply look backwards.  We must continue to look for peace on earth for all people.

Our proclamation is that we have a message of reconciliation for the whole world.  Swords can be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks. New divisions, conflicts and hatreds have assailed the world in the early years of the new millennium. We know we must not rest here; we go on in hope for the future.

So we pray for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven and say together the words our Lord gave us:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

	Reading
????? reads 

Sir Laurens Van der Post served as an Intelligence Officer, and was prisoner of the Japanese. It was said of him by a fellow prisoner that "There can be such a thing as prison bravery, and in this man we witnessed British fortitude at its best."

Writing some years after his release, he said this about the aftermath of victory.

I felt strongly that if war had had any justification at all it was only in the sense that at its end, it should leave victors and vanquished free, for a moment, from the destructive aspects of their past. To go looking for particular persons and societies to blame, and punish, at the end of war seemed to me to throw men back into the negative aspects of the past from which they had been trying to escape, and to deprive them of the opportunity they had so bitterly earned to begin afresh. 

Forgiveness, my prison experience had taught me, was not mere religious sentimentality; it was as fundamental a law of the human spirit as the law of gravity. If one broke the law of gravity one broke one's neck; if one broke this law of forgiveness one inflicted a mortal wound on one's spirit and became once again a member of the chain-gang of mere cause and effect from which life has laboured so long and painfully to escape. 

 The conduct of thousands of men in war, and in prison with me, confirmed with an eloquence which is one of my most precious memories of war, that the spirit of man is naturally a forgiving spirit. I was convinced that if the cancellation of the negative past, which is forgiveness, could take its place, it would automatically be followed by the recognition that men could no longer change the pattern of life for the better by changing their frontiers, their systems and their laws of compulsion of judgement and justice, but only by changing themselves. 

	Postscript to The Night of the New Moon, 1970

¶	Remembrance

The Reverend David Porter, Chaplain to the York and District Council of Ex-Service Associations says

Let us remember before God all who have died as a result of war, oppression and tyranny.

The Kohima Epitaph
When you go home, tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow we gave our today

Silent Prayer

We remember before you with gratitude, O Lord our God,
those who gave their lives for the cause of freedom.
Grant unto us for whom they died
that their devotion may bear fruit in us, 
in more abundant love for others,
and in an abiding peace in the world,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

	Hymn

During the hymn a collection is taken, to be shared between the work of York Minster and the York and District Council of Ex-Service Associations.

O God, our help in ages past,
  our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
  and our eternal home;

Under the shadow of thy throne
  thy saints have dwelt secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
  and our defence is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
  or earth received her frame,
from everlasting thou art God,
  to endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight
  are like an evening gone,
short as the watch that ends the night
  before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
  bears all its sons away;
they fly forgotten, as a dream
  dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past,
  our hope for years to come,
be thou our guard while troubles last,
  and our eternal home.

	Words: Isaac Watts (1674 - 1748)
	Music: ST ANNE, probably by William Croft (1678 - 1727)

¶	Thanksgiving

	Litany  of Thanksgiving

????? says

Let us offer our thanksgiving to Almighty God, who made us and all creation, who in Christ has triumphed over evil and death, and whose Spirit abides with us to guide and to inspire.

For the victory achieved on land, at sea, and in the air, and for the liberation of so many from the cruelty of occupation and oppression.
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God

For those who endured captivity, torture, or death that others might be free.
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

For the heroism and courage of those who served in the armed services and merchant marine, those who worked in civil defence, hospitals and relief agencies:  in factories and mines, shops and farms.
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

For the steadfastness and endurance of the inhabitants of cities and countryside during the dark years of war.
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

For the reconstruction of communities and for the reconciliation seen among people of different race and creed over the past sixty years.
Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

	Reading 
????? reads Ephesians 6: 10 - 20

 	Hymn

God is our strength and refuge,
our present help in trouble;
and we therefore will not fear,
though the earth should change!
Though mountains shake and tremble,
though swirling floods are raging, 
God the Lord of hosts is with us evermore!

There is a flowing river,
within God's holy city;
God is in the midst of her
she shall not be moved!
God's help is swiftly given,
thrones vanish at his presence,
God the Lord of hosts is with us evermore!

Come, see the works of our maker,
learn of his deeds all powerful:
wars will cease across the world
when he shatters the spear!
Be still and know your creator,
uplift him in the nations,
God the Lord of hosts is with us evermore!

	Words: based on Psalm 46, by Richard Bewes (b. 1934)
	Music: DAMBUSTERS MARCH, by Eric Coates (1886 - 1958)

	Sermon 

The Right Reverend Noel Jones 
Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of York, and sometime Chaplain to the Fleet

¶	Commitment

	Intercessions 

The Canon in Residence says

Let us pray with hope for the future of the world and for the needs of all people.

For peace and justice in our world
for an end to war and conflict,
and for the leaders of all nations and peoples,
Lord in your mercy
hear our prayer.

For the unity of all Christian people
for the Church of God in every land,
and for all people of faith who seek God and the truth,
Lord in your mercy
hear our prayer.

For those who suffer as a result of war,
for all who find it hard to forgive, 
for communities where past wrongs and violence persist,
and for a world that is in harmony with itself,
Lord in your mercy
hear our prayer.

The prayers end with the singing of 

O Trinity of love and power,
our brethren shield in danger’s hour;
from rock and tempest, fire and foe,
protect them whereso’er they go:
and ever let there rise to thee
glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

All stand

 	Act of Commitment

The Reverend David Porter says

Will you honour all who bore the pains and adversities of war?
By the help of God, we will.

Will you offer them your help and support, and protect their dignity and welfare?
By the help of God, we will.

Will you remember the causes for which they endured adversity and for which many fought and died, by promoting peace, justice and harmony among all people?
By the help of God, we will.

Will you always acknowledge how precious are the gifts which God has entrusted to us, and exercise the freedoms and opportunities you have with gratitude and humility?
By the help of God, we will.

May Almighty God, who has given us the will to undertake these things, give us also the strength to perform them: for his name’s sake.  
Amen.

	Hymn

During the hymn the standards are returned, and the procession is formed

Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won;
angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
kept the folded grave-clothes where thy body lay.
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.

Lo, Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
let the Church with gladness hymns of triumph sing,
for her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting:
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.

No more we doubt thee, glorious prince of life;
life is naught without thee: aid us in our strife;
make us more than conquerors through thy deathless love;
bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above:
Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son,
endless is the victory thou o’er death hast won.

	Words: Edmond Budry (1854 - 1932), tr Richard Hoyle (1875 - 1939)
	Music: MACCABEUS, G.F. Handel (1685 - 1759)
	Blessing

The Canon in Residence says

God grant to the living, grace; to the departed, rest;
to the Church, the Queen, the Commonwealth, and all humankind,
peace and concord;
and to us and all his servants, life everlasting;
and the blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always.
Amen.

	The National Anthem

God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen.
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the Queen.

Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour,
Long may she reign.
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen.

Please remain standing as the processions depart