Welcome to Weobley & Staunton Joint Benefice

On 15th August we observe the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, marking the surrender of Imperial Japanese military forces and the end of a long, destructive campaign ranging across Asia and the Pacific. I grew up hearing harrowing accounts of the treatment of Australian prisoners of war in Singapore and Burma and this left a legacy of bitterness toward the Japanese in my country of origin.

When I was teaching modern history, a topic that raised debate in my classes was the American decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Was such an action necessary to end the war and save the lives of American personnel when the military capacity of Japan was already severely weakened? Were the bombs dropped as a demonstration of American might to thwart the growing power of the USSR? Or, as cynically suggested by the historian AJP Taylor, simply to justify the huge sums authorised by Congress in developing the weapon?

An eyewitness account of the Hiroshima A-Bomb aftermath was written by a priest, Father John Siemes. His stark description of the massive damage and the condition of the survivors provides us with a salient warning that we must strive to prevent a future nuclear conflict. He also raises a question in his account about the concept of ‘total war’ which fails to discriminate between military and civilian casualties and which we are seeing played out today in Gaza and the Ukraine:

He writes: The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable, even when it serves a just purpose. Does it not have material and spiritual evil as its consequences which far exceed whatever good that might result?*

As we reflect on the past and prevent evils of war, it impels us more fervently to pray for the reign of the Prince of Peace in the hearts and minds of all leaders and all people.

Rev’d Philip

*From  https://www.atomicarchive.com/resources/documents/hiroshima-nagasaki/hiroshima-siemes.html

O God, you are my God, I seek you,
    my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water (Psalm 63)

David penned these words as he wandered the wilderness of Judah. Over the month of August, with its heatwaves and drought conditions, we have seen a parched landscape first-hand. On a deeper level, there are times when we experience a dry season spiritually. The wells of our religious practice run dry: once meaningful words become empty and our prayer life becomes a struggle rather than a solace. We have difficulty in finding the right language to express our thinking or anguish of heart, and dullness of emotion may leave us wordless.

Our lack of words or coherence are not a problem for God. The psalmist speaks of the language of God’s power and creativity being understood throughout creation without any words being uttered (Psalm 19: 3-4). And in Psalm 62 we are encouraged to enter into silence as a conduit for communication with God:

For God alone my soul waits in silence;

from him comes my salvation.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall never be shaken.

 Whatever desert paths our emotions may lead us along, we are reminded time and again in the Scriptures that God does not change, and that if we can learn to trust Him, and pray to Him, through the good times and the bad, our faith can become for us a stream in the wilderness. WH Auden’s verse may well speak to us:

In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.

 Rev’d Philip