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VE Day 80 Years Later

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Scribbles from...

Tomorrow, May 8th, will be the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

Remembering...

I am sending this Scribbles a week early to catch a date worth celebrating. Tomorrow, May 8th, will be the 80th anniversary of VE Day. It has occupied my thoughts of late and I’ve been reading up on London’s plans to commemorate the event:

  • Monday, May 5th – a Bank Holiday with a military procession from Parliament Square along White Hall to Buckingham Palace. 1,000 British forces from all branches will be joined by Ukrainian forces as a “sign of global support for their continued fight for freedom.”(Reuters)  This will be followed by a fly by over Buckingham Palace where WW II Vets will be in attendance as well as Royals.
  • Tuesday, May 6th - an art installation will open to the public at the Tower of London. 30,000 blood-red ceramic poppies will fill the moat and spill from the Tower, an outpouring inspired by an original installation from 2004 which marked the start of World War One. In that one, there were 888,246 poppies that first opened in 2004 to mark the start of World War One, one poppy for every British or Colonial military casualty of the conflict).
  • Thursday, May 8th - VE Day, there will be a solemn National Remembrance and Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey which will be followed by concerts featuring music of the era and street parties to last into the night.
I can only guess what London must have been like on May 8th of 1945

I can only guess what London must have been like on May 8th of 1945, though we have all seen iconic photos of the celebrations there and in NYC. These events seem, to those of my generation who grew up in the post-War era, like something we could reach out and touch.

I do happen to know what my dad was doing VE Day. He was a paratrooper in the 17th Airborne, a unit initiated into combat at the Battle of the Bulge. He spent Christmas of 1944 in a foxhole in the snow with German bombardment all around. On VE Day, May 8th, 1945, he was guarding German prisoners of war in Nancy, France. Not only was that the day of Nazi surrender, it happened to also be his 21st birthday! I have often thought there is likely no more elated way to celebrate one's 21st birthday than what he must have felt that day!  Soon he’d return to that girl in the red dress that he’d met at a USO dance in Sioux City, IA and then another story would begin that would include me.

St. Mary's Star of the Sea in New London, CT.

Being a true baby boomer, many of my childhood memories resemble the sepia images of 1940's war years. One of the things I remember from my childhood is how full the churches were. I expect much of that was tremendous relief and gratitude. Some of it may also have been a carryover from the purposeful prayers of war. I remember as a girl skipping up the granite steps of St. Mary's Star of the Sea in New London, CT. It seemed whenever I entered its cool, dark interior with resplendent colors slanting through the windows, there were always women praying. Dressed in wool coats and wearing rubber boots, their scarf-clad heads were reverently bent as they knelt in prayer. There was a slight hum to the faint whisper of praying and the rattle of beads, interrupted sometimes by the shuffle of coming forward to light a candle. 

I was much older when I had the conscious thought that this is exactly what my grandmother and my great-grandmother must have done while my dad was off fighting a war in Europe. They, too, knelt before the altar and prayed alongside others who shared their prayer. I can pull up images from history books and news clips that show Eisenhower, Montgomery, and others poring over maps deliberating their strategy. I place those two images alongside one another in my mind—the generals plotting in their khakis and the women with scarved heads bowed in prayer—and I honestly wonder which image "won" the war. I only know they were both necessary, each dependent upon the other.

I find courage in that. I find hope in that. We have the example of those who went before us and met the challenges of their time. We are, each and all, called to do the same, to do what is ours to do in our own time and place. Khakied generals plotting, scarved women praying. All of us pulling together. How foolish we would be to row with only one oar in the water. Let us remember in the challenges of our time that now, like then, much depends upon prayer. So, my friends, do what is yours to do and as Paul says, "Pray always."

Click below to listen to above portion of SCRIBBLES:

VE Day AUDIO

Ecumenism...

If you have traveled long with Sisters in Scripture, you know that ours is an ecumenical, interfaith adventure. So I was delighted when asked to contribute to an issue on Ecumenism by my ministerial partners at Magdala Colloquy. Their Spring issue of was published this past week and I found every article in it to be accessible, thought-provoking, and inspirational, a recommended read. If you share my interest in Ecumenism, you will find it a worthy read. Please click below

WITH ONE ACCORD

Thank you...

Our last issue of SCRIBBLES was clicked open and forwarded by an unprecedented number of readers, followed by a record number of new subscribers! I am so pleased that you have found SCRIBBLES to be worthy of reading and sharing. Thank you. And, yes, MARY MAGDALENE deserves the good press we try to give her.

From our Readers...

  • Thanks for the story about "Bright Week" in the Orthodox tradition. Very inspiring. It's always grieved me a bit that the second Sunday of Easter is so often "celebrated" as "Low Attendance Sunday." And, of course, we pastoral types tend to think of this week as "Recovery Week" -- lots of jokes about Jesus rising so the clergy can lay down! I know that I'm still exhausted from the extra busy-ness of Lent and Holy Week. But now I've got a new model - Bright Week - to help me continue to get up and at 'em. Blessings to you, my friend! - Chris
  • Thank you dearest Kathleen - you have a beautiful, gentle, wise way of teaching, sharing and reflecting. I thought to myself you are the example of why we need women’s homilies in our Churches! Thank God we are able to experience you over the internet, from the quiet place at home. God’s blessings and peace this Eastertide. - Lucinda  
  • Thanks for your presentation on Mary Magdalene today, I really enjoyed it and it matches up with my notes i have from a class i taught. I will send you those. Many questions came up a few years ago when that novel Da Vinci Code came out. That’s where I first heard of her as Jesus’ wife. I’m glad I go to the Episcopal church these days when she is included. - Libby
  • This is first time I've seen Mary Magdalene explained so clearly and thoroughly. What a shame that this is not the woman most of us think of when we hear her name. But this is what I will think of now and will make sure others hear about too! - Dorothea
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