Bishop’s Letter for Memorial Day Observance 27 May 2019, Anno Domini (in the 243rdyear of our Declaration of Independence)
There is an intentional and insidious movement afoot to destroy all memorials of the glorious past of the American people and her institutions.
The attack is aimed, first at great men and women of our past who have contributed most in forming our National Heritage; and secondly, it will be directed against the glorious sacrifices of men and women who have fought and died upon many a far flung battlefield on behalf of freedom and liberty.
The destruction and slander being aimed against the monuments of America is not unlike that same tactic of ISIS and Al-Quaida in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Such a movement is born of totalitarian desires to destroy the institutional memory of a nation and thereby subdue to a desolate state of serfdom.
On all Memorial Days up to the present, we have honored our fallen heroes by placing flags and wreaths on their gravestones. Each grave marker of the fallen American soldier should be treated with honor, dignity, and a grateful respect for the sacrifices they have made for us and our posterity.
It is altogether right and proper that we should so honor them along with all other great men and women of our past. The grave markers of our gallant dead are silent witnesses to the valor of those who died so that we could breathe free. Each is likened to that Ancient Landmark mentioned by Solomon wherefrom all of our national principles are delineated. Proverbs 22:28)Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.[1]
When the children of Israel ended their forty years of pilgrimage in the Wilderness, they prepared to cross over Jordan Waters into the Promised Land. God would enable their crossing to again be on dry ground, and He gave commandment to Joshua to prepare twelve stones as memorials of their crossing.
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HENJoshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: 5 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: 6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? 7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. (Joshua 4:4-7)
Reading of Concord Hymn
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument
July 4, 1837 (Doxology old 100th)
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare,
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
May we here this day, and indeed all the people of the United States, remember that first monument to the valor of freedom-loving men on these shores, and defend the memory of all such men and women with unrelenting zeal! May we thusly continue to be a nation under God and the blessed recipient of His Providence and Guidance as our great Benefactor.
The Anglican Orthodox Church Worldwide Communion
Jerry L. Ogles, DD, Presiding Bishop
Master Aviator, US Army
[1]Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. History is what actually happened, not a revisionist fairy tale.
