Kevin asked me last month if I would lead a discussion today – Armed Forces Day - on the topic of patriotism.I was humbled and flattered – but I admit that I fairly leapt at the opportunity.
In light of what binds us together as the Men of St. Matthew’s, I have chosen to expand today’s topic to “Faith and Patriotism.”These two pillars are intertwined throughout the history of St. Matthew’s.They are intertwined in my own life, both past and present.And, knowing most of you, I believe that Faith and Patriotism are intertwined in each of you as well.
I want to first provide some context regarding Faith and Patriotism in the history of St. Matthew’s Church.Then I will offer some personal views and finally close by posing several questions to stimulate this morning’s discussion.
At Morning Prayer after the Doxology, we turn to face the American flag and sing the familiar,
Our father’s God: to thee
Author of liberty!
To thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light:
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King.
Before that, walking into Church all of us have at times stopped to note the commemorative plaque to the left of the front entrance. The plaque reads,
In Honor of the Members of this Church
Who answered our country’s call
For service in the World War
Many of the names listed are familiar families in our Church’s history. Two Luquers, certainly descendants of the Rev. Lea Luquer. A Partridge, most likely a descendant of the Rev. Alfred Partridge. Cutler Whitman’s great grandfather. Hilda Minarik’s grandfather. Most of those who answered their country’s call came back. Some however did not. One who did not, so identified on the plaque and in a further commemorative plaque in the Vestry Room, is Moses Taylor, Jr. for whom the American Legion building in Mt.Kisco is named.
Then enter the Church and note the beautiful Pro Patria Memorial of the St. Matthew’s Parish prominently positioned on the right wall of the Church. Those who served when our country needed to be defended are remembered. Take a close look and here again are found familiar Church family names. Several Jays. Marilyn Tilt’s father who fought with the Belgian forces in WW II until his country fell to the Germans, then managed to get to the U.S. where he volunteered for the U.S. Army and returned to Europe to fight for freedom. John and Jim Renwick’s grandfather. Steve Sanger, a childhood friend of mine, who fought and gave his life in Vietnam.
For some years now, at every service, Terry has included prayers, by individual name, for those in our extended parish family serving in our armed forces in combat zones. Terry’s deep appreciation of service to country and his leadership in this regard continue a long history at St. Matthew’s. The interlinked elements of Faith and Patriotism date back to the earliest years of the parish.
At our Bicentennial event three years ago, we honored John Jay. He was both a founding father of our country and an important founder of our Church. Over the course of that weekend, we remembered John Jay for his service, his faith and his sacrifice. You will recall that after long service to his young country, including years separated from his beloved wife Sarah and their children, John Jay finally returned home and settled at the family farm just up the road. There he resumed his worship at St. Matthew’s and looked ahead to the serenity of rest from his long labor. Terry and Adele Talty memorably delivered dramatic readings from the letters between John and Sarah in a performance directed by Rink Reynders. The performance brought to life this remarkable couple’s marriage, ending in the tragic early death of Sarah and the profound grief of John Jay. Surely the death of his wife marked the point in his life when John Jay most drew upon his deep faith and the comfort offered within this Church.
Advance the clock 150 years forward to Arthur Ketchum, the minister I knew as a boy. Mr. Ketchum also understood Faith and Patriotism. He started what we now know as The Key during WW II. These communications provided a means for conveying news from home to the young men of the parish serving in Europe and in the Pacific. His gift for prose and poetry enabled him to capture the beauty of nature and the change of seasons he encountered on his walks through the glebe and adjacent woods. Mr. Ketchum’s writings even today retain their ability to draw one into the better world he saw. I can imagine the precious moments of serenity that reading a letter from Mr. Ketchum would have afforded to servicemen far from home and love ones. What a gift! The book of Mr. Ketchum’s collected letters is in the Church library; I commend it highly.
Arthur Hargate was our Rector throughout most of the 1970s. Earlier during WW II, Arthur served as ship’s Chaplain on the USS Clay from 1942-45. The Clay was an attack transport, meaning that its function was to deliver Army and Marine troops to the hottest sites of the Pacific theater: Saipan, Leyte, Luzon, Guadacanal and Okinawa. As U.S. forces moved toward the Japanese home islands, the desperation defense thrown up by the Japanese was kamikaze attacks. Arthur’s duties included conducting services, counseling of men, providing comfort to the wounded, performing burials at sea, and writing to families of those killed in action. Ruth and the Hargates’ daughter Barbara recall that Arthur chose not to talk about his war experiences. He did however keep a diary during his wartime service. In sorting through his papers after his death, the family discovered something very telling about this modest man of God. Arthur had carefully taped two pages of his diary together to prevent Ruth from accidentally finding out what was on the inner pages. When, after his death, the taped pages were discovered and separated, the long hidden entry described an incident onboard ship in which Arthur almost lost his life. He did not wish to trouble Ruth with this scare even decades later. There is a saying about war that is relevant to today’s topic. The origin is not certain but often attributed to the war correspondent, Ernie Pyle. You are familiar with the phrase ‘There are no atheists in the foxhole.’ To put this theme in Arthur’s context, imagine standing on the deck of the USS Clay as the attack transport steams in the final run towards a landing point to disembark the 6th Marines or the 1st Cavalry Division. Unimaginable dangers lie ahead and there is the ever present possibility of a kamikaze attack. For those of us who knew Arthur, think of the comfort he provided to the sailors, soldiers and marines as he moved among them. We’ll never know what words Arthur spoke to those men, but I have no doubt that Faith and Patriotism were not alien themes. In preparing for today, I looked up the history of the USS Clay and learned that the original name for the ship, at the time the keel was laid, was to have been the Sea Angel. What an apt description for Arthur Hargate!
Now let me move the clock ahead to Terry’s leadership of our Church. On the evening of 9/11, Terry convened a special service. As Warden at the time, I came to Church well ahead of the service to see if I might be of some help. I had been in my office in New York City at the beginning of that fateful day when the WorldTradeTowers were attacked. Upon reflection, I believe that the greater power drawing me to Church early for that first special 9/11 service was an overwhelming need to be in Church to pray. As I recall, the Church bells started ringing long before the service began. Who knows how word of that service spread, but parishioners somehow heard and the Church filled with the bells continuing to ring out until the service commenced. Most of us – I was certainly one – were in tears throughout the service. How Terry held his own composure and managed to conduct the service, I’ll never know. Terry chose familiar patriotic hymns and music both for that service and continuing for the additional special 9/11 services as well as regular services for months following. Once commercial air service was restored, business provided me occasion to travel around the country. I was uplifted by the profusion of U.S. Flags hanging from the overpasses of highway bridges, outside homes and displayed in shop windows and construction sites. U.S. Flags were everywhere. Americans drew strength both from flying our country’s flag and seeing this expression of patriotism so proudly evidenced. Through that horrific time and terrible loss, our country seemed to draw together in a re-affirmation of Faith and Patriotism. For me, I cannot imagine getting through that tragedy without the support of Terry, fellow parishioners and St. Matthew’s Church.
I would like to turn to some personal reflections on today’s topic. When I headed off to college, the motto of my university was ‘For God, for country and for Yale.’ Having been raised in this community and in this Church, I felt entirely at home with the first two concepts. The third was an easy one to add – especially as it was regularly reinforced by a rousing chorus of male voices at home football games. Outside my freshman year dormitory was a statue dedicated to one of Yale’s most famous graduates. On the base of the statue is a quote from this man – in fact the only quote every attributed to him as he died in his early twenties. The quote is, “I only regret that I have but one life to give my country.” The statue of course is erected in memory of Nathan Hale, an ardent American patriot who was captured and hanged as a spy by the British during the Revolutionary War. The quotation provided a powerful message as I dashed off to a class in economics or physics.
However, by the time I graduated from Yale - and for that matter at colleges across the country - young people seemed to have lost any grounding in Faith and Patriotism. And I use the word “lost” because these pillars had been powerfully present on college campuses, including at Yale. In WW I, Yale’s campus effectively was converted into a military training camp. Not widely known is the fact that military aviation was started by a small group of Yale undergraduates in 1916 with planes purchased by their parents which were subsequently deployed in the war. Yale’s president wrote at the time that the university would be “offered to the government to be used in any way that the War Department may deem to be of most service to the Country.”
In WW II, once again Yale’s entire campus and programs were turned over to the military. Extra-curricular activities were shut down; there were no fraternities, student magazines, theater groups or the like. Immediately following the war, Yale - like every other college and university - took in returning veterans under the GI Bill.
Why do I offer this history? Allow me to fast forward to an event a couple of years ago – and of course some years after 9/11. A fundraiser from Yale’s development office came to my office in New York to pitch me on making a capital gift. After a highly polished run through of the great things underway at the university, I was asked the standard question, namely did I have any questions. Yes, I said I did have one. In the aftermath of 9/11 had Yale elected to end its thirty year ban of ROTC on the campus? The answer was even more horrific than you are probably imagining. The clearly prepared answer I was given went as follows. A senior member of the faculty and professor of history was quoted to me to the effect that the better role for the Yale graduate in today’s times of international difficulties should be in service such as the State Department rather than carrying a gun. I have to tell you never has a meeting ended more abruptly nor under such frosty exit circumstances.
This leads me to frame a few questions for our discussion.
How are the pillars of Faith and Patriotism interwoven in your own beliefs?
Would universal military service help us as a country to rise above partisan politics by ensuring that all of us accept the consequence of shared sacrifice in military action – both contemplated and taken?
For those of us with children of the age or with grandchildren of the age, how would you feel about a young family member contemplating service in the armed forces?
Faith and Patriotism were intertwined at the creation of our country and have sustained our country through perilous times. What is our responsibility as leaders to help ensure that these values remain strong pillars for our descendants?
Before beginning our discussion, I would like to ask everyone to stand and sing the anthem below.
AMERICA, MY COUNTRY ‘TIS OF THEE
My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring!
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our father's God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King.
Roger B. Vincent
May 16, 2009
1Kevin Lahart, speakers’ coordinator for the Men of St. Matthew’s.
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