Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead: We give thee thanks for all thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence; and give us such a lively sense of thy righteous will, that the work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.
Thank you for this post, Kendall. For those who might not know its source, this collect was added to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, only to be replaced in the 1979 edition by the following prayer in thanksgiving for “heroic service”:
[blockquote] O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. [/blockquote]
This new prayer certainly doesn’t even seem to be considering the same topic! IMHO, two deficiencies with the new version that come immediately to mind are its complete avoidance of any mention of death and its effort to overlay a social justice theme in lieu of the larger and arguably more fundamental struggle against darkness and evil. As was so often the case in the revision of the Prayer Book, it wasn’t enough to add new prayers for social justice issues, but the old prayers, those that had nourished generations of Anglicans, had to be expunged and discarded. So much for inclusiveness!