Remembering D-Day, 80 Years Later

As the world pauses to remember the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings that liberated Europe from tyranny, we unearthed Bishop Angus Dun's "Invasion Day" message from June 6, 1944.

The day for which we have been waiting in fear and hope has come. We are like those who stand outside the door when one greatly loved passes into the crisis of a dread disease. We listen for the least whisper of news. For we know that not one life is at stake, but the lives and fortunes of multitudes we cannot number.

We remember before God our sons and brothers and friends who press forward onto the shores of France, who are crowded into thousands of ships, who battle in the air above their struggling comrades below. We remember, too, the people who wait in tense expectation for their day of deliverance.

Men and women of all faiths — yes, men and women of little faith — must cry out today to the God that they have known or to the God they longed to believe in at such a time. We ask for victory, the triumph of good over evil, of freedom over slavery, of decency over brutality, and of order over chaos.

In final victory we have sure confidence, for God has put into our hands a measure of power that must prevail. May God steady us in these days to come and keep us faithful to the work before us, that the sacrifice of our brothers may not be in vain. May He give to us and to all people clear vision and the will for a just and godly peace.

The Right Rev. Angus Dun
Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Washington
June 6, 1944

image: “Freedom” window, War Memorial Chapel, Washington National Cathedral