Mimeographed copy of sermon to the British Eighth Army, headed 'CHRISTMAS 1942. | SERVICE BROADCAST FROM BETHLEHEM | "Of His Kingdom there shall be no end." St. Luke, I, v.33.'

Author: 
[Frederick Llewelyn Hughes (1894-1967), Archdeacon of the Forces and Dean of Ripon, 1961-1967; General Montgomery of Alamein; British Eighth Army]
Publication details: 
[British Eighth Army, Bethlehem, Palestine.] Christmas 1942.
£280.00
SKU: 13308

2pp., foolscap 8vo. On two leaves stapled together. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. This item is discussed in M. F. Snape's 'God and the British Soldier: Religion and the British Soldier in the First and Second World Wars' (London: Routledge, 2005). Montgomery described Hughes as 'the ideal of what an Army padre should be', and according to Snape: 'A major theme which seemed to emerge from the collaboration of Montgomery and Hughes in 1942 was the notion of the consecration of British arms to a higher purpose. In a Christmas sermon, which was broadcast from Bethlehem in the afterglow of the Eighth Army's triumph at Alamein, Hughes endowed the vulnerable image of the Christ-child with a new and urgent militancy'. The text begins: 'I am sent to THE LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM to bring the humble duty of an Army in the Field, for unto us, as unto you, was born this day in the City of David a Saviour. | For months we have not known the help of hallowed Churches, their music, colour, atmosphere and crowds. But we have known the Master's desert-worthy presence, at home in wild bare wastes, at ease with little groups of dusty men. Around Him we were kin; our wayward hearts The Temples of the Living God; our rough, campaigning comradeship His Dwelling-place; our warface the salt zeal of a Just God.' Excessively scarce: no copy traced, neither in the Imperial War Museum, nor on COPAC or OCLC WorldCat.