New Church Life Sept/Oct 2013 | Page 56

new church life: september / october 2013 before with the “shot heard ‘round the world” at Lexington and Concord. If ever a time was needed for prayer that time had arrived. And so, on June 12, a proclamation was issued by the Congress setting aside the first National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer. The first of two such proclamations, it was remarkably conciliatory toward Great Britain and called upon God as the “great Governor of the World, by His supreme and universal Providence” to end the present calamities and to seek a way for reconciliation. But on June 17, just five days after this proclamation was issued, the first major battle of the American Revolution took place just outside Boston. Known to every school child as The Battle of Bunker Hill, this bloody conflict resulted in heavy casualties. More than 400 Americans and more than 1,000 British Regulars were either wounded or killed. Still, in the slim hope for peace, three weeks later Congress adopted what was known as the Olive Branch Petition appealing directly to King George III. Refusing even to look at the petition, the King issued a proclamation of his own declaring the American Colonies to be in a state of “open rebellion.” And with this decree, the die was irrevocably cast and events marched steadily toward a declaration of independence the following July, almost 14 months after hostilities began. In March of 1776, a second National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer was resolved by Congress. The message of this proclamation was totally different from that of the year before. In an impassioned appeal, it spoke of battles against the Crown in the cause for freedom, virtue and posterity. Congress called upon the help of God asking that “… He grant that a spirit of incorruptible patriotism, and pure undefiled religion, may universally prevail; and that this continent be speedily restored to the blessings of peace and liberty…” It was both a public plea to God for His Divine protection and a call to duty. And, it clearly set the final push for independence. Today, despite assaults on our freedoms at every turn, we must always acknowledge, as did our founding fathers, that it is God alone who governs either through us, or in spite of us. . . . It is God, through the leading of His Divine Providence, who is still with us in our churches, in our homes, in our communities, and throughout our great nation. 490