Religion: V-Day Service

Some Americans will unquestionably get drunk. Some, like Soldier-Poet Robert Graves at the end of World War I, may go walking by themselves, “cursing and sobbing and thinking of the dead.” For those who observe the surrenders of Germany and Japan by going to church, the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America last week published “A Service of Worship for Use by the Churches at the End of the War.”

The brief ritual consists of five hymns, parts of the 103rd and 46th Psalms, a Litany of Dedication, a Litany of Intercession, many a prayer. Besides the expected thanksgiving, the prayers also petition that God “may keep us humble in victory; forbid that we should harbor hatreds or revenge.”