I'M glad that it has been decided to include civilians in our national Remembrance Parades. It was good, for example, to see evacuees, and those who took part in evacuees, represented in the London march-past. At last the part they played has been officially remembered.
War brings out the best and worst in people. I know that for some of the evacuees life was very tough. Apart from missing home and parents, some of them found life in their new families harsh and even hostile. But quite a number found a very warm welcome and remain thankful to this day to those who took them in. This kind of hospitality lies at the heart of all true religion. All of us can be generous to our friends and to our own families, there is nothing remarkable in that. But to be generous to the stranger and to the foreigner is a mark of something deeper.
Genuine hospitality means not just welcoming people when they are willing to become like us. It means welcoming people even when they are different, and it means allowing them to remain different.
I lived in the Midlands in the period immediately following the Second World War. In that period there was a lot of immigration from the Commonwealth. People said at the time: "We don't mind them coming if they follow our ways and learn our customs -- when in Rome do as the Romans do."
But that is not hospitality. To be hospitable means welcoming people who are different and respecting their difference. As human beings, we are not good at this kind of hospitality. I know that I find it very difficult.
Churches can be very bad at it too. We tend only to welcome people who like to sing the hymns we like and who are happy to fit into our way of doing things. To welcome people only on our terms is really not to welcome them at all.
If I want to know whether my religion is genuine or not, I only have to ask how hospitable I am being.
So thank God for all those who showed this kind of hospitality to so many children who were evacuated during the war. Their love and care in dealing with quite distressed children is a lesson in humanity to us all.
Michael Williams
Vicar of Bolton Parish Church
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