All Religious Faiths in Britain Drawn Closer by War Conditions, Lazaron Reports

Cooperation and understanding among Protestants, Catholics and Jews is greatly in evidence in Britain since the outbreak of the war, but we are still far ahead of them in America, Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron, one of the three clergymen who flew to Britain to appraise the religious and social developments there, reported last night at a dinner given here in honor of the three clerics upon their return from England. The three churchmen, Dr. Everett R. Clinchy, a Protestant minister, Father Vincent C. Donovan, a Catholic priest and Rabbi Lazaron spent a month in England, Ireland and Scotland studying conditions there.

“We found proof in every place that the British people, whatever their religious beliefs, are being drawn closer together,” Rabbi Lazaron said. “In a blitz, sincerity, kindness, integrity of word, become absolutely necessary just because that is the best way to get along. I am hopeful that in the United States we will not need the hardship and suffering of war to show us the wisdom and benefit of working even closer together as citizens all of the nation.”

A proposal for a “P.E. F.,” a Peace Expeditionary Force from America after the war to “fulfill the hope of millions for leadership from America in the economic, social and spiritual reconstruction of Europe,” was advanced at the dinner by Dr. Clinchy. Just as the United States has pioneered in science to send its temporary expeditions to the far corners of the globe, so, Dr. Glinchy suggested, this country should pioneer in sending deputations of Americans back to the various European nations from which they or their ancestors came to assist in the creation of a “European nation of nations” after the war. In proposing that “deputations to the various countries in this post-war plan be made up of Americans who were immigrants or descendants of immigrants of the various nations,” Dr. Clinchy said, “Europe is in need of a temporary return of some of its immigrants to tell the story of America to their old countries.

Father Donovan stated that, “One feels, however, more often than one seas, a deepening sense of religion. Sales of books of a spiritual or moral nature have in creased. Letters in response to religious broadcasts are greater.”