Marking 80 Years Since VE Day: A Sermon of Light, Hope, and Remembrance by the Bishop of Lincoln

On Sunday, 11 May 2025, as communities across the country gathered to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, the Diocese of Lincoln joined in solemn thanksgiving and reflection.

In a moving sermon delivered as part of the County Service, The Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway, reflected on the memories of those who lived through the war, the enduring cost of peace, and the Christian call to be lights in the darkness.

Drawing on the powerful recollections of Stan, a Lincolnshire resident who was just 13 on VE Day all those years ago, the sermon invites us to remember not only the victory, but also the sorrow, sacrifice, and the ongoing call to live as peacemakers in our world today.

The VE Day Sermon

VE Day, 8^th May, 1945 in the village of Lea, near Gainsborough.

Stan had the day off school. He heard Winston Churchill’s speech on the radio, and the power of those words, “It’s your victory, not mine.”

That afternoon, his grandfather, a lifelong Methodist who never drank alcohol, surprised the family by arriving home with a bottle of gin. He suggested they have a drink “for the lads,” which came as rather a shock to everyone!

A special thanksgiving service was held at the village church

The celebrations in the village also included a party at the Women’s Institute Hall. Local women, including Stan’s mother, prepared jellies, trifles, and sandwiches — these were no typical wartime rations.

In the evening, the villagers walked to Gainsborough together. Stan thought there must have been hundreds of people gathered there. Singing and dancing filled the streets.

For the first time in years, the streetlights were back on in Gainsborough. Stan later recalled how vivid and bright the streets seemed that night and how relieved he was to see them back on. The shining streetlights gave him hope.

Stan was seven years old when World War Two began, thirteen when VE Day was celebrated, and is now 93 years old and still living in Greater Lincolnshire. I am profoundly grateful to Stan for sharing his recollections of VE Day with us, as we come together as a Diocese and County, to give thanks for a victory of peace and justice, over tyranny and death.

Stan’s memories of that day have deeply moved me. I cannot shake the image of the streetlights… streetlights which had hitherto been dark to protect a nation at war, now shining upon a scene of jubilant celebration and togetherness. I should not be surprised at the resonance of this image – the light which shines in the darkness is at the heart of our Christian faith.

On VE Day and in the days to come, these scenes were replicated across the county – street parties, services of thanksgiving, church bells ringing out for joy. But in every community, and among every family, these celebrations were underpinned by sorrow. People mourned the death of loved ones, waited anxiously for unwanted news, faced into the horrors that were being uncovered in the wake of victory, like the Nazi death camps.

No wonder people looked for that light shining in the darkness. No wonder Stan felt relief and hope as he saw the streetlights on for the first time in years. Those days revealed the cost of war in the suffering borne by so many.

This costliness is also a thread which runs through our Christian faith – just like light and hope. It was the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer who coined the phrase ‘the cost of discipleship.’

To be a follower of Jesus is not easy.

To stand up for what is right is not easy.

To seek the way of peace and justice is not easy.

It is costly.

Jesus spoke of this himself – in chapter 7 of Matthew’s gospel he says:
Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

We see this truth in Jesus’ own journey to the Cross. For there could be no Resurrection and new life without his Passion and Death. There could be no Easter Day without Good Friday.

The reading which we have heard today from an earlier chapter of Matthew’s gospel gives us the Beatitudes. ‘Blessed are those who…’ These are teachings of Jesus given as part of the Sermon on the Mount which help us to understand this costly, narrow road to life.

For Jesus does not say blessed are the powerful, or the mighty, the rich, or the strong.

He says blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers…

Those who understand that a world of new life, love, peace, justice, and mercy, does not come without cost.

Surely our Lord blessed those who bore that cost themselves during those terrible days of war.

What of us? It is now eighty years since that VE Day. We are gathered here to remember, to celebrate, to give thanks… And to make a commitment. Because true remembrance leads to change. Learning from the past, in order to make a difference, now and in years to come. This is for all generations.

This morning I was at Scampton Church where a child the age of Stan at the beginning of the War began the prayers of commemoration of VE Day with light shining through the RAF window and next to it, the Dambusters’ window. The black planes depict those which returned and the white planes those which did not.

This is the cost borne for us so that we can bear the cost of peace. To strive for peace, justice and mercy, here and now. We live in a world still marred by violence, warfare, and suffering. There is still darkness in the world – we need a light to shine.
Jesus calls us to be like those in the Beatitudes, bearing the cost of our discipleship as those who are poor in spirit, meek and merciful, peacemakers.

And then, at the end of our gospel reading, Jesus says:

‘You are the light of the world… Let your light shine before others.’

Just as thirteen-year-old Stan saw those streetlights shining in Gainsborough for the first time in years, and felt hope… We are called to be Lights for Jesus in the world, bringing hope to others, that there is a better way.

As Lights for Jesus, we are called to be active in the world, striving with all our hearts, our minds, our strength, to build and grow God’s Kingdom here and now.

This week, on the election of His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV, we heard these words:

Hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we move forward. We are disciples of Christ. Christ precedes us. The world needs his light… We want to be a Church that walks, a Church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always seeks to be close, especially to those who suffer.

As we mark this anniversary of VE Day, as we turn from war to peace, from oppression to freedom, from death to new life, may we be that same Church – hand in hand, a light shining in the darkness, bringing hope to all.

Amen.

Share this story