Bishop’s Memorial Day Letter – 26 May 2025
25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. (James 1:25)
The trumpet sounds from Concord to Arlington, from Flanders to Guadalcanal, from hillsides and prairies of public and private cemeteries in all states of the Union, and from so many distant and lonely National Cemeteries around the world –the bugler’s solemn station sounds the last farewell to gallant sacrifices of America’s best from every corner of the American nation.
Following the War Between the States, both southern and northern, mothers and daughters of the fallen established days of remembrance at which times the graves of their fallen loved ones could be decorated. That day became known in the South as Decoration Day, and in the North, Memorial Day.
The blood of America’s youth has watered the seeds of liberty not only for our own, but for peoples around the world ‘yearning to be free.’
The taps of a thousand, of a million, buglers echo across the peaceful meadows and verdant plains of our homeland – and that blood-bought peace is the product of gallant and arduous courage of our finest and best. They slumber in honored repose in the rich soil of American liberty that has always required sacrifice to preserve.
One of our great Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, has truly declared the reality of the duty to defend one’s homeland and liberties: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
This Memorial Day, I remember my young brother, Ken; my Navy Uncle Ernest; my great grandfathers and other relatives; and the many additional unsung heroes of Liberty of many families who have cherished liberty enough to lay down their lives in its defense.
May God renew our Godly faith and commitment to the only Liberty that can be sustained by a
Christian people under God.
In Christ Alone during Eastertide,
† Jerry Ogles
Presiding Bishop.
Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide & Chancellor, Faith Theological Seminary
