VE Day prompts Cathedral cleric’s call for global awareness

A canon missioner’s message for VE Day is to consider the pain and suffering brought by war today.

The Reverend Dr Emma Pennington of Canterbury Cathedral,  highlighted the importance of enabling history to lift off the page for the milestone 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe.

Dr Pennington said: “If we forget then we don’t have any hope in trying to find peace in our world today.  

“There are so many places that are going through very much the same that this nation had to go through and they now stand in the rubble as people here stood in the rubble of Canterbury.” 

Victory in Europe Day celebrates the end of the Second World War and this year marks 80 years since Germany’s surrender to the Allies. You can read more about the history of VE Day here.

Dr Pennington added: “There are many people still alive who can tell the stories and can actually tell us what it was like but these people are sadly moving on and so we won’t have them around much longer.” 

Canterbury Cathedral is displaying the Canterbury Book of Remembrance throughout May to commemorate VE Day. 

The book is a handwritten record of the 121 civilians who died in the city during World War II. 

At 17:30 on VE Day (8 May) there will be a Choral Evensong featuring the lighting of the VE Day 80 Lamp Light of Peace. This will be followed at 18:30 by the Cathedral bells joining in the Ringing Out in Celebration of Peace where church bells will peal together across the nation.

Special themed tours are also being offered exploring the history of the Cathedral during World War II.