A beloved member of our Daily Office community has asked why we didn’t observe the Four Dorchester Chaplains of World War II yesterday, depicted above in a bas-relief in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The short answer is that the Episcopal General Convention did not renew its authorization of a proposed revision of the church calendar containing the chaplains – a Roman Catholic priest, a Methodist minister, a Jewish rabbi and a Reformed Church minister. Thus the official calendar reverts back to the previous one. But we remember their names – Fr. John P. Washington; the Rev. George L. Fox; Rabbi Alexander D. Goode; and the Rev. Clark V. Poling – and their heroism. They gave their lives to save U.S. troops and civilians aboard the Dorchester, helping load them into lifeboats and, when space ran out, giving their own lifejackets that others might be saved. (Wikipedia)
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