3 March 2000

'Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others'.

We have heard those inspiring words twice already this afternoon. They are not a call to arms, but a call to service. And it is the idea of service that lies at the very heart of our presence here today.

This in fact is a service about service. One that will provoke many emotions. Surprise that it has not happened before. Gratitude and relief that it is happening now. But above all, I believe, pride and joy. Pride and joy that we are honouring in this special way the millions of women and men who served on the Home Front during the dark days and nights of the Second World War.

Those of my generation will have particular memories.

I was a boy of ten when war ended. As a Londoner, I was evacuated three times, but was still all too familiar with enemy bombers overhead, air-raid shelters below and, sadly, friends who did not appear the following day at school because their homes had been destroyed the previous evening.

I was proud of my father's work - making tanks and weapons for the war effort. In the evening we would laugh - both admiring and a little embarrassed - as he donned his Home Guard uniform - to become part of Dad's Army -serving King and Country.

My mother - like so many other women, on the land, in the home, in the factories - also shared in the fight to defend the freedom and justice that Hitler and his ideology threatened.

The Royal Family itself, of course, was very much part of the spirit of the time - typified in the example of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

We have heard other stories this afternoon of those most daunting days. Sadly, many unsung heroes are not here to receive our gratitude and thanks. But they - no less than you who are present - are honoured in our hearts and in our prayers.

Many admirable qualities were associated with the Home Front - including a sense of humour. The ability to mock ourselves as well as our enemies has always laced the courage of the British under fire.

The Archbishop of Canterbury during the final days of the war, Geoffrey Fisher, told the story of one old lady, who refused to leave her home in the midst of the Blitz. Her reaction, she said, when she heard a bomb coming, was to "pray to God as hard as she could to shove it a bit further down the street"!

Not, perhaps, an entirely neighbourly approach - but a typically resilient one. Resilience and self-denial are woven deep into the fabric of this city's remarkable contribution to the war effort. It is poignant to recall that many who came to Coventry as war workers were returned to their homes in plain wooden boxes.

The Home Front story of Coventry though is not just of resilience and resistance, but also of resurrection. The post-war rise of this wonderful Cathedral, alongside the shattered remains of the old one, has become a symbol across the world. In the words of the former Bishop here Simon Barrington-Ward, it symbolises "our hope - the journey from darkness to light for all who still walk in the shadow of death."

Such hope makes all things possible - including reconciliation and forgiveness. How fitting that the present Bishop of Coventry was in Dresden recently for the handing over of the cross and orb - a gift from Britain to crown the restoration and rededication of that city's most famous Church.

But when we have honoured and sought to reconcile the past, what if anything should we carry into the future? What should it mean for the generations to whom this is not the stuff of experience but of history?

Service, of course, has to be motivated. A war effort draws a beleaguered people together. Peace-time is a different matter. Neither the enemy nor the shared cause are so easily identifiable. So we struggle to work together for the common good.

Where can we find the motivation for shared service in times of peace?

It was Winston Churchill who, reflecting on the resolve to fight the war, remarked: "You will not find the answer unless you look with the eyes of the spirit. Then it is that you learn that human beings are not dominated by material things but ideas for which they are willing to give their lives or their life's work."

And on that splendid vision I believe we can build an ideal of service that links the example of the past to the challenge of the future. For Christians the vision will be centred on a God who sent his own Son into the world as a servant. But Christ's example - his selfless love and concern, his tolerance and compassion - represents virtues that can be shared and owned by everyone, regardless of faith and creed.

And in the extraordinary humility of Christ coming among us a servant, there is I believe a special resonance with the kind of service we honour and commend here today.

Of course, there was great bravery and remarkable sacrifice on the Home Front. Much of it though, was expressed in humble ways and in unremarkable surroundings. A good deal was small-scale and local - it was part of the wartime life of the community. It was a service rooted in the soil of everyday life - even if there was, at times, nothing very predictable or certain about that life.

That mixture of the special, bound into the unremarkable, offers a pointer towards the service we can all offer, today and tomorrow.

It is not always a matter of grand gestures but of detailed and constant care and attention. It is about what we are prepared to do day by day in our own lives, in order to build better and healthier communities. And let us not delude ourselves. We may not be at war, but there is still plenty of work to be done. We must work to clear the ground of racism and prejudice, of violence and the fear it breeds, of selfishness and introspection that accompanies too much of our affluence.

As Churchill again reminds us: " It is in the years of peace that wars are prevented and foundations are laid upon which the noble structures of the future can be built." We must not lose sight of the fact that civilisation is a fragile flower that demands constant stewardship. Nurturing the strong virtues of community and citizenship is at the heart of what the Home Front Memorial stands for.

And on a day when we focus on many of the older members of our society, let us also look to the young. Not in admonition - but in joy and expectation. Surely it is in the natural idealism and energy of the young that our best hopes rest.

By seeking to serve, we can all be freed from the shackles of narrow self-interest and private fear. We can build a better and a more godly community. So let us commit ourselves anew to make this a land fit for heroes - unsung heroes, local heroes - people like you whom we are proud to honour here today. 'Let each of us look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others.'