Popular historian David McCullough has penned a delightful
new, little holiday season book about Winston Churchill’s surprise
Christmas 1941 visit to Washington, D.C.
In the Dark Streets Shineth: A
1941 Christmas Eve Story focuses particularly on
the British premier’s first hearing of the hymn, “O Little Town of
Bethlehem,” sung at a Christmas service to which FDR took him. The
carol partly echoed some words in Churchill’s first radio broadcast
to the American people, referring to the “English-speaking world”
at Christmas as a “brightly-lighted island of happiness and
peace.”
Churchill had steamed the Nazi submarine–infested Atlantic
to appear in Washington, D.C. on December 22, just two weeks after
Pearl Harbor had made Britain and America war-time allies. FDR and
Churchill had previously met on naval ships off Newfoundland to
draft the Atlantic Charter earlier that year and had regularly
talked on the phone during Britain’s lonely resistance to Nazi
Germany, plus extensively corresponding. Though Churchill was
politically right of center and FDR left of center, they were
kindred spirits as champions of Anglo-Saxon democracy against the
totalitarian Axis powers. They were also both Anglicans from
genteel backgrounds and families of political note, both had served
in administrative governance of their respective navies, and both
were master communicators, with special appreciation for the
literature of Anglo-American civilization.
In what was surely a record for a visiting head of
government, Churchill stayed at the White House for much of three
weeks, strategizing, smoking, and drinking late with FDR, bending
the President to his own night owl habits. Churchill was a
demanding house guest and predictably annoyed a prim Eleanor
Roosevelt, who thought the loquacious British imperialist a
sometimes less than ideal influence on her husband, both in
politics and personal habits. Beyond Eleanor, Churchill’s visit was
a public relations smash. FDR had him stand on a chair in his
crowded office so all the White House press could see the premier.
Churchill joined FDR on the White House balcony on Christmas Eve to
help light the National Christmas Tree. He later magisterially
addressed a joint session of Congress, which thrilled to his
recitation of Britain’s defiance of Hitler during the Blitz.
Churchill accompanied FDR to a wreath laying at Mt. Vernon,
honoring the American Founding Father who had defeated the British
monarchy in a war for independence. And Churchill accompanied FDR
twice to church, once on Christmas, and once on New Year’s
Day.
FDR was more of a faithful churchman than Churchill, who
reputedly had likened himself to a “flying buttress” who supported
the church from the “outside.” But both were reared in a similar
Anglican faith, accustomed to the Book of Common Prayer, and to the
great old Anglo and American hymns. Both appreciated the majesty
and symbolism of public worship, especially in war time, in vivid
contrast to the pagan Fascism of their enemies. At their August
1941 meeting in the North Atlantic, Churchill had organized worship
aboard HMS Prince of Wales and had selected “grand hymns”
for the “church parade”: “Onward Christian Soldiers,” “O God Our
Help in Ages Past,” and “Eternal Father Strong to Save.” Churchill
wept and later remembered it as a “great hour to live.” FDR
recalled to his son that singing “Onward Christian Soldiers” had
“cemented us.” Whatever the level of his personal faith, Churchill
portrayed the world struggle as “Christian civilization” against
Nazi darkness.
Now the host four months later and himself a sublime
practitioner of civil religion, FDR carefully chose where he and
his British visitor would worship. During the Christmas Eve tree
lighting on the White House south lawn, the Marine Band had
performed “Joy to the World” and the “Hallelujah Chorus” from
Handel’s “The Messiah.” On Christmas Day, FDR took Churchill to
Foundry Methodist Church, about a mile north of the White House. “I
like to sing hymns with the Methodys,” FDR has once chirpily
explained of his sometime attendance at Foundry, despite his being
Episcopalian. Various dignitaries joined them, including Army Chief
of Staff General George Marshall and Vice President Henry Wallace.
The minister prayed for “those who are dying on land and sea this
Christmas morning.” Churchill later remembered of the service:
“Certainly there was much to fortify the faith of all who believe
in the moral governance of the universe.” Surprisingly, it was the
first time Churchill ever heard “O Little Town of Bethlehem,”
written 75 years earlier by a Philadelphia pastor while visiting
the Holy Land during Christmas. Memorably, the hymn declares: “Yet
in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and
fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” According to
McCullough’s book, both FDR and Churchill typically “sang lustily,
if not exactly in tune.”
A week later, on New Year’s Day, FDR took Churchill to
Christ Episcopal Church in Alexandria, where George Washington and
Robert E. Lee regularly worshiped. There Churchill again shed tears
when he heard for the first time another song, “The Battle Hymn of
the Republic,” which he later instructed be played at his funeral,
in 1965. Strangely, McCullough’s book, though named after “O Little
Town of Bethlehem,” never mentions it was sung at Foundry
Methodist. Instead, the book includes a photo of Churchill and FDR
departing Christ Episcopal Church, without explaining they were
there a week after Christmas.
Compensating for that oversight, McCullough’s book
includes a DVD of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Christmas
music, with McCullough narrating. Fewer than 40 pages,
In the Dark Streets Shineth: A
1941 Christmas Eve Story offers a pleasing
remembrance of a very dark moment in the world, when the light of
Christmas was especially needed.
