Looking Back: "An Altar Unto the Lord"

From June 1945

“AN ALTAR UNTO THE LORD”

By the Rev. W. G. A. Wright, C.F.

Late in January an assault landing was made on one of the islands off the coast of Burma, foremost in which were the men of a famous and well tried Regiment. Advancing along many miles of difficult country, often in face of enemy opposition, and bivouacking here and there along the road, we finally made our objective, the “capital” of the island.

MAKING A CHAPEL

It was even while we were settling into the “town” that work was begun on a building to be used as a Chapel. A little wooden one-roomed house, the floor upraised from the ground, as is characteristic of houses in these parts, and windows letting in an abundance of light, and a verandah as an entrance, the edifice was formerly an opium shop!

But despite its earlier associations, no building could better have been chosen for its central situation in the camp and for its convenience in furnishing. The Communion Table, wooden Cross, prayer desk, lectern and pews were all made of material salvaged from a hospital that had been shattered by blast from bombs; the “chancel steps” were formerly a three-tiered stand in the market-place, hardly now recognisable as it stands in front of the Table, covered with new matting which is fastened to the floor by wooden moulding. Curtains and Bible-markers were made from cloth obtained locally and a window served as a hymn-board. The chapel was also beautified by the adornments of a Cross from the Island of Iona and a brass alms dish from the Gold Coast. In the grounds of the Church a board was erected with small white Cross surmounting, to indicated the Church, and we were not without even a Wayside Pulpit!

A HOUSE OF PRAYER

Thus was “an altar built unto the Lord” in a strange land and the voice of Christian praise and prayer uplifted among an alien people. Here did men of all denominations worship God, here were the holy mysteries celebrated and daily prayers offered, here did they record, by name and home address in a visitors’ book, that they had visited the shrine and here must many a man’s thoughts have fled to those homes and Churches in the homeland which they had left behind and which they hoped to see again, and here would they have prayed that “the shadow of God’s Presence around our camp be spread.”

But to the craftsmen of the Chapel must have come the greatest thrill of satisfaction that their gifts and abilities were being used in the highest service of all and that by their work, done in gratitude and humility, their comrades were enabled to render to God their worship in a finely-wrought house of prayer.

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