Religion: For All Time

Give us Peace for all time, O Lord, and fill my heart and the hearts of all men everywhere with the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Since the Crisis last September, this simple prayer has arisen daily at high noon throughout Britain, on the lips or in the hearts of countless Christians. In Britain, which has been perhaps more hag-ridden by fear of war than any other nation, the spread of this prayer unites Anglicans and Nonconformists as they have not been united in centuries. The sponsor of the 27-word petition is the League of Prayer and Service, which thereby has become England's biggest religious organization: no less than 2,500,000 people have enrolled for its prayer cards.

Founder of the League two years ago was a tall, gaunt Anglican, Rev. Wallace Harold Elliott, 54, vicar of swank St. Michael's Church in London. Vicar Elliott is England's most famed "Radio Parson," has been longer on the British air—seven and a half years—than any other churchman. His League, however, did not begin piling up memberships until he, another Anglican, a Baptist and a Congregationalist vowed themselves to Peace at the Unknown Soldier's tomb in Westminster Abbey last Armistice Day. Then, like other Englishmen with a cause in their hearts, they wrote a letter about it to the Times.

Last week Vicar Elliott wound up his League's pre-Easter push, which has enrolled 6.000 people a week, by speaking to rallies in Folkestone and Reading. In recent months he has packed halls, turned crowds away throughout England. His physical labors for the League are no fun. Mr. Elliott loathes trains, grimly smokes his pipe and speaks to no one while traveling. Insomniac even in his own bed, he sleeps little—save with sleeping powders—in hotels.