At the height of the Second World War, the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a statement to the Rt. Reverend Walter H. Gray, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut:
“The history of the church in this country is an essential part of our history as a nation. In all previous national crises men of religion have stood beside their fellow men and stood in the front ranks; the preacher was with the pioneers who rolled back the frontier; he was with the men who carried guns at Lexington and Gettysburg and Chateau-Thierry. To minister to the soldier who lies wounded and eager for the sight of home, to offer the final consolation of religion to the dying—these have been, and still are, the holy privileges of the Chaplain. To maintain a high resolve on the home front—a resolve based on spiritual values both on the field of battle and in the councils of peace—this has been, and still is, the supreme duty of the Church Militant. In these days of struggle which try every soul and every institution and every tradition, we are all in desperate need of a light that is not of men. May God grant that the Church will not fail in providing that light in our present darkness. For if we lack spiritual guidance for our immediate problems and set our feet in consequence upon obscure ways, our children shall wander for long years in a moral wilderness.”