Churchill's advisor/daily prayer?

[Mrs. Matthews]

I received this tidbit of "history" (?) today via email:

During WW II, there was an advisor to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every night at a prescribed
hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people, and peace. This had an amazing effect as bombing stopped.

Now, I don't think there is any thing wrong with praying, so I am not trying to be snarky about that. But the claim that Churchill's advisor organized synchronized prayer just seems UL-ish to me, especially when paired with the claim that "bombing stopped." Just for the minute while they were praying?

When I did a google search, all I came up with was this exact story word-for-word.

[Stoneage Dinosaur]

During WW II, there was an advisor to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every night at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people, and peace. This had an amazing effect as bombing stopped.

Unfortunately this Anglocentric group neglected to pray for the safety of the rest of Britain, so God simply diverted the bombs to fall on Scotland and Wales instead.

[gopher]

I suppose you could argue that the divine will guided the development of radar, Proximity fused shells and such.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Stoneage Dinosaur

Unfortunately this Anglocentric group neglected to pray for the safety of the rest of Britain, so God simply diverted the bombs to fall on Scotland and Wales instead.

Not only that, but when they stopped praying, the bombs fell again. You need prayers with some stamina...

[Andrew of Ware]

People were praying for peace right through the war and when it eventually came you could argue that it was because of the prayers. You could also argue it was due to the allied armies defeating the axis armies.

(I am a Christian and believe in the power of prayer, but I could - for example - pray for a week without rain. When such a week comes I could argue that it was due to my prayers, but it might just be due to natural circumstances.)

[Ramblin' Dave]

Doesn't sound like there's much question here about it being true, but I feel safe in saying it isn't. I've read a number of biographies of Churchill and I don't recall ever reading anything like that!

[Squirt]

There was a National Day of Prayer around the time of Dunkirk, but I think that was an official thing, suggested by the Church and declared by the Government, rather than a "circle of friends" thing that this suggests.

As far as I can find out, V2 bombs were dropping on Britain right up to late March 1945. Presumably these people only decided to pray for peace after nearly six years of war, when Germany was clearly beaten and the war was almost over anyway.