The world’s eyes were focused on America for obvious reasons on July the 4th to celebrate its 250th anniversary, for all that that supreme showman Donald Trump somehow managed to put himself centre stage into many of the key proceedings.

I was reminded of the occasion when we were driving along a highway in Oregon on the first full day of our extended sabbatical in America in 1996. Pulling into a rest area, I was delighted to find that ourselves being offered free drinks. When I asked the reason why they explained that they were celebrating being free from the tyrannical British rulers. “A great and worthy cause,” was all I could think to reply! We were indeed present, staying with Christian midwifery friends for the July 4th celebrations. But how sad that things developed as they did 250 years ago . . .

When the Second Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition in July 1775, in a final attempt to avoid war between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in America, the petition affirmed American loyalty to Great Britain, and entreated King George III to prevent further conflict. In his arrogance the king refused even to look at it, declared Americans to be traitors and promptly hired 30,000 German mercenaries to go and crush the rebels.

In truth, matters were more complicated. The Olive Branch petition would not have been successful even if the king’s attitude had been different, because the battles of Concord, Lexington and Bunker Hill had already happened, and British lives had been lost. Worse, Congress promptly authorised the invasion of Canada, and the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, made its success impossible in the eyes of a legalistically-minded constitutionalist like George, who considered the Americans to be hypocrites and acting in bad faith.

It was certainly a major political blunder on the king’s part, though, because it distanced him from the moderates in Congress, and guaranteed that Radicals like John Adams would triumph, and that bloodshed would continue in yet greater measure – especially with the Americans then calling in France to come to their rescue. The rest is history: Britain lost its colonies!

We’re so sorry Lord for all such pride and blunders – and history continues as a living matter, with Donald Trump regarding Britain as having let America down very badly by not supporting it more in its war with Iran. Although relationships hopefully remain strong behind the scenes, not least at an intelligence level, Trump has certainly pushed US-UK relationships to the lowest point in my lifetime, with the president saying that henceforth he would much rather support Hungary and Poland than leftist Britain.

It is highly likely that Trump’s virulent attacks on Sir Keir Starmer, and now increasingly on Andy Burnham, are largely designed, as he sees it, to reinforce support for the man he regards as his pal, Nigel Farage. (Farage himself is finding himself subject to unwelcome scrutiny as a result of gifts he received – whereas Andy Burnham is benefitting in the short term from not having his plans and policies scrutinised – though that may prove to be a weakness in the longer term.)

As we confess the sins and mistakes of the past, we pray Lord, save and preserve both America and Great Britain from extremism and tyranny of ALL shades and kinds at this time, and from unwisdom in our appointments and policies.

What an incredible job Ukraine has done in being the bulwark against Russian expansionism. Praise God for Ukrainian ingenuity and the help of Germany in particular to speed up its own weapon-making capacity, to transform it from a donor-based recipient (with all the holdups caused imported systems not being compatible or working properly) to one that is producing its own resources, despite its small and struggling economy.

And this at the very time when a large number of media outlets, including the Telegraph and the Independent have been reporting that US intelligence services are passing on warnings to Poland that Russia may be planning to launch a major provocative action against Poland, and/or possibly some Baltic states in the next few months, in order to do significant damage to those nations’ infrastructure, and to compel them to focus on defending themselves and to stop supporting Ukraine – all whilst gambling that they can stop short of provoking a major NATO response.

As a determined ju-jitsu fighter, Putin does not know the meaning of the word to back down, so we can take it for granted that this possibility will be being discussed in depth in the Kremlin circles. It is well established now that extremely sophisticated drones operating from one of the adapted Russian shadow fleet ships have been making extensive surveys of the nuclear sites and advanced infrastructures in Britain, France, Germany the Netherlands and other countries over the past few months – and have found our defences against this to be utterly inadequate. (Such air defences as Europe possesses are designed to intercept high-flying missiles – not low incoming drones; there is a huge need here to play catchup).

Yet again this highlights the fact that Britain has been astonishingly complacent in thinking that we are ‘safe until 2030’ – as if we could suddenly scale up our defences at one go at that point. It is true that Russia is probably not in any position to launch a full-scale conventional war at the moment because its forces are tied up in Ukraine – not to mention having lost a staggering 26,000 fighters in June alone, with a further 14,000 injured. Nevertheless, but this kick-the-can-down-the-road approach feels very naive – not least in terms of facing the reality of the vast amount of harm that Russia is already causing in other ways.

Try looking up on your browser some questions such as ‘Are American intelligence services warning that Russia is about to launch an attack on Poland?’

Quite simply, the will has simply not been there in successive governments to fund the defence of the country properly – and this at a time when Germany is considering reintroducing conscription next year.

Despite the huge economic pressures that Putin is finding himself obliged to admit that Russia is now suffering, he is still in the relatively luxurious position of being able to call off the combat at any point if he so wishes along ceasefire lines of the territory currently conquered. There is no doubt but that he has launched intense and deadly attacks on Ukrainian cities in the immediate run up to the NATO defence Conference in Ankara to make his anger plain.

Lord, the Russian bear is wounded and angry: we pray that You will contain it.

The bear has long been fed a relentless diet of lies; bring again the word of truth to its people we pray – and the humility to move beyond the sense of being a superior special nation, for this is every bit as deeply engrained as it is in amongst Americans.

We give the whole situation to You, and especially those who are grieving, wounded, or on the front line today.

We can pray, sing or apply this on behalf of many who are wounded, grieving, shaken and devastated in Ukraine at the moment as the result of the murderous 11-hour barrage of ballistic missiles and drones that killed so many in one night recently. (Particularly deadly because not only can the ballistic missiles not be intercepted without more Patriot defence systems, but also because Russia has developed jet-powered drones capable of travelling at 500 kmph, which are too fast for Ukrainian interceptors to bring down).