Rt Revd Dr Richard Chartres was speaking at the bicentenary service for the nineteenth century war.
He called for the Battle of Waterloo to be better understood so that the country is able to learn from it and work together for a better future.
Dr Richard Chartres said: "The past cannot be changed but we are responsible for how we remember it.
"What we extract and carry forward from what has gone before creates possibilities for the future or closes them off.
"In a sense we remember the future."
He was preaching at a service at St Paul's Cathedral to mark the 200th anniverary of the battle.
On July 18th 1815, 180,000 men fought for a day with horses and cannons, where the Duke of Wellington's Allied Forces and Gebhard von Blücher's Prussian army defeated the French commander Napoleon's forces.
The battle took place in Waterloo, which is in Belgium but was then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Both the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were present at the service, along with the Prime Minister David Cameron.
The UK's armed forces were also represented, as well as all countries that took part in the battle.
