Beginning at 9:30 a.m. EST today, you can watch the National Prayer Service at the Cathedral Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Washington. President Obama will be in attendance.
President Obama has been around the Episcopal Church a lot lately.
On Saturday, Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire gave the invocation at the Lincoln Memorial (video). Bishop Robinson detailed his experiences in a post entitled "i thank you God for most this amazing day", the first line of a poem by E. E. Cummings.
Yesterday, Cummings's words were sung in a setting by Eric Whitacre at St. John's, Lafayette Square, just a block from the White House. Then president-elect Obama was in the front pew.
Labels: Episcopal Church, National Cathedral, Obama, Whitacre
The Prelude should draw one into the service. In this instance, listening to "America the Beautiful" arranged by Carmen Dragon, I believed I was being drawn into a late 1930s Disney cartoon.
Luckily, Erik Wm. Suter was able to create a much more suitable prelude on the organ using America the Beautiful as a theme for a very refined improvisation.
But little does it matter on an occaision of such "civil religion", because there is a great deal of unscripted maneuvering that has to occur. There are a couple of band numbers after Suter's prelude and before Bishop Chane's reception of the body.
But from what I can tell from the streaming audio, and my memory of Ronald Reagan's funeral (11 June 2004), this manuevering music is performed from outside the cathedral, and so it is the organ that has the last word from the liturgical authorities.
There's only so much of the state that the church should let inside, really. And thank goodness for that. Only those of you who were able to watch on television will know whether George W. Bush was able to follow the verger this time. Judging from the audio, he does seem to get to the microphone very quickly.
The Old Testament Lesson, Isaiah 40:28:31 was also read at Reagan's funeral. This lection, however, is not perscribed by the Book of Common Prayer. Neither is the New Testament Lesson as it was read (through the first part of verse six, not the entire verse). So I have to agree that it was a silly case of scripture splicing, but I think it's unpastoral to hold Gerald Ford and his family to BCP rubrics on this reading, and not the other two.
Tangent: Robert Certain alluded to the 2006 General Convention in his sermon. Turns out he updated a blog during the convention.
Labels: BCP, funeral, George W Bush, Gerald Ford, National Cathedral, organ, scripture, verger
Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States has died. He was an Episcopalian.
We at Sinden.org are looking forward to his televised funeral and plan to watch it Reagan style: with the Book of Common Prayer in hand a few cold ones nearby. It should be good!
You know, because the choirs at the National Cathedral just haven't had a whole lot to do lately.
Labels: Gerald Ford, National Cathedral
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