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Church Services
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Church Services
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This file unit contains material related to St. John's Church in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.
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Betty Ford White House Papers
First Lady General Subject Files
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The original documents are located in Box 32, folder "Church Services" of the Betty Ford
White House Papers, 1973-1977 at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Betty Ford donated to the United States
of America her copyrights in all of her unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
St. John's Church
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
N
PRIN
WASHINGTON
(IPIO
ERAT
VER
BUM
October 3, 1976
Dear Friends,
Now that the General
Convention is over the Church
can get back to business, not
necessarily business as usual
but exercise a strong minis-
try for the present and into
the future. Not all of the
issues confronting the Church
have been solved by any means
and we at St. John's will
have to think through the im-
plications of many of them,
especially as they affect
this parish. However, the
Convention was on the whole
a constructive one, the Church is still standing, and
Episcopalians will continue to work together in the name
of Christ.
One who was at the Convention and who is a leader on
the National Church level will preach to us this Sunday.
The Reverend Samuel Van Culin is Executive for National
and World Mission on the staff of the Executive Council
of the Episcopal Church Center in New York City. It will
be a particular pleasure to welcome him back to St. John's
since he served as assistant minister here from 1958 to
1960. Mr. Van Culin's position in the Church uniquely
fits him for a wider view of many of our present issues
and concerns. It will be great to have him back home at
St. John's Church.
Faithfully yours,
10h Rector
Sunday, October 3, 1976
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
8:00 A.M. Holy Communion
9:00 A.M. Holy Communion and Sermon by the Rev.
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
Samuel Van Culin
WASHINGTON
9:45 A.M. Coffee Hour
9:45 A.M. Adult Forum
THE REVEREND JOHN C. HARPER, D.D., RECTOR
11:00 A.M. HOLY COMMUNION AND SERMON BY THE REV.
SAMUEL VAN CULIN
11:00 A.M. Church School
12:00 Noon Coffee Hour
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost - October 3, 1976
12:15
P.M.
St. John's Guild Meeting
12:15 P.M. Christian Education Committee Meeting
11:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION AND SERMON
12:15 P.M. Family Lunch
4:00 P.M. Service in French
Prelude: Sonata in E Flat
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Charles Kopfstein-Penk, flautist
Holy Communion is celebrated on Mondays,
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 12:10
Processional Hymn 285
Covenant
P.M. Organ recitals are performed on
Order for Holy Communion, Prayer Book, page 67
Wednesdays at 12:10 P.M. in the church.
"Focal Point" is from 11:30 A.M. to 1:30
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 50:5-9a
P.M. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays.
Read by Karen Hagerty
Motet: "Keep Not Thou Thy Silence"
THE FALL "FOCAL POINT" PROGRAM is now underway. On Tues-
Hovhaness (b. 1911)
day, October 5, Archaesus Productions will perform in the
Epistle: James 2:14-18
courtyard at 12:30 P.M. And on Thursday, October 7, films
starring W.C. Fields will be shown in the Dining Room at
Hymn 290
Universal Praise
11:30 A.M. Join us for lunch and a noontime change of pace.
(Children leave for classes)
Gospel: Mark 8:27-38
THE GENERAL CONVENTION last week voted overwhelming appro-
Sermon: The Rev. Samuel Van Culin
val to the first major revision of the Church's historic
Executive for National and World
Book of Common Prayer in 427 years. The House of Bishops
approved a joint resolution with the Deputies designed to
Mission of the Episcopal Church
put the book into use. The new version, however, must
Nicene Creed, page 71
still gain the approval of the next General Convention of
the Church in 1979 before it becomes the official prayer
Confession and Intercessions, page 74
book for the Episcopal Church. In the meantime, the former
Offertory: "The Lord is my Shepherd"
Book of Common Prayer is authorized for use in the Church.
Vaughan-Williams (1872-1958)
BAZAAR NOTE: The Book Stall needs new and used books,
The Holy Communion, continued, page 76
hard cover and paperback, of recent vintage or first
Hymn 309
Creation
editions; dictionaries, encyclopedias, children's books,
and cookbooks. Please deliver to the Parish House between
Postlude: Prelude in F Minor
J.S. Bach
Novem" er 7 and 11, or contact Miss Dillon at 462-4134.
The musical setting for the
Holy Communion is by Gerald Near (20th Cent.).
9:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION AND SERMON
ST. JOHN'S SEMINARIAN ASSISTANTS for 1976-77 are Anne
Prelude: Chorale Preludes
Willan (b. 1880)
Gavin Amy and David Lee
Hymn 312
York
Manning. Both Anne and
The Holy Communion, Green Folder, page 1
David are in their second
years of study at Virginia
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 50:5-9a
Theological Seminary. Anne
Read by Heather Faulkner
is from New York State where
Epistle: James 2:14-18
she graduated with a B.A.
Hymn 297
Durham
degree in music education
Gospel: Mark 8:27-38
from Adelphi University.
Sermon: The Rev. Samuel Van Culin
She is married to Jonathan
Executive for National and World
Amy who is currently a
Mission of the Episcopal Church
first-year student at
The Holy Communion, continued, page 3
Georgetown Dental School.
Offertory: "O Praise the Lord"
Batten (1585-1637)
David Manning is a native of
Prayer of Consecration, page 5
Arlington, Virginia. He
Hymn 489
Sicilian Mariners
graduated from George Mason
Postlude: Prelude in F Minor
J.S. Bach
High School in Falls Church
and has been a member of The
+
Falls Church which serves as
Motet at 11:00 A.M.
his home parish. David re-
Keep not Thou silence, 0 God: Hold not Thy peace, and
ceived his B.A. in American
be not still, 0 God. (Psalm 83:1)
History from the University
of Kentucky, where he was a
Offertory at 11:00 A.M.
member of Delta Tau Delta
fraternity, the Historical
(23rd Psalm)
Honorary Society and the
Dean's Advisory Commitee for Residential Life.
THE USHERS: 9:00 A.M. William Besuden and John Loud.
11:00 A.M. Kells Boland, Michael Card, James Cavanaugh,
THE ADULT FORUM for October 3 at 10:00 A.M. will be a
Fritz-Alan Korth, Robert Park, C. Jackson Ritchie, Hill
film on Children's Hospital's Child-Life program. Mrs.
Rylander and John Winant.
Beverley Johnson from Children's Hospital will be avail-
able to discuss the film. The Adult Forum meets on Sun-
A TOUR OF THE CHURCH is conducted following the 11:00
days in the Dining Room of the Parish House.
A.M. Service. Please meet the guide, Mr. Frederick Drum
Hunt, at the pulpit at the conclusion of the Service.
THE RECTOR'S COMMITTEE will meet at the Rectory on Wed-
nesday evening, October 6 at 7:30 P.M. Please note the
IN RECEIVING THE HOLY COMMUNION communicants are asked
change in time. If you will be unable to attend this
to assist the clergy by guiding the base of the chalice
meeting, please call the Rector's secretary at 347-8766.
as they receive the Wine.
A LAY COMMITTEE TO WORK WITH OUR SEMINARIANS has been
THE RECTOR'S SERMONS are available in the Narthex.
appointed. The following people will serve on this
committee with Dr. Williams: Ms. Mary Ellen Benard, Lt.
THE MINISTERS of St. John's are always glad to take the
Col. Powell Hutton, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lottmann, Robert
Communion to shut-ins, and appreciate being told when
Patchell and Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Williams.
any members of the parish family are in the hospital.
Second Class Postage
I id at
Washin on, D. C.
The Leaflet of
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
Lafayette Square, Washington, D. C. 20005
(Published weekly except during July and August)
FORD
'&
LIBRARI
BEKALD
THE REV. JOHN C. HARPER, D.D., Rector
THE REV. DAVID A. WILLIAMS, D. MIN.
THE REV. PETER M. LARSEN
ALBERT RUSSELL, Organist and Choirmaster
HELEN PENN, Assistant Organist
Seminarian Assistants
Anne L. Amy
David L. Manning
THE PARISH STAFF: Col. John W. Maxwell, Administrative Assistant; Mrs. Nancy
Grimes, Rector's Secretary; Ms. Martha Steiger, Parish Secretary; Miss Betsy Heine,
Financial Secretary; Miss Jana Hahn, Staff Secretary; Mrs. William H. Smith, Jr., Church
School Director; Arthur Butler, Verger; John Chalmers, Sexton; Marion Hicks, Assistant
Sexton; Mrs. Marybelle Blount, Housekeeper; Donald C.J. Gray, Head Usher; Mrs.
Robert D. Patchell, Editor of the Leaflet.
THE VESTRY: The Hon. Samuel Spencer, Senior Warden; C. Jackson Ritchie, Jr.,
Junior Warden; Rear Adm. Herbert S. Howard, Warden Emeritus; The Hon. Theodore C.
Achilles, Mrs. James Cavanaugh, Donald C. J. Gray, John Peters Irelan, Carter E.
Keithley, Miss Eleanore Leech, James R. Lowe, Jr., J. Robert MacNaughton, Mrs. Carl
McGowan, Robert E. Park, Mrs. John Sherman, John H. Winant, Fritz-Alan Korth,
Treasurer; Laurance M. Redway, Assistant Treasurer; Mrs. K. Georg Gabriel, Register.
ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH has served Washington since 1816 when the church
was built from plans of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, an architect of The Capitol. Since then
every President of the United States has worshipped here. The Parish House was once
the residence of the British Minister. St. John's Church, designated a National Historic
Landmark, is a parish in the Diocese of Washington.
PARISH HOUSE 1525 H STREET, N.W., THE TELEPHONE NUMBER IS 347-8766.
A tour of the church is conducted each Sunday following the 11:00 a.m. service.
(Please meet the guide at the pulpit)
Some items in this folder were not digitized because it contains copyrighted
materials. Please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library for access to
these materials.
X LEAFLET
SEP 26 1976
FORD
Twenty-Sixth
Sunday
in
The way is easy
Ordinary
that leads to
Time
destruction
The glory of life forever
is worth any sacrifice-
and the horror of sin is
beyond imagining. So be
The gate is
for Christ, trusting in His
narrow and
help, for when we pace
the narrow way to
the way is hard
heaven we are walking
that leads to
in His footsteps.
life
VIRGINIA BRODERICK
You who dwell in the shelter of the
Cantor: Bless the Lord, all you his
Most High,
angels,
who abide in the shadow of the
his ministers who do his will.
Almighty,
R. Alleluia.
Say to the Lord, "My refuge and my
fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."
PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS
R. He has put his angels in charge of
Father,
you, to guard you in all your
accept the gifts we bring you
ways.
in honor of your holy angels.
For he will rescue you from the snare
Under their constant care,
of the fowler,
keep us free from danger in this life
from the destroying pestilence.
and bring us to the joy of eternal life,
where Jesus is Lord for ever and ever.
With his pinions he will cover you,
and under his wings you shall take
R. Amen.
refuge.
R. He has put his angels in charge of
COMMUNION ANTIPHON
you, to guard you in all your
In the sight of the angels I will sing
ways.
your praises, my God.
(Ps 137:1)
His faithfulness is a buckler and a
shield.
You shall not fear the terror of the
PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
night
Let us pray.
nor the arrow that flies by day;
Pause for silent prayer, if this has not
Not the pestilence that roams in
preceded.
darkness
Lord,
nor the devastating plague at noon.
you nourish us with the sacraments of
R. He has put his angels in charge of
eternal life.
you, to guard you in all your
By the ministry of your angels
ways.
lead us into the way of salvation and
No evil shall befall you,
peace.
nor shall affliction come near your
We ask this in the name of Jesus the
tent,
Lord.
For to his angels he has given
R. Amen.
command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.
R. He has put his angels in charge of
you, to guard you in all your
ways.
NIHIL OBSTAT: GEORGE J. Ziskovsky,
ALLELUIA
Censor Deputatus
(If not sung, may be omitted)
IMPRIMATUR: X JOHN R. ROACH, D.D.
Cantor: Alleluia.
Archbishop of Saint Paul
R. Alleluia.
and Minneapolis
Anima Christi
Soul of Christ sanctify me; Body of Christ save me; Blood of Christ
inebriate me; water from the side of Christ wash me; passion of
Christ strengthen me. O good Jesus hear me; within Your wounds
hide me; never permit me to be separated from You; from the evil
one protect me, at the hour of my death call me, and bid me come
to You that with Your saints I may-praise You forever. Amen.
English translation approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and confirmed by the
Apostolic See. Published by authority of the Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy. Hymns copyright
© 1966-Benziger Edition, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Benziger, Inc. Scripture texts from The New
American Bible © 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine are used herein by license of said
copyright owner. All rights reserved. Works of art copyright © Leaflet Missal Co. All rights are
reserved.
6
Let There Be Peace on Earth
Sy Miller and
Jill Jackson
Let there be peace on earth And let it be - gin with
me;
Let there be peace on earth, The peace that was
meant to
be.
With God as our Fa ther,
Broth ers all are we.
Let me walk with my. broth - er
In per - fect har - mo ny.
Let peace be - -
gin with me, Let this be the mo ment now.
With
ev - ery step I take, Let this be my sol = emn vow:
To
take each mo- ment and live each mo-ment In peace e - ter. nal - -
1.
ly.
Let there be peace on earth And let it be.
2. a
is
gin with me.
let
it
be
gin
with
me.
©
Copyright 1955 by Jan-Lee Music. Used by permission.
CONGREGATIONAL SINGING
An American Hymn
Setting Cecil Effinger
Congregation, Choirs, Organ
I
III
O beautiful for spacious skies
o beautiful for heroes proved
For amber waves of grain,
In liberating strife,
For purple mountain majesties
Who more than self
Above the fruited plain!
their country loved,
America! America!
And mercy more than life.
God shed His grace on thee,
America! America!
And crown thy good
May God thy gold refine,
with brotherhood,
Till all success be nobleness
From sea to shining sea.
And ev'ry gain divine.
II
IV
O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
O beautiful for patriot dream
Whose stern impassioned stress,
That sees beyond the years,
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Across the wilderness.
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw.
God shed His grace on thee,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
And crown thy good
Thy liberty in law.
with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.
FORD + LIDRARY
(Please Turn)
St. John's Church
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
IN
PRIN
(1P10
WASHINGTON
ERAT
VER
September 19, 1976
Dear Friends,
As most of you know, I had open heart surgery un-
expectedly in early July. The doctors assure me that
there is no reason why I should not be fully recovered,
and I return this week-end from several weeks at our
summer home at Cape Cod ready for work again at St.
John's. It will be a while before I'm back full time,
and I intend to do as the doctors tell me, even though
each day I feel stronger and more ready to resume my
ministry among you. It's been a frustrating summer for
me, but paradoxically also a good one in that I'm learn-
ing something about patience, where my real values lie,
and what I want to do with my life as one of God's
servants.
I hope you'll be patient with me as I regain my
strength. Dr. Kloman, who served here several years
ago as acting Rector, will help us during the week, and
my two valued colleagues David Williams and Peter
Larsen will continue to bring strength to the ministry
of the parish. My last Sunday with you was July 4th,
an anniversary of our nation; this Sunday, September
19th, will mark the beginning of a new ministry, yours
and mine, and I rejoice in it.
Church School opens this Sunday; everything else
that we do on week-ends seems to start up with fresh
enthusiasm, and you and I will find our places at St.
John's to offer our thanks and praises to God, and to
worship him with fellow parishioners and with our
friends who come here. Let's make it a great Sunday,
befitting the Lord who brings us together and who has
so bountifully sustained and blessed us.
of
FORD
Faithfully yours,
72h C. Harper
BERALDR
GERALD
LIBRARY
Rector
Sunday, September 19, 1976
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
8:00 A.M. Holy Communion
9:00 A.M. Holy Communion and Sermon by the Rector
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
9:45 A.M. Coffee Hour
WASHINGTON
9:45 A.M. Adult Forum
11:00 A.M. MORNING PRAYER AND SERMON BY THE RECTOR
THE REVEREND JOHN C. HARPER, D.D., RECTOR
12:00 Noon Coffee Hour
12:15 P.M. Family Lunch
4:00 P.M. Service in French
Holy Communion is celebrated every week-
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost - September 19, 1976
day at 12:10 P.M. Organ recitals on Wed-
nesdays at 12:10 P.M. begin October 6th.
11:00 A.M.
MORNING PRAYER AND SERMON
Prelude: "Beside Still Waters" Seth Bingham (b. 1882)
THE ADULT FORUM begins this week at 9:45 A.M. on Sunday.
Adagio in B Minor
Corelli (1653-1713)
The title for the series is "State of the Ties that Bind."
Processional Hymn 282
Lauda Anima
The first several weeks will be on Man, His Past, Present
and Future. On September 19 the Honorable William L. Hun-
The Order for Morning Prayer, Prayer Book, page 3
gate, M.D., Democrat from the 9th District of Missouri
will discuss "Public Life - A Private View." Congressman
Venite, page 9
Walter
Hungate, in his 14th year in the House of Representatives,
decided not to seek re-election. Mr. Hungate is a member
Psalm 113, page 484
of the House Judiciary and Small Business Committees. He
The Lessons: James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
is a graduate of the University of Missouri and Harvard
Mark 7:1-8
Law School. All members of the parish are welcome to
attend the Adult Forum series in the Dining Room.
Magnificat, page 26
Howells (b. 1892)
(Congregation seated)
MEMBERS OF THE ADULT FORUM TASK FORCE are: Carl N. Raether,
Chairman; Dr. David Williams, Ms. Mary Ellen Benard,
Apostles' Creed and Collects, pages 15-17
Micharl Card, Ms. Nancy Grimes, Ltc. Powell Hutton, Fred
Hymn 408
Hollingside
Kellogg, Carter Keithley, Stewart Knower, Jerome Lord,
Robert Park, Spence Perry, Douglas Picha, Larry Pless,
Church School Staff Installation
Mrs. Carl Raether, Mrs. Steven Skancke, William H. Smith,
Hymn 572
(Children leave for classes)
Maryton
Jr., Charles Stewart, and John H. Winant.
Offertory: "Sing Praises Ye Faithful"
J.S. Bach
"FOCAL POINT", St. John's noon time change of pace, began
(Sung in German)
(1685-1750)
on Tuesday, September 14. There will be programs and
musical presentations from 11:30 A.M. until 1:30 P.M.
Hymn 367
Laudes Domini
on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. A new natural foods
menu of soups, salads, sandwiches and desserts will be
Sermon: The Rector
available on those days. A French luncheon will be
available of Wednesdays. Come to St. John's Parish
Hymn 155
Melcombe
House and bring your friends and colleagues for a very
delightful meal and a refreshing break in your day.
Postlude: Toccata in F Major
J.S. Bach
9:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION AND SERMON
THE CHURCH SCHOOL opens this Sunday, September 19 at 11:00
Prelude: "Beside Still Waters"
A.M. The following persons will be teaching the Church
Seth Bingham
School classes:
Adagio in B Minor
Corelli
Hymn 367
Laudes Domini
Kindergarten - Larry Pless and Doreen Feerick
The Holy Communion, Green Folder, page 1
Old Testament Lesson: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6b-8
Grade One
- Chris Modlin
Read by Nancy Skancke
Epistle: James 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
Grade Two
- Steve and Nancy Skancke
Hymn 376
Down Ampney
Gospel: Mark 7:1-8
Grade Three - Betsy Harper
Sermon: The Rector
The Holy Communion, continued, page 3
Grade
Four
- Doug Picha
Offertory: "I Will Rejoice in the Lord"
Homilius (1714-1785)
Grade Five - David Manning and Chad Ritchie
Prayer of Consecration, page 5
Hymn 563
Grade Six
- Mary Ellen Benard and Brad MacKenzie
St. Dunstan's
Postlude: Toccata in F Major
J.S. Bach
Grade Seven - Anne Amy
+
The Director of the Church School is Mrs. William H. Smith,
Offertory at 11:00 A.M.
Jr. who will be assisted in the office by Alice MacKenzie.
Sing praises, ye faithful, your voices attune ye!
This season so joyous, this season so joyous! The
The Kindergarten and Grades 1 through 6 meet in the class-
Lord in our soul now a temple desireth. A pledge of
rooms on the fourth floor of the Parish House. Grades 7
peace from God I see When Thy pure eyes are turned to
and 8 meet on the second floor. New students in Grades
me to show me Thy good pleasure. Jesus, Thy Spirit
1 through 8 will be registered in their classrooms. New
and Thy Word, Thy body and Thy blood, afford My soul
students in the Kindergarten should be accompanied by
its dearest treasure. Keep me kindly In Thy favor, 0
their parents to the Church School Office on the fourth
my ,Savior! Thou wilt cheer me; Thy Word calls me to
floor of the Parish House where they will be registered.
draw near Thee.
All Church School students should accompany their parents
THE USHERS: 9:00 A.M. Carter Keithley and Laurance
to the 11:00 A.M. Service on September 19. There will be
Redway. 11:00 A.M. Peter Coburn, Kenneth Hagerty,
no Children's Chapel Service on this first Sunday. All
John Henry Hass, Robert Howells, Jerome Lord, William
teachers in the Church School will be installed during
Queen, Benajah Rainey and Charles Stewart.
the beginning of the 11:00 A.M. Service, after which
classes will begin.
THE FLOWERS on the Altar are in memory of A. Peter Dewey.
The Chapel flowers are in memory of Bryant S. Cooper.
UNIT I for the Church School will be six weeks long and
will focus on the subject "Women in the Bible."
A TOUR OF THE CHURCH is conducted following the 11:00
A.M. Service. Please meet the guide, Miss Virginia M.
THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH began on
Collins, at the pulpit at the conclusion of the Service.
September 11 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The two main
issues for this Convention are the Prayer Book revision
and the ordination of women to the priesthood. Daily re-
NURSERY CARE is provided during the 9:00 A.M. and 11:00
A.M. Services on the third floor of the Parish House.
ports of activities are available by dialing 800-282-8786.
Second Class Postage
Paid at
Washington, D.C.
The Leaflet of
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
Lafayette Square, Washington, D. C. 20005
(Published weekly except during July and August)
THE REV. JOHN C. HARPER, D.D., Rector
THE REV. DAVID A. WILLIAMS, D. MIN.
THE REV. PETER M. LARSEN
ALBERT RUSSELL, Organist and Choirmaster
HELEN PENN, Assistant Organist
Seminarian Assistants
Anne L. Amy
David L. Manning
THE PARISH STAFF: Col. John W. Maxwell, Administrative Assistant; Mrs. Nancy
Grimes, Rector's Secretary; Ms. Martha Steiger, Parish Secretary; Miss Betsy Heine,
Financial Secretary; Miss Jana Hahn, Staff Secretary; Mrs. William H. Smith, Jr., Church
School Director; Arthur Butler, Verger; John Chalmers, Sexton; Marion Hicks, Assistant
Sexton; Mrs. Marybelle Blount, Housekeeper; Donald C.J. Gray, Head Usher; Mrs.
Robert D. Patchell, Editor of the Leaflet.
THE VESTRY: The Hon. Samuel Spencer, Senior Warden; C. Jackson Ritchie, Jr.,
Junior Warden; Rear Adm. Herbert S. Howard, Warden Emeritus; The Hon. Theodore C.
Achilles, Mrs. James Cavanaugh, Donald C. J. Gray, John Peters Irelan, Carter E.
Keithley, Miss Eleanore Leech, James R. Lowe, Jr., J. Robert MacNaughton, Mrs. Carl
McGowan, Robert E. Park, Mrs. John Sherman, John H. Winant, Fritz-Alan Korth,
Treasurer; Laurance M. Redway, Assistant Treasurer; Mrs. K. Georg Gabriel, Register.
ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH has served Washington since 1816 when the church
was built from plans of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, an architect of The Capitol. Since then
every President of the United States has worshipped here. The Parish House was once
the residence of the British Minister. St. John's Church, designated a National Historic
Landmark, is a parish in the Diocese of Washington.
PARISH HOUSE 1525 H STREET, N.W., THE TELEPHONE NUMBER IS 347-8766.
A tour of the church is conducted each Sunday following the 11:00 a.m. service.
(Please meet the guide at the pulpit)
Saint
John's
Church
on Lafayette Square
in Washington
TO THIS CHURCH people from all walks of life come to
hear God's Word, to participate in the Sacraments, and
to worship God in the great tradition embodied in the
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Saint John's Church
today welcomes you who enter here, and bids you in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ to do likewise, and thereby
to acquire a higher vision and a deeper consecration.
The Reverend John C. Harper, D.D., Rector
The Reverend David A. Williams, D.Min.
The Reverend Peter M. Larsen
Albert Russell, Organist and Choirmaster
GEBRAD & FORD VIGRABLE
Helen Penn, Assistant Organist
The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - August 1, 1976
The Peace
8:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION
Priest: The Peace of the Lord be always with you.
9:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION AND SERMON
People: And also with you.
Prelude: Chorale Preludes
Karg-Elert (1877-1933)
THE CELEBRATION OF THE HOLY COMMUNION
Hymn 345
Dominus Regit Me
(The Priest, standing at the Holy Table, begins the
Offertory with this or some other Sentence of Scrip-
The Holy Communion, Green Folder, page 1
ture:)
Ascribe to the Lord the honour due his Name; bring
Collect
offerings and come into his courts. (Psalm 96:8)
Old Testament Lesson: Amos 7:10-15
The Great Thanksgiving
Read by James A. Pemberton, Jr.
(The People standing)
Epistle: Ephesians 1:3-14
Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Hymn 367
Laudes Domini
Priest: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Gospel: Mark 6:7-13
Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give him thanks and praise.
Sermon: The Rev. David A. Williams
Assistant Minister
It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and
everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth:
Nicene Creed, page 2
(Here may follow the Proper Preface of the day or season.)
Confession and Intercessions, page 3
Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with
Offertory: "My Song Is Love Unknown"
angels and archangels and with all the company of
Ireland (1879-1962)
heaven, who for ever sing this hymn to proclaim the
glory of your Name:
Prayer of Consecration, page 5
Priest Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and
and might, heaven and earth are full of your
Hymn 560
Pentecost
People: glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Postlude: Fantasie in G Minor
Bach (1685-1750)
Hosanna in the highest.
+
(The People kneeling)
ALL CHRISTIANS, including children of all ages, are
Holy and gracious Father, in your infinite love you
welcome to receive the Holy Communion at St. John's.
made us for yourself; and when we fell into sin and
became subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy,
THE USHERS: 9:00 A.M. William Besuden and Robert Burner.
sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share
11:00 A.M. Montague Blundon, James Cavanaugh, Martin
our human nature, to live and die as one of us to
Macy, Robert Park, Robert Patchell, Carl Raether,
reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.
Benajah Rainey and Jay Zeiler.
- 5 -
The Communion
He stretched out his arms upon the Cross, and offered
himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacri-
Priest: The Gifts of God for the People of God.
fice for all mankind.
(The Bread and the Cup are given with these words, to
On the night he was handed over to suffering and death,
which the communicant may respond, Amen.)
our Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had given
thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples,
The Body of Christ, the Bread of heaven.
and said, "Take this and eat it: This is my Body, which
The Blood of Christ, the Cup of salvation.
is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."
(After Communion, the Priest and People say:)
After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had
given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, "Drink this,
Eternal God, Heavenly Father, you have accepted us as
all of you: This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which
living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and
is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.
you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of
Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of
his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace,
me."
and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you
with gladness and singleness of heart. Amen.
Priest Christ has died,
and Christ is risen,
(The Priest will bless the People and then dismiss them
People: Christ will come again.
with these words:)
We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father,
Priest: The peace of God, which passes all understand-
in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and we
ing, keep your hearts and minds in the knowl-
offer you these Gifts. Sanctify them by your Holy
edge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus
Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your
Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God
Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in
Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
him. Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive
Spirit, be among you and remain with you al-
this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy,
ways. Amen.
and peace; and at the last day bring us with all your
saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.
Priest: Go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power
of the Spirit.
All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ: By him,
People: Thanks be to God.
and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy
Spirit all honour and glory is yours, Almighty Father,
now and for ever. Amen.
Worship is the united prayer of Christian people. It is
As our Savior Christ has taught us, we now pray,
fitting, therefore, that the people develop their worship
through use of different forms. The Episcopal Church is
The Lord's Prayer
using this Liturgy and other orders of service on a trial
basis so that its people may contribute to the development
The Breaking of the Bread
of public worship. The essential elements of the service
remain constant, but language and drama change as times
(A period of silence is kept, during which the Priest
and circumstances require. It is in the spirit of deepen-
breaks the consecrated Bread.)
ing and enriching our common prayer that we at St. John's
are using this Liturgy in our worship now.
Priest: Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
People: Therefore let us keep the feast.
Please leave this copy. If you would like a copy for
yourself, they are available in the tract rack in the
Narthex of the church.
- 6 -
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
PRIN
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
CIPIC
RA
VER
WASHINGTON
THE HOLY EUCHARIST
(A Service authorized for trial use by the General
Convention of the Episcopal Church)
****
Priest: Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
People: And blessed be his Kingdom, now and for ever.
Amen.
Priest: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open,
all desires known, and from you no secrets
are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that
we may perfectly love you, and worthily magni-
fy your holy Name; through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Priest: Lord, have mercy.
People: Christ, have mercy.
Priest: Lord, have mercy.
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD OF GOD
Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Priest: Let us pray.
The Collect of the Day
- 1 -
The Lesson (s)
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
(At the end of the Gospel, the Priest says:)
Confession of Sin
The Gospel of the Lord.
Priest: Let us confess our sins against God and
our neighbor.
People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.
(A period of silence is observed.)
Here may follow the Sermon
Priest Most merciful God, we confess that we
(On Sundays there follows,)
and
have sinned against you in thought,
People: word and deed: we have not loved you
The Nicene Creed
with our whole heart; we have not
loved our neighbors as ourselves. We
We believe in one God,
pray you of your mercy forgive what
the Father, the Almighty,
we have been, amend what we are, direct
maker of heaven and earth,
what we shall be; that we may delight
of all that is seen and unseen.
in your will, and walk in your ways,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
Priest: Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive
eternally begotten of the Father,
you all your sins, through our Lord
God from God, Light from Light,
Jesus Christ; strengthen you in all
true God from true God,
goodness, and by the power of the Holy
begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.
Spirit, keep you in eternal life. Amen.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
THE PRAYERS
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
With all our heart and with all our mind, let us
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
pray to the Lord, saying, "Lord, have mercy".
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
For the peace of the world, for the welfare of the
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
holy Church of God, and for the unity of all man-
he ascended into heaven
kind,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
let us pray to the Lord.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the
dead,
Lord, have mercy.
and his kingdom will have no end.
For William our Bishop and John his Suffragan, and
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of
for all the clergy and people,
life, who proceeds from the Father.
let us pray to the Lord.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and
glorified.
Lord, have mercy.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
- 2
- 3 -
11:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION AND SERMON
For our President, for the leaders of the nations,
and for all in authority,
Prelude: Sonata in A Minor, for Flute unaccompanied
let us pray to the Lord.
Charles Kopfstein-Penk, flautist J.S. Bach
Lord, have mercy.
Processional Hymn 367
Laudes Domini
For this city of Washington, for every city and com-
Order for Holy Communion, Green Folder, page 1
munity, and for those who live in them,
let us pray to the Lord.
Collect
Lord, have mercy.
Old Testament Lesson: Amos 7:10-15
For the aged and infirm, for widows and orphans, and
Read by Pamela Lottmann
for the sick and the suffering,
let us pray to the Lord.
Epistle: Ephesians 1:3-14
Lord, have mercy.
Hymn 290
Universal Praise
For the poor and the oppressed, for prisoners and
captives, and for all who remember and care for them,
Gospel: Mark 6:7-13
let us pray to the Lord.
Sermon: The Rev. David A. Williams
Lord, have mercy.
Assistant Minister
For all who have died in the hope of the resurrection,
Nicene Creed, page 2
and for all the departed,
let us pray to the Lord.
Confession and Intercessions, page 3
Lord, have mercy.
Offertory: "Draw Us In the Spirit's Tether"
In the Communion of Saints, let us commend ourselves,
Friedell (20th Cent.)
and one another, and all our life, to Christ our God.
Prayer of Consecration, page 5
To you, O Lord, our God.
Hymn 293
Doncaster
(A brief silence is then observed, during which members
of the congregation may request prayers for their spe-
Postlude: Fantasie in G Minor
Bach (1685-1750)
cial concerns.)
+
Lord Jesus Christ: who has given us grace at this time
with one accord to make our common supplication; and
has promised that when two or three are agreed together
DR. WILLIAMS leaves this week for his vacation; Mr.
in your Name you will grant their requests; Fulfill now,
Larsen will be in charge of the parish until Labor Day.
O Lord, our desires and petitions, as may be best for
us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth,
THE FLOWERS in the Chapel are in memory of Edwin Gissing
and in the world to come life everlasting; through your
mercy, O Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy
and Robert Henry Allsopp, Jr.
Spirit be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
A TOUR OF THE CHURCH is conducted following the 11:00
A.M. Service. Please meet the guide, Ann Hume Loikow,
at the pulpit at the conclusion of the Service.
- 4 -
St. John's Church, established in 1815, stands opposite the
White House on the north side of Lafayette Square, once known
as Federal or President's Square. It was organized to serve as a
parish church for occupants of the White House and their
families. James Madison, in office in 1815, was a communicant,
and every Chief Executive since has attended regular or occa-
sional services. Hence St. John's has become known as the
"Church of the Presidents." Pew 54 is the traditional President's
Pew and there is a 1789 Prayer Book in the church's archives
bearing in gold letters the inscription "President's Pew." It is
brought out for use on official occasions. The architect of the
church was Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who also restored the
Capitol and the White House after they were partially destroyed
by fire in the War of 1812.
The stained glass windows of the church are regarded as good
examples of the craft of the past century. Most of them were
designed and executed in France about 1885. A few modern win-
dows have since been added, notably the two "Sacramental Win-
dows" of translucent blue in the north transept and the McCants
and Red Cross windows directly opposite in the south transept.
Descriptive leaflets on the windows may be found in the Narthex.
The Parish House adjoining the church at 1525 H Street was
once the British Legation where Lord Ashburton and Daniel
Webster signed the treaty fixing the Canadian border between the
New England States and the Maritime Provinces.
St. John's continues to be an active parish of about 1200
communicants, maintaining a strong program in the city and in
the Diocese of Washington. Newcomers are invited to become
members of the Parish and visitors are always welcome at services
and parish activities.
Saint
John's
Church
on Lafayette Square
in Washington
TO THIS CHURCH people from all walks of life come to
hear God's Word, to participate in the Sacraments, and
to worship God in the great tradition embodied in the
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Saint John's Church
today welcomes you who enter here, and bids you in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ to do likewise, and thereby
to acquire a higher vision and a deeper consecration.
The Reverend John C. Harper, D.D., Rector
The Reverend David A. Williams, D.Min.
The Reverend Peter M. Larsen
BERALO $ FORD AMERICA
Albert Russell, Organist and Choirmaster
Helen Penn, Assistant Organist
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost - July 25, 1976
11:00 A.M.
MORNING PRAYER AND SERMON
8:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION
Prelude: Sonata in C
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
Charles Kopfstein-Penk, flautist
9:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION AND SERMON
Processional Hymn 266
Nicaea
Prelude: Chorale Preludes
J.S. Bach (1685-1750)
The Order for Morning Prayer, Prayer Book, page 3
Hymn 266
Nicaea
Venite, page 9
Monk
The Holy Communion, Green Folder, page 1
Psalm 123, page 503
Collect
First Lesson: II Corinthians 12:7-10
Old Testament Lesson: Ezekiel 2:2-5
Read by Jeanie ,Smith
Benedictus es, Domine, page 11
Sowerby
(Congregation seated)
(1895-1968)
Epistle: II Corinthians 12:7-10
Second Lesson: Mark 6:1-6
Hymn 346
St. Elisabeth
Hymn 541
Conquest
Gospel: Mark 6:1-6
Apostles' Creed and Collects, pages 15-17
Sermon: The Rev. David A. Williams
Assistant Minister
Intercessions
Nicene Creed, page 2
Offertory: "Brother James' Air"
arr. Trew (20th Cent.)
Confession and Intercessions, page 3
Hymn 539
Truro
Offertory: "O God From Whom All Joyous Strengths"
Williams (b. 1887)
Sermon: The Rev. David A. Williams
Assistant Minister
Prayer of Consecration, page 5
Hymn 287
Elbing
Hymn 227
Gardiner
Postlude: Fugue in C
Bach
Postlude: Fugue in C
Bach
+
+
THE REV. H. VANCE JOHNSON, formerly an assistant at
DR. HARPER is convalescing at home from his recent
St. John's, will be participating in the Services today.
heart operation. While Dr. and Mrs. Harper are
grateful for your concern, his physician has asked
THE FLAG FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK will be carried
that he receive no visitors and that no calls be
in the Processional at the 11:00 A.M. Service.
made directly to him.
A TOUR OF THE CHURCH is conducted following the 11:00
THE FLOWERS on the Altar are in memory of Verita
A.M. Service. Please meet the guide, Edwin McLean, at
Korth Sheshunoff.
the pulpit at the conclusion of the Service.
St. John's Church, established in 1815, stands opposite the
White House on the north side of Lafayette Square, once known
as Federal or President's Square. It was organized to serve as a
parish church for occupants of the White House and their
families. James Madison, in office in 1815, was a communicant,
and every Chief Executive since has attended regular or occa-
sional services. Hence St. John's has become known as the
"Church of the Presidents." Pew 54 is the traditional President's
Pew and there is a 1789 Prayer Book in the church's archives
bearing in gold letters the inscription "President's Pew." It is
brought out for use on official occasions. The architect of the
church was Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who also restored the
Capitol and the White House after they were partially destroyed
by fire in the War of 1812.
The stained glass windows of the church are regarded as good
examples of the craft of the past century. Most of them were
designed and executed in France about 1885. A few modern win-
dows have since been added, notably the two "Sacramental Win-
dows" of translucent blue in the north transept and the McCants
and Red Cross windows directly opposite in the south transept.
Descriptive leaflets on the windows may be found in the Narthex.
The Parish House adjoining the church at 1525 H Street was
once the British Legation where Lord Ashburton and Daniel
Webster signed the treaty fixing the Canadian border between the
New England States and the Maritime Provinces.
St. John's continues to be an active parish of about 1200
communicants, maintaining a strong program in the city and in
the Diocese of Washington. Newcomers are invited to become
members of the Parish and visitors are always welcome at services
and parish activities.
St. John's Church
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
N
PRIN
(IPIO
WASHINGTON
June 20, 1976
ERAT
VER
Dear Friends,
St. John's Parish warmly congratulates the Right Rev.
John T. Walker on his election June 12 as Bishop Coadjutor
of the Diocese of Washington. He will eventually become
our diocesan bishop on the retirement of Bishop Creighton,
and we look forward to his leadership of the diocese and
to a close relationship with this parish.
I am pleased to have
Peter and Kristy Lee with us
this weekend. Peter has
come to preach on Sunday at
the nine and eleven 'clock
services, and it will be a
special joy to have both the
Lees, and their two young
children, back with us again.
Formerly a seminarian and
assistant minister at St.
John's, Peter is Rector of
the Chapel of the Cross,
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and as you would suspect,
he is rapidly becoming a leader within the Episcopal
Church. Welcome back, Lees.
Former Senior Warden Miles Colean told me recently
about the man who lived for years across the street at
the Hay-Adams Hotel, and although he never attended St.
John's he used to sit on Sunday morning at his window and
watch people enter and leave the church. When he died,
he left the church $5,000 because, as he said, St. John's
looked like such a friendly church! Remember that next
Sunday when you're standing around outside after church;
no telling who may be watching and with what happy UND
intentions!
Faithfully yours,
C. Hanper
LIURARY
Rector
Sunday, June 20, 1976
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
8:00 A.M. Holy Communion
9:00 A.M. Holy Communion and Sermon by the Rev.
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
Peter James Lee
WASHINGTON
9:00 A.M. Nursery Care
9:45 A.M. Coffee Hour
THE REVEREND JOHN C. HARPER, D.D., RECTOR
11:00 A.M. MORNING PRAYER AND SERMON BY THE REV.
PETER JAMES LEE
11:00 A.M. Nursery Care
12:00 Noon Coffee Hour
The Second Sunday after Pentecost - June 20, 1976
4:00 P.M. Service in French
11:00 A.M.
MORNING PRAYER AND SERMON
"FOCAL POINT" Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and
Thursdays from 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M.
Prelude: Rhapsody III
Howells (b. 1892)
Holy Communion is celebrated on Mondays,
"Give Ear, O Lord"
,Schutz (1585-1672)
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 12:10
Martha Steiger, soprano
P.M. An organ recital is performed on
Elizabeth Herrick, mezzo soprano
Wednesdays at 12:10 P.M. in the church.
Processional Hymn 524
Mannheim
The Order for Morning Prayer, Prayer Book, page 3
A SPECIAL BICENTENNIAL SERVICE will be held on Sunday,
July 4, at 9:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. The service will be
Venite
Tomlinson
conducted according to the Prayer Book of 1662; the
Psalm 15, page 357
Rector will preach at both of these services.
First Lesson: Deuteronomy 5:12-15
THE ALLEY LIBRARY, which has had financial support from
St. John's through the Outreach Program, is very pleased
Te Deum Laudamus
Thalben-Ball (20th Cent.)
to report that it raised $4,500 through its annual auc-
(Congregation seated)
tion. These funds will help to pay for salaries, rent,
Second Lesson: II Corinthians 4:7-11
utilities and the Kingsbury Reading Program to be initia-
ted in the fall.
Hymn 474
Woodbird
Meanwhile, the Library urgently needs materials for
its summer program. If you can donate crayons, paints,
Apostles' Creed and Collects, pages 15-17
brushes, magic markers, rulers, a blackboard or illustra-
Motet: "We Wait For Thy Loving Kindness"
ted magazines you will greatly add to the vacation time
McKie (20th Cent.)
of about 80 children who live in the vicinity of Seaton
Intercessions
Place. Please bring your donations to the Parish House
and for further information please call Marion Leech
Hymn 518
St. Leonard
(652-1706) or Frances Welles (244-0136).
Sermon: The Rev. Peter James Lee
MANY VOLUNTEERS are still needed to greet the many visitors
Offertory: "He Who Would True Valour See"
to St. John's during this Bicentennial year. Please check
Vaughan-Williams (1872-1958)
the schedule on the Bulletin Board of the Parish House.
If you are able to assist, fill in your name on the
Hymn 522
Bohemian Brethren
calendar. This is a rewarding and vital job.
Postlude: Acclamations, Suite Medievale
Langlais
9:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION AND SERMON
THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Some
Issues. Several issues of major importance to the future
Prelude: Song of Peace
Langlais
of our Church will come before the General Convention
Prelude on an Anthem
(b. 1908)
when it meets September 11-23 in Minneapolis. These
Hymn 523
Russia
include: the revision of the Book of Common Prayer; the
The Holy Communion, Green Folder, page 1
ordination of women to the priesthood; world and domestic
hunger; ecumenical relations; theological education; the
Old Testament Lesson: Deuteronomy 5:12-15
structure of the Episcopal Church; evangelism; Christian
Read by James Pemberton
education; lay ministry; work with ethnic minorities;
Epistle: II Corinthians 4:7-11
social concerns and many others. The House of Deputies
Hymn 473
Dawn
will elect a President and Vice-President and the Conven-
Gospel: Mark 2:23-28
tion will elect members to serve on the Executive Council.
Sermon: The Rev. Peter James Lee
The first major issue on the proposed agenda will be
The Holy Communion, continued, page 3
consideration of the Draft Proposed Book of Common Prayer,
Offertory: "The First Great Gift"
White
(b.
1938)
which will probably be considered September 13-14. If
Prayer of Consecration, page 5
there is an affirmative vote from both houses on this
Hymn 521
King's Lynn
Draft, it will become the Proposed Book of Common Prayer,
Postlude: Acclamations, Suite Medievale
Langlais
and to become the Standard Book of Common Prayer it will
need a second affirmative vote at the General Convention
+
in Denver in 1979.
The second major issue which will be brought to the
Motet at 11:00 A.M.
Convention for debate and action in the two houses will
be the enactment of legislation to permit the ordination
We wait for Thy loving kindness, 0 God: in the midst
of women to the priesthood and episcopate.
of Thy temple. Alleluya. 0 God, according to Thy
The proposed agenda also calls for the Convention
Name, so is Thy praise unto the world's end. Thy
to consider for adoption, a general Church program pro-
right hand is full of righteousness: Alleluya,
posal for the next triennium, calling for a 1977 proposed
Alleluya. Lord send us now prosperity. AMEN.
budget of $14.1 million. The 1976 budget for the Church
(C.M. Armitage)
is $13.8 million.
(Part III of this series will appear in next week's
Offertory at 11:00 A.M.
Leaflet: "The Structure of the Church. ")
(Adapted from Hymn #563 - John Bunyan)
NURSERY CARE is provided during the summer for the 9:00
THE FLOWERS on the Altar are in memory of Annette J.
A.M. and the 11:00 A.M. Services, for infants and small
children.
Delaplane and Augusta T. Delaplane. The Chapel flowers
are in memory of Annabelle Ingram Freret. The Narthex
flowers are in memory of Annie de Camp Hegeman Porter.
"FOCAL POINT" is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and
Thursdays from 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Tuesday, June
22, will feature pianist Adrienne Sirken in the Parlor of
THE USHERS: 9:00 A.M. Carter Keithley and Laurance
the Parish House in a program of Beethoven and Debussy.
Redway. 11:00 A.M. Frank Hammond, Powell Hutton,
James Kabler, Nelson Lynde, Spence Perry, Benajah
On Thursday, June 24, there will be the Bluegrass group,
"Fiddlin' Around" in the Dining Room of the Parish House
Rainey and Jay Zeiler.
at 12:00 Noon. These programs of entertainment are in
addition to the Natural Foods lunches and French lunches
A TOUR OF THE CHURCH is conducted following the 11:00
served on those days. Come to St. John's noontime change
A.M. Service. Please meet the guide, Mrs. Spence
of pace - eat in the Parish House or in the Square.
Perry, at the pulpit at the conclusion of the Service.
Second Class Postage
Paid at
Washington, D. C.
The Leaflet of
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. 20005
(Published weekly except during July and August)
THE REV. JOHN C. HARPER, D.D., Rector
THE REV. DAVID A. WILLIAMS, D. MIN.
THE REV. PETER M. LARSEN
ALBERT RUSSELL, Organist and Choirmaster
HELEN PENN, Assistant Organist
Seminarian Assistants
Robert Stephenson
Joseph L. Dunlap
Laura Randall
THE PARISH STAFF: Col. John W. Maxwell, Administrative Assistant; Mrs. Nancy
Grimes, Rector's Secretary; Miss Emily Kay Eckert, Parish Secretary; Miss Betsy Heine,
Financial Secretary; Miss Jana Hahn, Staff Secretary; Mrs. William H. Smith, Jr., Church
School Director; Arthur Butler, Verger; John Chalmers, Sexton; Marion Hicks, Assistant
Sexton; Mrs. Marybelle Blount, Housekeeper; Donald C.J. Gray, Head Usher; Mrs.
Robert D. Patchell, Editor of the Leaflet.
THE VESTRY: The Hon. Samuel Spencer, Senior Warden; C. Jackson Ritchie, Jr.,
Junior Warden; Rear Adm. Herbert S. Howard, Warden Emeritus; The Hon. Theodore C.
Achilles, Mrs. James Cavanaugh, Donald C. J. Gray, John Peters Irelan, Carter E.
Keithley, Miss Fleanore Leech, James R. Lowe, Jr., J. Robert MacNaughton, Mrs. Carl
McGowan, Robert E. Park, Mrs. John Sherman, John H. Winant, Fritz-Alan Korth,
Treasurer; Laurance M. Redway, Assistant Treasurer; Mrs. K. Georg Gabriel, Register.
ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH has served Washington since 1816 when the church
was built from plans of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, an architect of The Capitol. Since then
every President of the United States has worshipped here. The Parish House was once
the residence of the British Minister. St. John's Church, designated a National Historic
Landmark, is a parish in the Diocese of Washington.
PARISH HOUSE 1525 H STREET, N.W., THE TELEPHONE NUMBER IS 347-8766.
A tour of the church is conducted each Sunday following the 11:00 a.m. service.
(Please meet the guide at the pulpit)
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
WASHINGTON
THE REVEREND JOHN C. HARPER, D.D., RECTOR
EVENING SERVICE
SUNG BY THE MIDSHIPMEN OF THE NAVAL ACADEMY
April 25, 1976 at 5:30 P.M.
Prelude: Early American Music
Chadwick
Processional Hymn 467
Eventide
Invocation
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 26:1-8
Hymn 141
America
New Testament Lesson: Matthew 5:1-16The President -
Anthems:
"Exultate Justi"
Viadana
"God So Loved the World"
Stainer
"O Filii et Filiae"
Leisring
Prayers
Greeting: The Rector of St. John's Church
Offertory: "Thou Knowest Lord the Secrets
Purcell
of our Hearts"
"Rejoice in the Lord Alway"
Lang
Prayer
"Navy Hymn"
Blessing
Recessional Hymn 385
Austria
Postlude: Early American Music
Eddy
THE CLERGY OF ST. JOHN'S
The Reverend John C. Harper,
Rector
The Reverend David A. Williams,
Assistant Minister
The Reverend Peter M. Larsen,
Assistant Minister
*
*
John Talley,
ЕЛЕИТИС SEBAICE
Director of Musical Activities,
United States Naval Academy H2CTM SHT
Protestant Chapel Choir
James Dale, .M.9 08:2 JB arer , 2S lingA
Organist, United States Naval Academy
Albert Russell,
Organist, St. John's Church
abidneval
TBA
*
*
SERVICES AT ST. JOHN'S
INC
Sundays
Mar-rie
wedddeM
8:00 A.M.
Holy Communion
9:00 A.M.
Holy Communion and Sermon
11:00 A.M.
Morning Prayer and Sermon
"estlit to THE 0"
Weekdays (except Wednesdays)
12:10 P.M. Holy Communion TO
Wednesdays
"atiseH TUO to
12:10 P.M.EW Organ Recital
*
*
CHOIR CONCERT - APRIL 27 AT 8:30 P.M." H
YVSN"
Concert by the combined choirs of St. John's and
Emmanuel Church, Baltimore
An American Oratorio: "Hora Novissima"
by Horatio Parker :ebtrifao9
GOOD FRIDAY
April 16, 1976
A series of sermons preached at St. John's Church,
Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., by the Rector,
the Reverend John C. Harper, D.D., at the Three
Hour Service:
I.
"His Arrest"
(St. Mark 14:32-50)
II.
"His Hearing"
(St. Mark 14:53-65)
III.
"His Denial"
(St. Mark 14:66-72)
IV.
"His Trial"
(St. Mark 15:1-20)
V.
"His Death"
(St. Mark 15:21-41)
VI.
"His Burial"
(St. Mark 15:42-47)
(S)
1. - His Arrest
Jesus lived like a man and died like a man, only unlike most of us before
he died he was arrested, turned against by his friends, and tried and found
guilty. Those are the differences and they are differences we can never forget.
You might even say they are part of the reason why we are here in St. John's
Church this afternoon and why, along with his life and his death we remember him
with some awe. His arrest by the legally constituted authority, his hearing before
a judge, his betrayal by one man in particular who had been his friend, and finally
the trial itself all were preludes to his final end, which as we know from record-
ed history was death by crucifixion.
The time he was arrested until his lifeless body was taken down from the cross
was only a couple of days, but in those days lie all the pathos, tragedy, and
perhaps now for us the hope of human life. He lived like a man; he died like a
man, and yet his death is largely remembered for two thousand years because it
contained the simple elements of tragedy together with some small intimations of
victory.
It is a very human story, the death of Jesus Christ, and because it is
essentially a human rather than an "extra-ordinary" or supernatural kind of story,
it is one which still has a great deal to do with our personal stories. The
Passion of Jesus Christ in a distant part of the world and in a distant time in
history is the story of the "passion" of every man and woman here; it is the story
of what happens to us, not just the way we die but what happens to us before we
die and then what happens when we die.
I can't tell the story today without making clear that it is our story that
is told in the Gospels as well as that of Jesus of Nazareth. It is our experience
that is dramatized before our eyes, and it begins, appropriately enough, with the
arrest of an innocent man on false charges from which he could not and would not
extricate
himself.
That then is where we start on this Good Friday: with the arrest of Jesus by
a crowd armed with swords and cudgels, led by a man he had hitherto trusted, Judas
Iscariot. The religious authorities were behind it -- the chief priests, ecclesi-
astical lawyers, and the scribes -- but it was a motley crowd that finally caught
up with Jesus in a garden, and the man who pointed him out to his attackers was
none other than someone Jesus had reason to believe would be loyal.
Jesus said to them as they attempted to take him by force: "Do you take me
for a bandit, that you have come out with swords and cudgels to arrest me? Day
after day I was within your reach as I taught in the temple, and you did not lay
hands on me." And with that the few friends who had tried to help him deserted
and
ran
away.
FORD
LIBRARY
(2)
There is something unnecessary and thus pathetic about Jesus' arrest in the
first place. He had done nothing wrong, legally or morally. His only mistake,
if you can call it that, was to challenge authority, and we know from the long
sweep of history that that is never a popular thing to do. Most of the time
authority and its challengers remain in a locked battle, which accounts for the
most part for creativity and change in human society. Once. in a while, hcwever,
one or the other side wins out. When the challenger succeeds in overthrowing the
legally constituted authority, revolution occurs, sometimes a ccompanied by pure
anarchy and sometimes, as in the case of 1776, by a new creation. But sometimes
authority wins, and when it does the challengers are put down, mercilessly and
without pardon, to insure that it doesn't happen again.
Something like that happened to Jesus. While he had actually broken no law,
he had challenged the legalisms and the iron-clad hold of the Jewish state, of its
chief priests and all the others who maintained a certain way of looking at life.
Jesus presented an alternative: the law of love which, he claimed, was an over-
riding consideration for human society. This was intolerable to anyone whose
myopic sight kept him committed to the status quo; sooner or later he was bound
to be rebuffed by those who took him for a dangerous upstart. It was easy enough
to find someone to betray him to the higher authorities; what was somewhat more
difficult was to make an arrest which had any legality or substance to it.
But that is the way it often happens in real life. Innocent people are
charged, and they see no way of defending themselves. People who prefer a differ-
ent life style from the rest of society or those who look at life differently,
though with equal respect, from the majority of their fellows, are persecuted until
they are brought down and destroyed. What is so terrifying about the arrest of
Jesus by that unthinking mob under the orders of the chief priests, lawyers, and
elders is that it is another reminder of the way power can be used without regard
for others' rights or for the destruction of those with whom one does not agree.
And often, as in this case, power is put in the hands of ruffians and thugs
and totally unthinking men and women who are whipped into a frenzy of action on
the say-so of someone higher up. The real villains of Nazi Germany were not the
crowd which burned the Reichstag or the bands of youths who roamed the streets
attacking innocent Jews. The real villains then and now are those who allow such
conditions to exist, who create a climate of suspicion and hatred, and who in one
way or another build upon a mass hystería denying human rights and human dignity
to those who are different or who are trying in their own way to live lives which
they find meaningful and true. Judas, and his cohorts, are the pawns behind
affronted authority, and when evil can find tools to accomplish its task, more
often than not the innocent are made to suffer and good is toppled from whatever
base it may have created.
Good and evil, as Jesus pointed out when they forcibly arrested him, are
co-existent. "I was within your reach,' he said, "as I taught in the temple, and
you did not lay hands on me. It is not until an incident comes along when one
or the other side is threatened that the trouble begins. Good will never complete-
ly overcomes evil; evil will never totally obliterate the good. They are forever
(A)
(3)
10
9bsm
in a state of tension, in the way human beings with their good and evil sides are
forever
in
a
state
of
tension
Made
When the evil people in the world think they can get rid forever of the good,
they are totally wrong. Jesus arrest was not the end of him; we know that. He
is remembered and revered long after the nameless chief priests of Judaism and
the other ecclesiastics have been forgotten. His persecution, and the events
following it, only intensified the world's loyalty to him Out of the persecution,
with all its attendant suffering, came a picture of a man who could in the end
stand up to defeat and overcome it. The arrest of Jesus Christ in the Garden of
Gethsemane, senseless and unnecessary and unfair, was the beginning of the real
conflict between good and evil. While evil was not eradicated from the world by
Jesus' death and resurrection, it was for all time shown for what it is, and what
evil ultimately is is nothing other than the rejection of everything that is good
and lovely and true and honest.
Evil cannot exist apart from these positive characteristics of human experi-
ence, and Jesus in the Garden, before Pilate, and on the Cross shows supremely
that in the face of pain and rejection and despair itself those other qualities
of love and trust and total commitment to what is true can have their say as well.
III
A recent writer (Martin Lings in Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions)
makes a direct reference to the condition of the modern world which bears on the
way we perceive good overcoming evil. He writes: "If it can be said that Man
collectively shrinks back more and more from the Truth, it can also be said that
on all sides the Truth is closing in more and more upon Man. It might almost be
said that, in order to receive a touch of It, which in the past required a lifetime
of effort, all that is asked of him now is not to shrink back. And yet how diffi-
cult that is!"
Difficult indeed, and that is precisely what we need to hear when we, like
Jesus before his accusers, are willing to accept the truth of the way evil and
good fight against each other. He understood that, as we too must understand it,
but he understood also that the night is not the end nor is the darkness of human
sin and meanness the final word. The Truth breaks in upon us with its word of
hope even for those who innocently suffer. And when people like ourselves under-
stand that neither Judas, nor the mob, nor the people behind their infamy can
destroy our integrity, we can undergo these experiences of defeat with a nobility
that distinguishes the children of light from the children of the dark.
From one point of view the arrest of Jesus was senseless and unwise, for it
allowed him to become a martyr to a few and a cause to countless men and women
for hundreds of years afterwards. But from the standpoint of human experience it
was the most natural thing in the world, unavoidable and predictable, because that
is the way it is when evil is threatened by holiness and by good people and when
it feels it must fight back and attack.
(4)
(E)
Life is made up thus of struggle between darkness and light, evil and good,
between the chief priests of prejudice and the Jesus of openness and honest truth.
The struggle must go on, and we shall see that it leads to further complications
and ultimately to a Cross. But Christians believe that the Cross, which is in-
evitably down the road for every human life which rises in nobility to meet the
challenge, is the best thing that can happen, for the Cross is the symbol of hope.
Evil thus knows no hope; goodness does, and our hope lies through the experience
of suffering, even betrayal and death, to the victory which proclaims the Easter
faith in the ultimate power and majesty and light of God who himself has overcome
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2. - His Hearing
to
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I
ISST 5 paixsed
Jesus' hearing before the High Priest served one primary purpose, and that was
to draw the lines of the forthcoming battle. Specifically, it clarified the issue
as to who he considered himself to be. "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed
One?" the High Priest asked him after others had testified against him. "I am,
Jesus replied in a firm voice; "and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right
hand of God and coming with the clouds of heaven. Then, according to Mark's
testimony, "the High Priest tore his robes and said, 'Need we call for other wit-
nesses? You have heard the blasphemy!" And with that the chief priests, elders,
and the doctors of the law gave their unanimous verdict: Jesus was guilty, they
solemnly declared, and should be put to death. to elqoeq
to 6 Istersp at
The dividing line had been crossed, and now there was no turning back. Where
for some time Jesus had chosen to avoid confrontation with the authorities and to
make somewhat ambiguous statements concerning his divine mission, now it was clearly
out in the open. I am the Messiah, he publically said, and for such a blasphemy he
was to be put to death. to
bloude to
start II IIIW
Issues have a way sometimes of being so fuzzy and uncertain that they tend
either not to be faced at all or else to be looked at in the most ambiguous and
vague way They tend to build up to the point where someone needs to cut through
to the heart of the matter and tell it like it is, to speak the truth regardless
of the consequences. It seemed to Jesus that the time had come to face the conse-
quences of his ministry as God's Chosen One and to admit that his mission in the
world was to reveal God to those men and women who might listen to him. Jewish
law was so tightly woven and the leaders of Judaism so frightened of any challenge
to their authority that such an admission as Jesus gave was simply out of the ques-
tion. Blasphemy meant nothing less than setting oneself up as final authority, and
while the kind of blasphemy Jesus was charged with had to do with his statement
concerning himself, the real blasphemy in the eyes of his enemies was that he was
attacking them. That they could not endure, and the more frivolous of them began
to spit on him and strike him with their fists, while the High Priest's own body-
guard set upon him with blows. There could be no way out now for Jesus, no possi-
ble way by which he could escape the consequences. Like a thundercloud on the
horizon which spreads darkness beneath it, the darkness of Jesus' final hours began
to descend.
Yet he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had stood up to these men and
that he had not yielded to the temptation either to run away from them or to avoid
the issue, or even to equivocate with an answer which might allay the fears of his
enemies. He was forthright and honest in a way they perhaps had not expected him
to be. There was, he knew, little evidence otherwise against him, and indeed we are
told the Council was enable to muster sufficient evidence to warrant a death-
sentence. It wasn't until he spoke up in answer to the question as to who he was
that his doom was sealed, for until that time the evidence was at best contradict-
ory. He perhaps still had some friends, or at least some neutral spectators, among
to
- 2 -
patiseH atH s
the members of the Court.
I
The hearing before the High Priest was not after all a real trial; that came
later before, Pilate. This was a matter to be settled within the family, as it
were, for Jesus was being judged by his own people, condemned by them and found
guilty by the men whose religious beliefs were not so different from his own The
so-called Roman trial before Pontius Pilate had the legal authority of the state
behind it; this hearing, conducted in the presence of the Council of Jewish leaders,
was for the purpose of condemning Jesus even before his case came before the basd
legally constituted authority, the Roman governor
odd bised NOY
This was, in short, not a legal Jewish trial, but one more evidence of the way
people destroy their own, of the way even within a family or the church or society
in general or within a community people turn against one another out of jealousy
or meanness or downright hatred. The charge of blasphemy was foolishness, for
according to Jewish law a claim to messiahship was not really in itself blasphemy.
The purpose of the hearing was obvious: the Jews had made up their minds to get
rid of Jesus, and even though the kind of testimony and witnesses they wanted didn't
emerge, passion got the better of their reading of their own laws, and as a result
the charge of blasphemy stuck. When people want to get their own wayvand achieve
a short-sighted end, they will often go to any lengths in order to serve their pur-
poses. Jesus was the victim of the previous decision of his own people to rid
them of him. Jsdj bits YREDÌ 08 pated 20 aemitemos YEW 6
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To Jesus there was no point any longer in evading or in trying to convince
his hearers that God was using him as an instrument for the reconciliation of men
and women. To Jesus the issue was now out in the open, and he was not afraid to
face its consequences sdd timbs of Dris e'boo as VIJAINIM aid to
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Not so his best friend, however. Peter, who had followed him into the High
Friest courtyard, keeping his distance but hoping that the whole miserable
event might somehow be saved, acted quite differently from Jesus. While Jesus
stood up to the High Priest's questioning, Peter remained in the courtyard,
"sitting among the attendants, warming himself at the fire.
reped media to for blues yedf
HOW ironic, and how sad! Peter before the fire, keeping himself safe, while
the one to whom he had earlier professed such loyalty was willingly undergoing
mockery in behalf of principle. Peter, avoiding a fight, Jesus ready for one.
Peter keeping his distance from trouble, making himself comfortable before the fire
in the courtyard; Jesus in the center of the storm, uncomfortable and yet proud
before the fire of the Chief Priest's withering attack on him. One man afraid
to stand up; the other ready with an honest answer even though he knew it would
bdost him his life VSWS nux of beblery Jon bed
aid to doldw ns d3iw of neve TO
mid Someone the other evening was wondering out loud whether Watergate has damaged
stour country, whether we have been hurt as a nation by the disclosures of the past
couple of years. My own judgement is that we have not, for in my opinion we have
gained by a kind of openness and honesty which until recently we were not capable
of showing. Not that we are in the clear far from it but if nothing else
has come from our own recent tragedy we have learned that there is a place for
honest, candid admission and that there are some people incapable of admitting their
- 3 -
sin and others who have the courage to stand up and be counted.
bD would rather be with Jesus than with the Peters of this world who spend
their time warming themselves, gaining their false security, while others suffer
for them. I would rather take the chance of being rejected for my honesty than
allow the world to think well of me when in fact there was no valid basis for doing
so. I would rather be a citizen of a nation which admits its mistakes, which to
repents and does something about its weakness, than to go along as though nothing
is wrong and there is no need for honest self-appraisal.
Watergate, in my judgement, has allowed us for the first time in a long while
to take a good look at ourselves; and where we have been honest enough to see our
failures and resolved to correct them, where we have had the courage to stand
before the world's judgement and say we have sinned, we have emerged from this
experience the stronger. Peter never had the courage to do that because he prefered
to keep warm and let others take the blame; Peter always follows at a safe distance
from whatever possible dangers lurk ahead and when he is called to give an account
of himself finds some excuse for avoiding the confrontation.
C. P. Snow in one of his novels has written that "There is great dignity
in being a spectator, but if you do it for too long you are dead inside." Peter's
is the story of a kind of dignity in being a spectator rather than a participant,
but his is also the story of a man who was dead inside. Peter is the symbol of the
person who refused to accept appropriate challenges, not that every issue must be
faced and dealt with but rather that the important life and death ones must be
accepted. His is the story of people like ourselves who prefer peace at any price,
a crown without a cross, a victory without any attempt to grapple with the problems
of evil that must first be overcome.
Eugene Carson Blake a number of years ago said what the opposite of moral
cowardice can mean. He said: "The only persuasive witness to God is living in his
presence and according to his commandments. To act with courage when others are
fearful is to witness to your Christian faith and is more eloquent than any sermon.
To act in hope when your fellows are in despair is to believe the gospel and will
entice others to faith. To act in love and forgiveness when others hate and retal-
iate is always understood by any who see it.
.Wrong acts betray our Lord more
effectively than inadequate words."
Someone said to me recently after I had conducted a funeral: "How strong
you are!" If only she knew! If only she knew my weakness and the Peter in me which
is sometimes afraid to stand up for what I know is right, for people I believe in,
for ideas and issues which have made me what I am. And yet, as I think of Blake's
words, about what my witness to God should be -- a witness of courage and hope and
love and forgiveness --- I am reminded of the possibilities which always lie before
me if only I will want to make use of them.
We are not strong, much of the time perhaps, and certainly there is more of
Peter in most of us than we like to admit. But at the same time and even as we
identify ourselves with that man in the courtyard warming himself comfortably before
E -
- 4 -
the fire, there is also something in us of Jesus. His hearing before the High
Priest reminds us of this, for as we said at the beginning that event served one
primary purpose, which was to draw the lines between right and wrong, good and
evil, honesty and dishonesty. ealst vieds patatep patientsw smit stedt
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of our experience, so will Jesus if we will learn to let him. Itam who I am, we
can learn to say, and in affirming ourselves before those who would ask something
other of us than what we are, we are giving conviction to our determination toal
witness to those Christian qualities of courage, hope, love and forgiveness which
lie not only at the heart of Jesus' own life but which, beneath the surface of our
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ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
Lafayette Square
.
FOND
Washington, D.C.
079538
LIBRAMY
TX
GOOD FRIDAY
April 16, 1976
THE THREE HOUR SERVICE
The six addresses will be delivered by the Rector of
St. John's, The Reverend John C. Harper, D.D.
I
12:00-12:30 P.M.
Preparation: St. Mark 14:12-31
Hymn 75
Passion Chorale
First Address: "His Arrest" (St. Mark 14:32-50)
Hymn 337
Rockingham
Prayers
II
12:30-1:00 P.M.
"Were You There?"
Spiritual
Sung by KAY GRANGER, Contralto
Second Address: "His Hearing" (St. Mark 14:53-65)
Prayers
Hymn 336
Rathbun
III
1:00-1:30 P.M.
Third Address: "His Denial" (St. Mark 14:66-72)
Prayers
Hymn 72
Batty
IV
1:30-2:00 P.M.
Fourth Address: "His Trial" (St. Mark 15:1-20)
Prayers
Passion Aria
Pergolesi
Sung by KAY GRANGER, Contralto
V
2:00-2:30 P.M.
Fifth Address: "His Crucifixion" (St. Mark 15:21-41)
Prayers
Hymn 65
Horsley
VI
2:30-3:00 P.M.
Sixth Address: "His Burial" (St. Mark 15:42-47)
"My Saviour Now Is Dying
Bach
Sung by MARTHA STEIGER, Soprano
CHARLES KOPFSTEIN-PENK, Flautist
Prayers
Hymn 435
Rest
Blessing
ALBERT RUSSELL - Organist & Choirmaster
Persons wishing to leave the church are asked to do so during the singing of the
hymns. Those downstairs should leave by the doors located under the flags at the
foot of the chancel steps so that the 16th street entrances may be kept free for
people coming into the church.
We are hoping to raise a large gift from the Good Friday offering to support the
work of St. George's College in Jerusalem, a center for continuing education for
clergy and laity throughout the world. Offering plates are at the doors of the
church.
EASTER SERVICES
Services on Easter Day are Celebrations of the Holy Communion at 8:00, 9:00 and
11:00 A.M. The two later Services are identical Festival Services with sermon by
the Rector of St. John's. At 8:00 Dr. Williams will be the preacher.
St. John's Episcopal Church has served Washington since 1816 when the church was
built from plans of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the Capitol. It continues
to be a spiritual focal point for people the world over whose lives and work draw
them to this capital city.
IV
1:30-2:00 P.M.
Fourth Address: "His Trial" (St. Mark 15:1-20)
Prayers
Passion Aria
Pergolesi
Sung by KAY GRANGER, Contralto
V
2:00-2:30 P.M.
Fifth Address: "His Crucifixion" (St. Mark 15:21-41)
Prayers
Hymn 65
Horsley
VI
2:30-3:00 P.M.
Sixth Address: "His Burial" (St. Mark 15:42-47)
"My Saviour Now Is Dying
Bach
Sung by MARTHA STEIGER, Soprano
CHARLES KOPFSTEIN-PENK, Flautist
Prayers
Hymn 435
Rest
Blessing
ALBERT RUSSELL - Organist & Choirmaster
Persons wishing to leave the church are asked to do so during the singing of the
hymns. Those downstairs should leave by the doors located under the flags at the
foot of the chancel steps so that the 16th street entrances may be kept free for
people coming into the church.
We are hoping to raise a large gift from the Good Friday offering to support the
work of St. George's College in Jerusalem, a center for continuing education for
clergy and laity throughout the world. Offering plates are at the doors of the
church.
EASTER SERVICES
Services on Easter Day are Celebrations of the Holy Communion at 8:00, 9:00 and
11:00 A.M. The two later Services are identical Festival Services with sermon by
the Rector of St. John's. At 8:00 Dr. Williams will be the preacher.
St. John's Episcopal Church has served Washington since 1816 when the church was
built from plans of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the Capitol. It continues
to be a spiritual focal point for people the world over whose lives and work draw
them to this capital city.
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
Lafayette Square
Washington, D.C.
TX
GOOD FRIDAY
April 16, 1976
THE THREE HOUR SERVICE
The six addresses will be delivered by the Rector of
St. John's, The Reverend John C. Harper, D.D.
I
12:00-12:30 P.M.
Preparation: St. Mark 14:12-31
Hymn 75
Passion Chorale
First Address: "His Arrest" (St. Mark 14:32-50)
Hymn 337
Rockingham
Prayers
II
12:30-1:00 P.M.
"Were You There?"
Spiritual
Sung by KAY GRANGER, Contralto
Second Address: "His Hearing" (St. Mark 14:53-65)
Prayers
Hymn 336
Rathbun
III
1:00-1:30 P.M.
Third Address: "His Denial" (St. Mark 14:66-72)
Prayers
Hymn 72
Batty
3. - His Denial
I
to
bas
In spite of what we have been saying about him, there is something appealing
about Peter. I tried to say in the last Meditation that there is a little of Peter
in all of us, perhaps rather more than less, and while there is something of the
spirit of Christ there as well --- and we need, as I tried to say to you, to look
deep for this and discover how those Christ-like characteristics can manifest
themselves -- it is nevertheless Peter to whom we must also turn to learn about
ourselves. For, you see, it is not only through the great heroes of life that we
come to understand who we are, but it is through coming up against the cowards and
the lethargic and even the traitors that we also come up against some of those
aspects to our own lives that we need to be more in touch with
At least this is true for me and I suspect it is so for you, and that is why
in looking now at Peter and the way he denied Jesus we get another look at ourselves.
Peter, headstrong, impulsive, lovable, and at the same time treacherous and selfish
embodies a lot of those qualities in each of us that, added to the more noble ones,
make us the live human beings that we are.
On brind
II
AGGIS
What happened to Peter? For one thing, he kept his distance from what was
happening to Jesus, and when the journey to the High Priest came to an end he com-
fortably warmed himself by the fire in the courtyard. That was one of the things
that happened: he remained aloof
VIdissoq
The second thing that happened was that when pressed by one of the serving-
maids in the courtyard, he firmly denied that he ever knew Jesus. "I know nothing,"
he said to the maid; "I do not understand what you mean." Even when the maid got at
him to admit his friendship with Jesus, Peter denied ever having known him. As he
"broke out into curses, and with an oath he said, 'I do not know this man you speak
of'.' so that was the second thing that happened to poor Peter: he turned his
back on someone who not only had been his friend but someone he had idolized to the
point of giving up most of his possessions to follow him around the countryside.
And then, do you remember what happened next to this headstrong man? Very
simply, he remembered some of the things Jesus had said to him -- probably, more
importantly, he remembered Jesus himself and all that he had once meant to him and
all that he had meant to Jesus --- and "he burst into tears."
to
Three things about Peter characterized him: he kept his distance when he was
afraid of being contaminated by the presence of Christ; he lied about his true rela-
tionship to the man who had just been condemned to death by the Jewish Council; and
then when the rejection and the lying began to flood over him, he broke down, hat-
ing himself for what he was but seeing no way out of the corner into which he had
placed himself. bas alsq to STUJXIM
elqoeq proms
- 2 -
Istned
That, I think, is the worst thing that happened to hapless Peter: the sense
of utter desolation and loneliness, the sense that he had made irreparable mistakes
and that there was no way out, no exit for him. "Peter remembered". .and "Peter
wept" are among the saddest and most poignant sentences in the history of the
human race. For it is when we remember the past and feel guilty for it and when we
recall our mistakes and see no chance of restoration that the full enormity of
death itself descends, and the thundercloud we spoke about in the last Meditation
finally closes in. When the rains come and the floods begin, the drowning man sees
perhaps for the first time his life in full and true perspective, and what he sees
is
tragic.
It occurs to me to add that we are perhaps more like Peter in those events when
he kept his distance and when he lied about knowing Jesus than we are in the full
honesty that he showed when he broke down and cried his heart out. We are perhaps
nearer to the mistakes he made, to the flaws in his character and the weakness he
displayed, than to that final more noble emotion when he saw himself for what he
was, when he remembered what Jesus had told him and knew that for the moment at any
rate there was nothing more he could do
"In my hand no price I bring/Simply to thy cross I cling", while words written
just two hundred years ago by Augustus Toplady might just as well have been said
by Peter there in the courtyard, tears coursing down his cheeks as he realized
what a sham and a pretense his life had been. "Rock of ages, cleft for me,/Let me
hide myself in thee" he might have said; "Thou must save, and thou alone."
For that is precisely where it ends for us when like Peter we see ourselves,
possibly for the first time or in a different way, and what we see is distasteful
for us. Who will save us from ourselves; is there any hope?
In a sense, for Peter there was no hope that day, and there are days when for
us there is no hope either. Sometimes our betrayals and our lying lead only to
a dead-end, and the tears are those of anger that there is nothing we can do to
undo what has happened. Tears of anger and tears of sorrow for what has happened
may be our only tears, and when this is so the future is very bleak indeed.
But sometimes there are tears, if not exactly of joy, of hope. I think this
is also what may have happened to Peter. He remembered Jesus, and if he remembered
Jesus as he had known and loved him he remembered a friend who would never give up
on him no matter how bad and wrong he had been.
Remembrance of the past can be defeating or it can be full of joy; it can
merely dredge up all that has been wrong in our lives or it can bring to mind those
people and opportunities and the events in our experience which have been filled
with joy and strength. If it is correct, as Mark seems to suggest, that Peter
remembered Jesus as he had earlier known him, then it is quite possible that he
remembered not only the words of hope but the man who taught that real life is a
mixture of pain and ectasy, of sin and redemption, and that in his presence and
among his people the ectasy and the redemption are still possible.
- 3 -
This is what Jesus came into the world to tell people like Peter, and people
like you and me. He came to demonstrate that even through our wrong there is also
the possibility of right, that even in the midst of our betrayals and our cheating
there may come, when we are honest enough to admit what we are, the chance of a
new life. notasim ased patritor at II .bewortaed blrow
au TO bod bxow Isnit gdf for 916 Islneb bris
New life for Peter? Perhaps SO. That remained to be seen, for it was up to
him to show what he had learned from the experience itself. Perhaps nothing was
learned. Perhaps, on the other hand, Peter discovered that he was still capable
of deceit and coldness of heart, that he would still be prey to those qualities in
him which were there from the beginning and which would be there, in all probabil-
ity, until the day he died. But perhaps too he learned that the tears of recollec-
tion bring the past into the present so that Jesus is brought into the events that
happen now, allowing Jesus to share in the anxieties and the sins themselves we
discover that we don't have to experience them by ourselves.
That is what is means to have a Saviour, and that is perhaps what Peter
learned the day he burst into tears when he remembered that Jesus had once told
him that he would be with him until the end of the world. To his surprise the end
had not yet arrived and Jesus was still with him. "While I draw this fleeting
breath,/When mine eyelids close in death,/When I rise to worlds unknown/And behold
thee on thy throne,/Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee."
William Stringfellow has placed in proper perspective the dilemma that Peter,
and indeed the other apostles, felt between the natural human inclination to do
what they wanted to do, what came naturally to them, and what they remembered
about Jesus and his teaching. He writes: "The original disciples of Jesus Christ,
if anything, furnish an even more poignant instance of doubt. It is one of the
extreme aberrations of the contemporary churches that the disciples are held up
as exemplary Christians, when, according to the Gospels, none of them were Christ-
ians during the era of Jesus' ministry. All of them were doubters despite the
repeated manifestations of the very event of the Word of God in Jesus Christ. More
than that, they were -- so to speak -- secular doubters. They were not heretics,
apostates, or churchly idolators; rather, among them were atheists, agnostics, and
skeptics.
"They heard his parables without discernment; they beheld his authority over
the power of death in temptation, in healing, in signs and miracles, in popular
triumph and in agony, but they only yearned for a political messiah. They were
weak, forgetful, fearful men. Some of them were ambitious, all were unreliable,
one was a traitor, the rest were cowards, none of them were believers. And unbel-
ievers doubters -- they remained through the years of his itinerancy, during
the entry into the city, at the Last Supper, at Gethsemane, while he stood before
Caiaphas, when Pilate condemned him, at the foot of the Cross, even in the Resur-
rection, when he appeared to them in Galilee, until Pentecost.
"Yet, as with the Old Israel, their doubts did not stop the fidelity of God
and to them was faith given and upon them was the mission to all the world
bestowed."
- E -
- 4 -
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4. - His Trial
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The trial of Jesus before Pilate, like numerous other trials since, was some-
thing of a sham and a disgrace. It brought no credit on anybody, and in a sense
that included Jesus as well as his judge and accusers. In the end, it was the
sheer pressure of the mob which forced the weak hand of Pilate to decide against
Jesus. He apparently gave him a chance to escape condemnation, but Pilate was too
weak a man to follow is instincts.
Jesus himself had the opportunity to deny the charges against him, to answer
directly the questions put to him instead of evading them with oblique answers, but
for reasons which later became clear but which at his trial seemed evasive, he made
no reply 10
The trial was thus a mockery of legal justice, for neither the judge nor the
defendant said what was on their minds. Instead, a crowd of rabble rousers spoke
the decisive lines, and where today a defendant is tried by the press and public
opinion, Jesus was tried by a mob of people and found guilty. He might have had a
chance if Pilate had followed his conscience about not allowing an innocent man to
be condemned; Jesus might have escaped death that day in Pilate's court if he had
been willing to face the charges that were brought against him and answer them
truthfully. As it was, an event occurred -- one in a series, to be sure, but the
decisive one that changed the course of human history and is in part the reason
why
we
are
in
this
church
today.
otiduq
YA shameful, disgraceful, underhanded trial took place in Jerusalem two thousand
years ago and its consequences are found in the lives of those of us who today
call ourselves Christians. For the fact is that that disgraceful trial was the
prelude to Calvary and thus to the Resurrection. Evil was in the end turned into
good, and out of the seemingly dishonest, illegal event came the two great events
of Christianity, Good Friday and Easter Day. ISTOM
edj TO 20 Isoliting to Iodarya
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Pilate had given Jesus a chance to save himself. As the Gospels point out,
somewhat in contradiction to actual history, Pilate was not altogether a bad man.
Instead, he was simply indecisive. He saw through the hatred of the chief priests
and Jewish authorities and he was not particularly impressed by the charges that
they brought before him. His chief concern apparently was to get the trial over
with. He was willing to let the innocent go free if that was convenient, but when
it became apparent to him that the mob was out for blood -- Jesus' blood, in fact --
Pilate agreed to hand him over to be crucified. bloow
steds
bluow
"Do you wish me to release for you the king of the Jews?" he asked the threat-
ening mob. "What shall I do with the man you call the king of the Jews?" he again
inquired. "What harm has he done?" he asked, perhaps hoping that an honest answer
might be forthcoming so that he could end the trial then and there and release
Jesus. But it was not to be. Instead, as Mark records, "Pilate, in his desire to
2 I I
IstxT
satisfy the mob, released Barabbas to them; and he had Jesus flogged and handed
over to be crucified."
I
If the religious leaders gave up their powers to the state in order to see
Jesus killed, the state in the person of Pontius Pilate took the easiest course
open, which was to condemn Jesus to death rather than take the time to examine
carefully and dispassionately the charges brought against him. If the chief priests
and their lawyers gave up whatever authority they might have had to deal with Jesus
in favor of political power taking their place, then the political power sought
the easiest means to accomplish its ends.
of
It is a sorry story which unfortunately has a way of being repeated in the long
course of history. Religious belief sometimes caves in before seemingly more
important political or social authority; the world of the spiritual is taken over
by that of the secular. Just as the Jewish leaders abrogated their authority to
the Roman government, so we see instances where religion is not strong enough to
stand on its own feet and instead, almost apologetically, says to the state and
the secular world "You now take over.
And we sometimes find that the state or other forms of secular authority take
the shortest route to accomplish their ends, often, as was the case with Pilate,
without carefully distinguishing right from wrong and without honestly sorting out
the issues and people that were involved. "Pilate wondered, we are told, but his
inner doubts never led him to take a stand which might have cost him popularity with
the multitude crying for revenge. His indecision kept him from pursuing further the
line of questioning which began Jesus' trial. In the end it was easier to give in
to public pressure than himself to reflect on the causes for the arrest, the enmity
behind the mob's shrill cries, and the facts concerning the alleged blasphemy and
the supposed threats to the stability of the civil and religious order. arey
B.SW
[iso
otal Pontius Pilate throughout history has been vilified, and with good historical
reason, but more than the vilification for his act is the disdain which surrounds
him for his moral cowardice before a hungry and vidictive group of people. He is
the symbol of political power caving in before the power of the press or the power
of the pocketbook or the power of some opinion poll. He is the example of the
leader -- secular or religious -- who allows the group to usurp his rightful author-
ity because he is nothing less than afraid. 5 nevip bed 956119
bed S Isujos of Jerivemos
He would not soil his hands by fighting; Pilate could not bring himself to
contend with the louder and to him more dangerous threat of a hundred or more men
and women who thronged his court yelling and screaming, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
Perhaps, Pilate thought to himself, they might soon be turning those same words on
me Perhaps if he did not acceed to their demands the unruly throng of rabble-
rousers would turn his court into a battlefield and he, rather than the Galilean
before him, would be their victim.
to of JOY oa"
In a recently published book entitled The Last European War by John Lukacs
there is an arresting sentence. By the end of 1941 the dimensions of the war in
Europe were finally being understood and it bacame apparent to participants and
observers alike that the "end of European history" as it had been previously known
- 3 -
was taking place. "There ran a deep spiritual undercurrent, Mr. Lukacs writes,
"in the minds of people who during the Second World War were shocked out of their
wits by what they saw around them, not only the disaster of war but also the
disasters of the mass mind. llow 9H bloow as exupit
bas IIs werd bris asm 5 exil Bevil
The mass mind in Germany and elsewhere was as evil and pernicious as that of
the Nazi leaders; the mass mind allowed a generation of hatred of the Jews to devel-
op theories of racial superiority and then to insidiously lead people to believe
them. The mass mind became almost the hardest thing for civilized people to contend
with, for mass of any sort, whether of people or sheer political power or physical
force, is extremely difficult for individuals to deal with. Pilate found this out.
He is just one in a long line of men and women, well-intentioned some of them and
with the best motives, who have run scared before the continued cries of "Crucify
him", believing that those cries not only represent the will of the people but that
they are the most powerful cries in the land. to woy
It was over, then, and the soliers took Jesus inside the Governor's headquarters
and played games with him, dressing him in royal purple and putting a crown of Jep
thorns on his head. The mockery and mimicry went on, along with the beating, until
the soldiers' wrath had run its course and they were tired of the game. They then
took off those purple clothes and dressed him in his own clothes.
I"
That is the way the trial ended: with Jesus dressed in the false robes of the
king he never claimed to be. It was not the kingship of power that he came to
bring but the kingship of God, and his trial ended with mindless men acting out on
the stage of history the way Jesus was misunderstood then and ever since. For the
purple was the color that he disdained; ironic that he should be so dressed and
mocked as a royal king. They dressed him up, surrounded him as it were, by all the
wrong accoutrements, precisely the opposite to those with which he came into the
world and those he had worn all his life, clothes of humility and not royalty,
clothes of simplicity rather than the more grandiose ones of a royal leader. At the
end he was dressed in his own clothes ---- the ones that fitted him best -- and they
took him out to crucify him at last in the right clothes at least, those which
became him and in which he had dressed all his life.
That little scene when the Roman soldiers made fun of him is the final insult
to the Founder of our Faith, the final instance when people misunderstood him and
tried to make something of him which he wasn't. It is all dramatized there for us,
and it continues to be acted out in similar ways today when even Christians put on
Jesus' false clothes and give false obeisance, paying mock homage to one who asked
for something quite different from his people, the obeisance of love and of commit-
ment to his ideals of truth.
III
Not until we allow Jesus to stand before us in his own clothes and accept him
as he is will he speak to our own day in his own way. Not until we stop trying to
invest him with authority he did not claim for himself or with spiritual qualities
which he disregarded in favor of the honest, open heart, will his message get across
to a cynical world which prefers to think of him in stained glass and in the dark
of some ecclesiastical setting rather than in the dust and heat of life as it is
E
- 4 -
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He was not a king as the world understands kingship, and he is not an ethereal
figure as some believers would have him be today. He was a man, incarnate of God,
who lived like a man and who knew all the pain and sorrow humans like ourselves
are capable of experiencing. His was no regal power but rather the embodiment
of the power of God himself, the power of the divine in human experience. His edd
clothes are still not those of purple but of the ordinary man and woman, and he go
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While the death of Jesus by crucifixion centers around him primarily, there
were other people there that afternoon who are an important part of the story.
That, I think, is not the way it is with most deaths, although family and friends
who are present in some hospital room or in some home are of course very much
involved in the final hours of a person's life. But in the case of Jesus the crowd
of onlookers, the soldiers, his family and the women who had been with him during
the difficult years of his ministry are also very much a part of the story. It is
impossible, in fact, to tell of the death of Jesus without telling about the people
who were present with him, some hating him, some loving him very much indeed, and
some merely curious in the way people will gather around any tragedy out of a
sense of idle or morbid curiosity.
II
We have to begin, therefore, with some of those who watched him die on the
cross, and the first, and certainly the most vocal, group of on-lookers -- partici-
pants is a much better word for them --- are the so-called passers-by. A good
phrase to describe them, for like other more or less uninvolved individuals they
were there for the kill, so to speak, and then went on their way, perhaps without
another thought.
But beside the cross they had a good deal to say, and you recall some of their
taunts. "Aha!" they cried, "you would pull the temple down, would you, and build
it in three days? Come down from the cross and save yourself!"
Then there were the chief priests and lawyers -- the establishment -- and their
jeers were in a similar vein. "He saved others, they sneeringly said, "but he
cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the king of Israel come down from the cross.
If we see that, we shall believe." And they snickered behind their hands to each
other, reputable seers that they were, for they knew perfectly well that a man
nailed to a cross could not escape.
Even the bandits, on either side of Jesus, added their insults, according to
Mark, who unlike the other Gospel writers says nothing about the penitence of one
of them.
It is stark mockery that is found among the passers-by, the Jewish establish-
ment, and the two criminals who were also about to be executed. They all were
present on that fateful day to add insult to injury, to go down in history as men
and women who thought it great sport to see the Galilean die, and they enjoyed
every moment of it.
Of course most of them had no idea what Jesus was about or who he was. The
passers-by made fun of his claim to destroy the temple and joked about his rebuild-
ing it in three days, unmindful that what he was talking about was his own life and
how, even in death, he would rise again by the power of God. They misread Jesus
- 2 -
Jesus in ways that people then and ever since have failed to understand him.
The Jewish establishment those wise priests and judicious lawyers --
taunted him about saving himself, which was something they certainly would have
tried to do themselves, when they should have known that Jesus had no interest in
saving his own life but rather in losing it for the sake of others. They missed
the point that Jesus for years had been trying to get across; namely, that the peo-
ple who live for others rather than for themselves, die for others as well, that
sacrifice for principles and people lies at the heart of the meaning of life and
death.
The thieves also failed to get the point when they too jeered at the supposed-
ly good man who was getting the same as they, for goodness in Jesus' mind had to
do with loving the unlovable and taking back the unacceptable rather than trying
to get home free without suffering in behalf of other men and women.
It is, in a way then, fortunate for us that these people were a part of the
crucifixion, for they have things to teach us. For one thing, they ask us to
listen and not make too quick judgments about people, which is what these folk all
did. For another, they remind us that we often fail to understand what others
are doing and what they are really like; and for still another lesson, the passers-
by, the lawyers, and the others keep before our minds the price self-centeredness
and myopic vision must pay, and that is that they miss the chance to be in the
presence and power of goodness incarnate in a person.
They missed an opportunity plenty of us would give anything to have had: to
be with Jesus, hear his words afresh, and try to accept the challenge he gives to
try to be like him. Instead, they rejected him, went on about their business, and
missed the greatest opportunity history has ever given to a group of men and women.
One person who didn't attack Jesus but whose part in the story is somewhat
unclear was the man named Simon from Cyrene who was forced to carry Jesus' cross to
Golgotha. He too was present at the end, and while we know nothing about him ex-
cept that he had two sons and came from Cyrene and was perhaps a black man, we can
assume that he, like everyone else, reacted one way or another to the sight of the
dying man before him.
We like to think that mission of mercy when he bore on his own back the heavy
gibbet was enough to convert him to the cause Jesus espoused. It is fanciful,
though perhaps true, that when he met Jesus something in the Master's face made
this pagan man into a Christian. The Bible doesn't say, and we can only surmise,
which leads one to make the observation that whatever Simon felt and believed wasn't
sufficiently exciting for him to have acted in such a way that the writer of the
Gospel though fit to speak about it. Silence -- maybe out of reverence and respect,
maybe out of indifference, maybe out of fear -- but silence surrounds the experi-
ence of Simon of Cyrene, and it is puzzling for us to wonder why.
The centurion's cry, however, at the end is more to the point, and certainly
was of sufficient drama for Mark to record it. According to the Gospel, "When the
- 3 -
centurion who was standing opposite Jesus saw how he died, he said, 'Truly this man
was a son of God"."tuods
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There is nothing indifferent or silent or ambigious about that man's statement;
there is nothing left unsaid as to what he thought. There is none of the hostility
of the rest of the crowd or of the frightened women, the two Marys and Salome,
and the anonymous "several others" who had come up to Jerusalem with Jesus. His
death had a profound effect on them, but we don't know from recorded history what
that effect really was. We do know what happened to the centurion, and it was
nothing short of a conversion, from pagan to Christian, from disbeliever to belie-
ver, from a participant in a cruel death to a participant in the nobility of a
gentle, loving human being who at the end was revealed to at least one other person
for the real man that he was.
And what did the centurion see and hear? He saw a man who at the end cried
out for help. He heard a man's agonized cry to God -- "My God, My God, why hast
thou forsaken me?" Discouraged, disappointed, dismayed --- all of these emotions
seemed to be crowding in upon Jesus as the pain increased and the head began to
roll forward and the end approached. The centurion saw this, and there was a bond
between them created in the very act of despair. Perhaps for the first time in a
long while someone saw Jesus as he really was, fully human like ourselves, suffer-
ing the pain we suffer, and the emotional loneliness we know, and that was enough
to bring them together.
But the centurion saw something else beside the hurt of a fellow human being,
and I must only describe it as the opposite to what the others saw. The centurion
saw someone who wasn't interested in destroying material temples but in rebuilding
a whole society, someone who had no interest in making life easy for himself and
saving his own neck but in sharing in the agony and pain of others, someone in
short whose level of caring was so much greater than anyone else there.
Jesus' loud cry at the very end was perhaps not the cry of a defeated man but
the cry of one who knew finally that the struggle was worth it, the battle done,
and the victory now begun. It was the cry of a real man who believed so much in
God that he called on him to save him and then called on him to take him to be with
him forever. It was the cry of the saved and rescued Man from Nazareth who lived
so differently from indifferent passers-by, from the haughty establishment and
even from the silent people of this world who merely bear burdens without under-
standing the full import of what they are undergoing. Jesus, the centurion knew,
was the Son of God the Man for Others -- and he took his own life in his hands,
his future and prestige, to make that claim for others and ever since that day for
us as well.
III
At the foot of the cross on Good Friday a whole array of different kinds of
people were present, many very much like us, and it was thus a death-scene more
populous and more congested with emotions and feelings than almost any death I can
think of since. Enemies who saw in Jesus what he was not, religious leaders: who
never came close to understanding his message, criminals who were interested only in
making fun of goodness so close to them, an innocent man from the backcountry who
- E -
- 4 -
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in common, for Jesus died for others and the centurion understood what it meant;
Jesus was frightened but his nobility continued to shine through, and the centurion
in his own way accepted the fear and the nobility, the human despair and the divine
presence, and said as plainly as he knew how that that is what God is like.
mort
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Jesus was and continues to be for us the embodiment of God; the centurion was
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In 1966 an English journalist on the staff of the London Observer was sent
to Palestine to write a series of articles on the archaeological excavation at
Masada near the Dead Sea. The man's name was Colin Cross, and in time he published
a book entitled Who Was Jesus? which was the last thing he expected to do when he
went to visit the two thousand year old fortress which was a last refuge for a
group of Jewish patriots around the time that Jesus lived. bris
bening
The fifth chapter of Colin Cross' book begins this way: "At some date between
the years A.D. 26 and 36 Jesus of Nazareth was executed by being hung up on a cross
at Jerusalem. The dates are those when Pontius Pilate was prefect of Judea. It
was a painful, ignominious form of death which it is unanimously reported Jesus
accepted with dignity. By any measure this was one of the leading events in the
recent history of the human race.
We attest to that fact by being in this church this afternoon. By any measure
the death of Jesus was indeed "one of the leading events in the recent history of
the human race, and the almost matter of fact way by which Colin Cross describes
the event only serves to underscore its drama and its ultimate importance.
"Again and again," George Tyrrell once wrote, "I have been tempted to give up
the struggle, but always the figure of that strange Man hanging on the cross sends
me back to my task again." One who felt the same way was another man called Joseph
of Arimathea, a "respected member of the Council, a man who was eagerly awaiting
the Kingdom of God," who "bravely went in to Pilate and asked for the body of
Jesus." It was a very brave thing to do, given the hatred that surrounded Jesus'
execution, and Joseph thus came on the stage of history as one, among a very few,
who cared for Jesus at the end so much that he was willing to risk his own life.
Who was he? A covert follower surely, according to St. Matthew; a good and
righteous man according to St. Luke; a "disciple in the dark" someone else has
since called him. Like others before and after him Joseph was also 'looking for
the Kingdom" and in the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth he found a clue as to
the meaning of God's Kingdom on earth and of the significance of the life that is
to come. He understood what Colin Cross meant about that leading event in the
history of humanity; he shared the emotional and spiritual pull that George Tyrrell
knew when, like him, that "strange Man hanging on the cross" sent him back to his
task, in this case to the task of finding a decent burial spot for the now dead
Jesus.
The rest of the story is familiar enough: how Pilate gave permission for the
lifeless body to be taken down, how Joseph wrapped Jesus in a sheet and laid him
in a tomb cut out of the rock and then rolled a heavy stone against the entrance.
All of that took courage, and Joseph thus stands in human memory as one of Jesus'
- 2 -
disciples who cared enough for him to make a noble gesture. It was an act of faith
on the part of Joseph, a gesture in behalf of a fallen leader, and we remember
him today as someone who expected nothing in return for his action, nothing that
would in any way win him popularity, but who simply did what he could as an act
of love for a man who had given his love once to him. nI
JB
Joseph believed in Jesus, and at the crucial moment when everything seemed
hopeless and lost, he came forward to proclaim that his love at least would contin-
ue. Two women watched Joseph, but they apparently felt it unwise to step forward
and help; instead Joseph risked his own neck by himself, while others watched and
others turned their backs completely and went about their business.
That is the way the burial of Jesus ends, and it is there you might say. is the
end of Good Friday. It is time for us too to go home, a few of us still watching
along with those women but most of us ready to go back to work, to the office or
home to our regular, more orderly life. Jesus is dead, he is buried, and the stone
is placed before the entrance of the tomb so that no one can molest the man who
lies within.
Yas
to Good Friday ends with a stone at the tomb and in stony grief on the part of
those who cared and with stony hearts on the part of his enemies. And it will
always be thus. For some the grief will continue so that the joy that happened
later can't get through; for others the indifference and hostility will remain,
and nothing Christ can say on Easter Day will make any difference. For others the
stone remains before the mystery of death and of life; it seals for some the
possibility that within that prison is the beginning of new life, of hope and
ultimately of victory.
"God never notices stones," someone has said, but we do -- some of us -- and
the stone there at the tomb's entrance is too heavy for us to move. God never
notices stones, but on Easter morning the stone is no longer where Joseph had
placed it on Good Friday. A new chapter in the story then begins, a chapter which
not even Colin Cross could believe and which even today takes our breath away. It
is a chapter which leads us to the end of the story and then beyond, to the present
day and far into the future. It is the chapter which has no ending, for it opens
up vast possibilities as we discover that stony hearts and minds, and heavy stones
of doubt, have their counterpart in the joy of resurrection and the light of faith.
Let me end now with some words by one of my Christian heroes, Theodore Parker
Ferris, who preached them from the pulpit of Trinity Church in Boston almost thirty
years ago. He was speaking of how the Cross changes so much, of how Good Friday
alters our whole way of thinking. Dr. Ferris said:
won
"You might put it in words like these, that life looks different
in the light of Jesus. Certainly people look different. Instead of
being miserable wrecks of humanity that are drifting on their weary
way towards death, they become potential sons of the living God,
responding to love, with hidden and undreamed of capacities waiting
to be revealed. Suffering looks different. Instead of being a
- 3 -
calamity that you shrink from when you contemplate the pain
of it, it becomes an opportunity to bear a part of the burdens
of the suffering of the world. It becomes your part and your
share in the cross of life. The good life looks different in
the light of Jesus. Instead of being something to strain for,
it becomes something which you take up gladly because you are
drawn to his inimitable, good life. God looks different.
Instead of being a kind of cold, abstract principle that you
never get anywhere near, God becomes a reality that is warm
and intimate and closely tied up with your own life, nearer
than breathing, nearer than hands and feet, a power that dwells
in you, that knows you, that loves you. Death looks different.
Instead of being the end and final curtain of a man's life it
becomes the last great adventure on this side of the unknown."
All this is what Good Friday means. Because of the Cross life looks different,
people look different, suffering and death look different, God looks different. Good
Friday opens up unfathomed possibilities for those who see in the experience of Jesus
their own experience magnified beyond all our imagination, and yet in that tremen-
dous event which compels us from time to time to pause and look carefully at it, we
are able to catch small intimations of our own experience, of our own suffering and
pain and our own deaths.
Good Friday therefore is never over. Again and again it repeats itself in the
denials and trials, in the little and greater deaths we all undergo, and indeed even
in the seemingly terminal event of burial when the stone is placed at the door. Good
Friday is our day as well as Jesus'; it is our arrest by our enemies, our hearing
before some higher authority, our denial by our friends, our trial before our judges,
our execution at the hands of whatever in this world wants to get rid of us and
finds the means of doing so when there seems no one to help us, sometimes not even
God himself. The cry from the Cross no less than the act of commitment are all a
part of what makes us human.
That is in part then why we have been before the Cross this afternoon. But if
Good Friday is our day so also is Easter; if Christ's experience of suffering and
death come very close to our own, so does his other experience of resurrection on
the other side of the grave, when the stone is at last rolled away and God reveals
himself in the power of his love and in the majesty of his own victory over death
itself.
God pays no attention to the stones life places before our hopes, any more
than in the end he allows the Cross to be the final word. There is more to come,
and Christians who go through the darkness of Good Friday wait expectantly for the
light of Easter. It is a light which God never fails to provide.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Easter Services
Harriet Episcopal Chapel
Catoctin Furnace, Maryland
Sunday - April 18, 1976
Departure: 10:10 A.M.
From: Terry O'Donnell
BACKGROUND:
The Harriet Episcopal Chapel is located at Catoctin Furnace, Maryland,
approximately 9 miles from Camp David. It has 100 parishioners and
is staffed by an Episcopal Church in Cantonsville.
The current pastor of the chapel is Reverend Charles Shaffer, who
also serves as an assistant minister in the Cantonsville Church.
The Episcopal directory indicates that he was born in Kentucky in
1933 and received an undergraduate degree from Transylvania College.
He was a chemist from 1956 through 1968, and then entered and
graduated from the Kentucky Seminary in 1971 (apparently a non-
accredited seminary). He is married, and they have four children.
The hour-long service will begin at 10:30 a.m.
(President Johnson attended a service at Harriet Episcopal Chapel
in 1967.)
tuxu
BEHALD
LIBRARY
THE GOSPEL
tunu
FOR
PALM SUNDAY
GERALD
ABENCIT
St. Matthew 27:1-54
When the morning was come, all the chief priests and
elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put
him to death: and when they had bound him, they led him
away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he
was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the
thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
saying,
Judas:
I have sinned in that I have
betrayed the innocent blood.
And they said,
Chief Priests
and Elders:
What is that to us? See thou to that.
And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and
departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief
priests took the silver pieces and said,
Chief Priests: It is not lawful for to put them into
the treasury, because it is the price
of blood.
And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's
field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was
called, the field of blood, unto this day. Then was
fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet,
saying,
Jeremiah:
And they took the thirty pieces of silver,
the price of him that was valued, whom
they of the children of Israel did
value; and gave them for the potter's
field, as the Lord appointed me.
And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor
asked him, saying,
Pilate:
Art thou the King of the Jews?
And Jesus said unto him,
Jesus:
Thou sayest.
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH
And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders,
LAFAYETTE SQUARE
he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him,
WASHINGTON
Pilate:
Hearest thou not how many things
they witness against thee?
THE REVEREND JOHN C. HARPER, D.D., RECTOR
And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the
governor marvelled greatly. Now at that feast the
governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner,
whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner,
Palm Sunday - April 11, 1976
called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered
11:00 A.M.
together, Pilate said unto them,
PALM SUNDAY LITURGY AND SERMON
Prelude on "Passion Chorale"
Pilate:
Whom will ye that I release unto
,Sowerby (1895-1968)
"Rhapsody III"
you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is
Herbert Howells (b. 1892)
called Christ?
Palm Sunday Reading: St. Matthew 21:1-11
For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When
Blessing of the Palms
he was set down on the judgment-seat, his wife sent unto
Processional Hymn 62
him, saying,
St. Theodulph
The Order for Ante-Communion, Prayer Book, page 67
Pilate's Wife: Have thou nothing to do with that just
Kyrie, page 69
man: for I have suffered many things
Simon Preston (Contemporary)
this day in a dream because of him.
Collect for Palm Sunday
But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude
Old Testament Lesson: Zechariah 9:9-12
that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The
Read by Nancy Grimes
governor answered and said unto them,
Motet: "Blessed is He That Cometh"
Pilate:
Whether of the twain will ye
Vaughan-Williams (1872-1958)
that I release unto you?
Epistle: Philippians 2:5-11
Hymn 65
They said,
Horsley
Gospel: St. Matthew 27:1-54
People:
Barabbas.
(Read by the Rector and Congregation)
Pilate saith unto them,
Sermon: The Rector
Nicene Creed, page 71
Pilate:
What shall I do then with Jesus
which is called Christ?
Intercessions, page 74, and Lord's Prayer
They all say unto him,
Offertory: "Lift Up Your Heads" Gibbons (1625-1683)
Prayers
People:
Let him be crucified.
Hymn 80
Were You There
And the governor said,
(Sung by Kay Granger, contralto, and the Choir)
Blessing
Pilate:
Why, what evil hath he done?
Recessional Hymn 64
St. Drostane
Postlude: Carillon de Westminster Vierne (1870-1937)
9:00 A.M.
THE HOLY COMMUNION AND SERMON
But they cried out the more, saying,
People:
Let him be crucified.
Prelude on "Passion Chorale"
,Sowerby (1895-1968)
Hymn 64
St. Drostane
When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that
The Holy Communion, Green Folder, page 1
rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his
hands before the multitude, saying,
Old Testament Lesson: Zechariah 9:9-12
Read by Nancy ,Skancke
Pilate:
I am innocent of the blood of this
Epistle: Philippians 2:5-11
just person: see ye to it.
Gospel: St. Matthew 27:1-54
(Read by the Gospeller and Congregation)
Then answered all the people, and said,
Hymn 68
Bangor
People:
His blood be on us, and on our children.
Sermon: The Rector
The Holy Communion, continued, page 3
Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had
Offertory: "O Thou, Eternal Christ"
Lovelace
scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then
(20th Cent.)
the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common
Prayer of Consecration, page 5
hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.
And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
Hymn 62 (verses 1-3, 6)
St. Theodulph
And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it
Postlude: Carillon de Westminster Vierne (1870-1937)
upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they
bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying,
+
Motet at 11:00 A.M.
Soldiers:
Hail, King of the Jews!
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.
And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him
Hosanna in the Highest.
on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they
took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on
Offertory at 11:00 A.M.
him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came
out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they
Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates and be ye lift up ye
compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come
everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.
unto a place ca lled Golgotha, that is to say, a place of
Who is the King of glory? It is the Lord strong and
a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall:
mighty, ev'n the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.
and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And
they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots:
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,
THE PALMS are given in memory of Nicholas Luquer and
Helen King Luquer.
Prophet:
They parted my garments among them, and
upon my vesture did they cast lots.
THE USHERS: 9:00 A.M. John Peters Irelan and Laurance
And sitting down they watched him there; and set up over
Redway. 11:00 A.M. Frank Hammond, Jouko Hauvonen,
his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING
Daniel Hofgren, James Kabler, Jerome Lord, Drew Popjoy,
OF THE JEWS. Then were there two thieves crucified with
Henry Spencer and Jay Zeiler.
him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And
they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,
A TOUR OF THE CHURCH is conducted following the 11:00
and saying,
A.M. Service. Please meet the guide, Ann Hume Loikow,
People:
Thou that destroyest the temple, and
at the pulpit at the conclusion of the Service.
buildest it in three days, save thyself.
If thou be the Son of God, come down
COFFEE HOURS are held following the 9:00 A.M. and 11:00
from the cross.
A.M. Services in the Parish House, at 1525 H Street,
N.W. All visitors and newcomers are most welcome.
Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the
scribes and elders, said,
Chief Priests,
He saved others; himself he cannot
Scribes, and
save. If he be the King of Israel,
Elders:
let him now come down from the
cross, and we will believe him. He
trusted in God; let him deliver him
now, if he will have him: for he
said, I am the Son of God.
The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast
the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour there
was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice,
saying,
Jesus:
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said,
People:
This man calleth for Elias.
And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and
filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him
to drink. The rest said,
People:
Let be, let us see whether Elias
will come to save him.
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded
up the Ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was
rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth
did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened;
and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came
out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into
the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the
centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus,
saw the earthquake, and those things that were done,
they feared greatly, saying,
Centurion:
Truly this was the Son of God.