FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, October 17, 2004
Contact: Elizabeth Hargrove, 202-537-6248

MAJOR EVENT CELEBRATES MISSOURI AT WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL

WASHINGTON –More than 1,000 worshipers heard tributes to the state of Missouri, its heritage and its people at a special service and celebration held Oct. 17 at Washington National Cathedral.

The Rev. Gary Braun, director of the Catholic Student Center at Washington University in Saint Louis, captivated the congregation as guest preacher at Missouri State Day. He noted the state’s history born in the Missouri Compromise and its standing at the nation’s crossroads where the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers connect far-flung regions.

“Missouri brings unique gifts to the nation’s table,” Braun said. “At the very founding of the state, people had to learn how to work together, had to learn how to negotiate strong ideas. Missouri stands at the middle, between the north and the south, and between the east and the west. Missouri’s great rivers connect the nation with itself. And from there, 200 years ago, two men named Lewis and Clark and their little group set out against incredible and unnamed obstacles to open up a world.

“But it’s not Missouri’s gifts that matter,” Braun said. “What matters is that the gifts of the state of Missouri are in the service of the world. If Missouri is to be great, it is because we lay all that at the service of God.”

Several hundred of the 1,049 worshipers at the Cathedral’s 11 a.m. service marking Missouri State Day traveled from the state, or were Missouri natives now living in the Washington area. Visitors from the Show-Me State played key roles at the event.

Members of the Central Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir, of St. Louis, performed the service prelude, a 25-minute program of gospel music, and anthems composed by Felix Mendelssohn and Pavel Tschesnokov.

“We worked hard to practice and to be prepared for this. It is an honor for us to sing (at Washington National Cathedral),” director Philip Rowland said of the 60-member adult choir that performs regularly in St. Louis. “We sing a lot, enough so that this is a confidence builder for us.”

Delivering the sermon, Braun addressed the congregation from the historic Canterbury Pulpit, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his last Sunday sermon on March 31, 1968, and from where the homily at Ronald Reagan’s state funeral was given on June 11.

Braun told the congregation that God’s wish is simply—but powerfully—for people to become unified. “The greatest truth is our oneness, not our differences,” he said.

Welcoming the visitors, the Right Rev. A. Theodore Eastman, Vicar of Washington National Cathedral, praised Braun’s sermon. “It takes a big speech to fill this space,” Eastman said, motioning to the soaring nave of the world’s sixth-largest cathedral, “and this space was filled this morning.”

For the past six years, Washington National Cathedral has set aside one major state day each month in seeking to fulfill its national mission of outreach to all faiths. The National Cathedral Association, the membership organization that supports the cathedral’s mission and ministries, organized Missouri State Day. Religious and elected leaders and congregants from many different churches and denominations were invited to take part.

At the cathedral’s Evensong service later in the day, the Very Rev. Ronald Clingenpeel, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, delivered the sermon. The Christ Church Cathedral Choir, directed by Canon Precentor William Partridge, performed musical accompaniment.

“We were thrilled to have so many friends of all ages with us on the day from Missouri,” said Vanessa Andrews, director of the National Cathedral Association. “Our volunteer leaders and friends from across the state worked so hard to make the day happen. It was wonderful to see the fruits of their labor.

At the 11 a.m. service, the Rt. Rev. Barry R. Howe, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri, was celebrant.

St. Louis civic leader Virginia V. Weldon, M.D., and Lee Berger of Town & Country, regional co-chair of the National Cathedral Association, read Scripture.

Ina Lewis of Blue Springs, Andrea Reed of St. Louis, John Bellais, a native of Chillicothe, and D’Arcy Elsperman of Town & Country, a regional National Cathedral Association co-chair, carried gifts to the altar during the offertory.

Jonathan M. Brown of Maryville carried the Missouri flag in the service-opening grand processional. Brian Smith of Clayton, a student at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va., carried the banner of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri alongside acolytes and a Navy chaplain from the state.

Afterwards, the National Cathedral Association sponsored a reception recognizing Missouri participants. Bishop Howe, Rev. Braun and Rev. Clingenpeel were presented pins signifying NCA membership.

Cathedral officials also thanked the NCA’s volunteers and association members in Missouri, part of an active network of more than 14,000 friends in every state and around the world who support the mission and ministry of the nation’s House of Prayer for All People.

ATTN PRINT MEDIA: If you desire e-mail transmission of this account and/or photos sent as JPEG attachments please contact Elizabeth Hargrove at the number above. Also, print-quality photos of Washington National Cathedral are available on our Website, www.cathedral.org/cathedral. Click on “Cathedral News.”