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NEW JERSEY CELEBRATED WASHINGTON – Alexandra Lee, who performs with the ChildrenSong of New Jersey choir, was given an assignment for the musical group’s performance at a special Jan. 21 worship service at Washington National Cathedral. Before most of the songs, Lee, 15, was to slap a tuning fork against her thigh, hold it to her ear and discern the proper pitch for the singers to launch a cappella into the hymns that they had spent four months rehearsing at home in Haddonfield. Even though a misreading of the tuning fork could set the group off to a disastrous path of projecting musical notes too high or too low, Lee was nonplussed. “I just do it,” said Lee, who is from Delran, N.J. “It is not that hard for me.” Lee carried out her task without a hitch as the 37 voices of teen-agers and near-teens in the choir performed with precision during a 20-minute recital that served as a worship prelude marking New Jersey State Day at the landmark cathedral. “They did a good job, they were pretty well prepared,” choir director Polly Murray said. The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd, dean of Washington National Cathedral, said of the group’s offering: “It was wonderful.” The New Jersey service drew 921 worshipers to the Cathedral’s 11 a.m. service, including about 200 pilgrims from New Jersey and natives of the state who now live in the Washington area. People from the Garden State played major roles including reading Scripture and delivering gifts to the altar during the service offertory. The Cathedral, which has hosted state funerals and other events of national significance, focuses on an individual state one Sunday each month, inviting church and civic leaders and worshipers of all faiths to raise their communities in prayer. Lloyd delivered the sermon, based on St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians that compares the diverse and fractious early Christian church communities to parts of one human body. Lloyd expressed sadness that several Episcopal parishes in Virginia have decided to break away from the U.S. church in protest relating, in part, to the national (Episcopal) church’s support of the Diocese of New Hampshire’s decision to elect the Reverend V. Gene Robinson, a gay man, as bishop of the state in 2003. The church has been called “ineffective, boring, hypocritical or worse,” Lloyd said. “Like families it can force us to deal with people whom we would not choose otherwise. But Paul says to be a Christian means to be part of a church. The church was meant to be the embodiment of Christ. The church is the place where God can get to us, where God can touch us. “I have one thing to say to our friends” in Virginia, Lloyd said. “Your leaving feels to us like losing an eye or a hand or a foot from the one body we share. It breaks our heart. But we have left the door open and the light on and we pray before long that you will come home.” “Our body is in pain,” Lloyd said. “But I still cannot imagine any place I would rather be than among people who seek to know Christ.” The Right Rev. George E. Councell, bishop of the Trenton-based Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey, was chief celebrant at the Garden State event. Councell said there is value in people gathering in common reflection, whether they are from New Jersey or elsewhere. “We need to come together as one body and this space and this occasion allows us to see a greater display of the fullness of that body,” Councell said. “It allows us to make a pilgrimage and allows us to come to a place where we are not only comforted but also challenged.” New Jersey visitors played key roles throughout the service. Barbara Smyth, volunteer coordinator for the Haddonfield United Methodist Church, read Scripture. The service-opening grand procession included marchers and acolytes from St. Mary’s Church in Burlington, Holy Trinity in Collingwood and the Haddonfield United Methodist Church. Kyle Mulroy, a native of Colts Neck, carried the New Jersey flag into the service and placed it on the chancel steps where it was to remain for a week in further recognition of the state. Mulroy, a lobbyist and government relations representative, is executive director of the New Jersey State Society, the organization of New Jersey natives living in the nation’s capital. Margaret Lynch of Vorhees, Daryl Albury of Medford, Mary Lou Phalen of Ocean City and Clark Dingman of Haddonfield delivered gifts to the altar during the Offertory. Also participating were young members of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indian tribe of Bridgeton. They carried food offerings dressed in traditional Native American attire. Kreshna Figueroa, 21, wore a “jingle dress,” a colorful robe attached with dozens of bells, which was used in ceremonies to heal the sick. Duncan Munson, 13, was dressed as a “grass dancer” in which strands of fabric on his blue vest represented blades of long grass that natives would tamp down and make acceptable for camping. Lesley Munson, 12, and Deztiny Figueroa, 3, portrayed “fancy dancers,” wearing moccasins and colorful shawls said to represent the rainbow spirits. Afterwards guides led tours spotlighting New Jersey. The tours highlighted references to the state, including the tomb of President Woodrow Wilson and needlepoint kneelers in St. John’s Chapel honoring President Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.
ATTN PRINT MEDIA: If you desire e-mail transmission of this account and/or photos sent as JPEG attachments please contact Elizabeth Mullen at the number above. Available on the web site are print-quality photos of Washington National Cathedral (“Photos for Print” under “News” at www.cathedral.org/cathedral). | |