Bishop Allin to Be Installed as Presiding Bishop
Diocesan Press Service. May 10, 1974 [74141]
(NOTE: This release, from the Washington Cathedral, contains information that was not included in DPS release # 74095, dated 4/4/74. The information in the two releases may be combined into one release, if you wish.)
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The Right Reverend John Maury Allin will be installed as twenty-third Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in colorful ceremonies at Washington Cathedral on June 10 and 11, 1974. Bishop Allin was elected last October to succeed the Right Reverend John E. Hines.
Bishop Allin will celebrate Holy Communion in the cathedral at 6 p.m. on June 10. Preacher at the service will be the Reverend John Coburn, President of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies.
On June 11 at 11 a.m., after formal welcome to the cathedral by its dean, the Very Reverend Francis B. Sayre, Jr., Bishop Allin will be conducted by Bishop William F. Creighton of Washington to the stall designated for the Presiding Bishop. Bishop Hines will present his successor with the primatial staff. At this service the new Presiding Bishop will preach his inaugural sermon.
At Bishop Allin's request, the Monday evening Eucharist will be celebrated according to a contemporary-language rite. The form is now in trial use in the Episcopal Church.
Musical units participating in the services are the Choir of Men and Boys of Washington Cathedral; ten boys each from Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, and Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis; and fifty men and women from the choir of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. Dr. John Paul, organist of St. Andrew's Cathedral, Jackson, Mississippi, will also perform.
Special music is being composed for the services by Richard W. Dirksen, of the cathedral staff, and by David Koehring of the Indianapolis cathedral. It was Bishop Allin's express hope that the music for the services be singable by all present. Mr. Dirksen has written a "Sanctus " using the cathedral's band of handbell-ringers, the choirs, with singing and shouting from the congregation. He has also written a new hymn-tune, "Vineyard Haven, " with congregational parts, to accompany the procession of bible, prayer book and sacramental symbols being presented to the Presiding Bishop during the service.
Among participants in the June 11 service will be the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, the Most Reverend William W. Baum. Mrs. Clarie Collins Harvey of ,Jackson, Mississippi, national president of Church Women United in the U.S.A., will also read a lesson at the service.
Representing the Archbishop of Canterbury will be the Lord Bishop of London, the Right Reverend and Right Honorable Gerald Ellison. Leo Jozel Cardinal Suenens, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Malines-Brussels and primate of Belgium, will be present as will the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Most Reverend Edward W. Scott. A wide representation of the constituency of the Episcopal Church, including monks and nuns, seminarians and lay persons on many church-related committees and boards will be in the procession. The Diocese of Mississippi, from which Bishop Allin comes to his new post, will be represented by a large number of clergy and lay people. In addition, each diocesan bishop has been invited to name two persons from his diocese to receive cards of admission to the Tuesday morning service.
Seating for the Monday eucharist will be open and there will be a limited number of free seats on Tuesday morning. Written requests for cards of admission will be honored in order of their receipt (a maximum of two per applicant), as far as possible after the total number of official participants and their guests has been determined. Both services will be broadcast out-of-doors to any overflow congregation.
CBS-TV plans to cover the event for national showing on June 23 as part of its series, Lamp Unto My Feet ( 10:00 - 10:30 EDT; check local television schedule or call local CBS affiliate for exact time).
As part of the installation, the cathedral will be open late into the evening of June 10 for concerts honoring the Presiding Bishop -- by Dr. John Paul, organist, the choir of the University of the South, by pianist-composer Anthony Piccolo. Concluding the evening will be a musical meditation, "The Christ Tree," performed by the Trees, a semi-monastic ashram resident at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York.
Immediately following the Tuesday morning service, an informal reception will be held on the cathedral grounds. At Bishop Allin's request, there will be no receiving line. In the tradition of the cathedral's Open House each fall, hot dogs will be available. and the cathedral's carousel will be set up for younger visitors.
Reginald Pollack, a prominent Washington artist and illustrator, has designed a commemorative poster which has been sent to every Episcopal parish in the country. The poster will be available from the cathedral in both regular and collectors' editions.
Beginning the afternoon of June 11, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church will launch a three-day working session at Rosedale, the campus of the National Cathedral School for Girls. Several other such working meetings are to be held in conjunction with the event. Thirty bishops will meet at the College of Preachers at the cathedral for discussion of the problem of vacancy consultation. Episcopal editors and communicators will gather June 9 and 10 at the Shoreham-Americana Hotel.
Other groups convening in the area include the Executive Committee of the American Church Union; the Program, Budget and Finance Committee of the General Convention; the Committee for Social Responsibility in Investments; and the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers. The Joint Commission on Church Music has also scheduled a meeting at this time.
According to Canon Jeffrey Cave, precentor of the cathedral, and coordinator for the event, "The pomp and stylized form of the liturgy and the grandeur of the music for Bishop Allin's Installation seems a justified and deserved celebration in the context of a down-to-earth working gathering of the church. We hope many will join in person or in their prayers to support the Presiding Bishop as he begins his new ministry on behalf of us all."