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Of Monarchs, Prelates And the Bicentennial

Episcopal News Service. July 29, 1976 [76248]

NEW YORK, N. Y. -- Pepper comes and Morning Prayer don't normally cause a great deal of excitement, but they did in July as they became elements by which the Episcopal Church and the Queen of England recalled the past and celebrated the present in a variety of Bicentennial observances.

On July 4, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, preached and was the chief celebrant at a Eucharist dedicating the nave of National Cathedral at Washington, the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. In his sermon, Bishop Allin warned that "This magnificent structure can be a whited sepulchre if not inhabited by spirited human beings who... walk humbly with God. "

Four days later, the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, and her husband, Prince Philip, joined President and Mrs. Ford in a Morning Prayer service which rededicated the nave of the cathedral to the "reconciliation of the peoples of the earth. " The respective envoys of the United States to Great Briton and Great Briton to the U. S. were the lectors at the traditional Anglican worship service.

Continuing her association with the Episcopal Church (the Queen is temporal head of the Church of England which holds a primacy of honor in the Anglican Communion), Elizabeth traveled to New York where, amid receptions and ceremony, she received the symbolic rent of one "pepper come" a year which Trinity Parish had agreed to pay the crown of England 279 years ago for use of the land which the historic church occupies overlooking New York's inner harbor. In ceremonies on the steps of Trinity Church, the Rev. Robert R. Parks, 15th rector of Trinity, presented 279 pepper comes in a Steuben glass container to the Queen while the staff, vestry, Prince Philip and ambassadors looked on.

Before leaving the United States, the Queen once more heard the Morning Prayer service, this time at Christ Church Boston where Prince Philip served as one of the lectors.