Dioceses for 200 Years: Jersey and N.Y. Celebrate
Episcopal News Service. May 23, 1985 [85117]
NEW YORK (DPS, May 23) -- The neighboring dioceses of New York and New Jersey are celebrating the 200th anniversaries of their founding this summer.
The Diocese of New York, founded June 22, 1785, has been engaged in an on-going celebration of its anniversary since September, with regional events reflecting the diocese's philosophy of decentralization. However, a special diocesan-wide Bicentennial Festival was held May 18 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, here. Over 3,000 people attended -- including a choir of more than 800 singers from 30 parishes -- as diocesan Bishop Paul Moore, assisted by suffragan Bishops Stuart Wetmore and Walter Dennis, celebrated a solemn Eucharist. A new anthem, "The Lord Is King" by Lee Hoiby, specially commissioned for the bicentennial, received its world premiere. The preacher for the service was the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. John Habgood, Archbishop of York, and representatives of other Christian bodies and the Jewish faith were also present.
Following the service, Habgood blessed a 32-foot high, 16-ton bronze sculpture, Peace Fountain, on the Great Lawn of the Cathedral grounds. Created by Greg Wyatt, sculptor-in-residence at the Cathedral, Peace Fountain is intended to symbolize the conflict of good and evil.
The final event of the New York bicentennial celebration will be the blessing and sealing of a time capsule on June 22, the anniversary date. Items to be included in the capsule, which will be opened in 2085, are currently on display in the Cathedral.
The Diocese of New Jersey, founded July 6, 1785 by a group including representatives from what is now the Diocese of Newark, has also spread its celebration over a period of time, starting with a lenten quiet day with sessions held in five locations.
One of the major events in the New Jersey celebration was the Bicentennial Festival and Eucharist held on the evening of Ascension Day at the Garden State Arts Center, an outdoor theater located in a parklike setting. The festivities began at 5:30 P.M., with people invited to bring picnic suppers and enjoy open-air drama (including scenes from the history of the diocese) and music on the grounds of the center. At, 7:00, people were to enter the theater, and 15 minutes later, the service began with a procession which included over 100 banners from parishes in the diocese.
The Eucharist was celebrated by the Bishop of New Jersey, G. P. Mellick Belshaw, with suffragan Bishop Vincent K. Pettit as concelebrant, and the Archbishop of York as preacher. An orchestra and a choir of 300 voices from around the diocese provided music. The first lesson was read by Gov. Thomas Kean, with the second lesson and intercessions done by a youth representative and the president of the Episcopal Church Women of the diocese, respectively. Representatives of the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Jewish communities, as well as many from Protestant denominations were among the 5,000 people who attended.
The anniversary date itself will be commemorated by a Eucharist at Christ Church, New Brunswick, site of the diocese's founding.
Final event in the celebration for New Jersey will be a diocesan banquet on Oct. 26, at which the speaker will be James H. Billington, Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center of the Smithsonian Institution.