Old North Church to Celebrate 250th Anniversary
Diocesan Press Service. December 7, 1973 [73263]
BOSTON, Mass. -- A special church service of historic religious and national significance will be held on December 30 at Boston's Old North Church to commemorate the first service 250 years ago that opened the edifice known as Christ Church to the public.
Top ecclesiastical and political leaders will be on hand to reaffirm the Biblical text used by the first rector, the Reverend Timothy Cutler on that last Sunday of December in 1723: "For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people" (Isaiah 56:7).
Vicar Robert W. Golledge announced this week that among the guests and church service participants will be His Eminence Humberto Cardinal Medeiros, Archbishop of Boston who will read a litany of prayer; the Right Reverend John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop, Episcopal Church; the Right Reverend John M. Burgess, Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts; Governor Frank W. Sargent; Boston Mayor, Kevin White ; Deans of Boston Theological Schools; and other Protestant church leaders.
An anthem specially commissioned for the occasion and written by Karl Kohn will be played on the Church organ which dates back to 1759.
It was on the night of April 18, 1775, that the Church's spiritual destiny became indivisible with the momentous political event of the hanging of two lanterns in its steeple. That signal set Paul Revere on his immortal midnight ride to warn against the British expeditionary force moving up the Charles River to Cambridge to begin a march to Lexington. Since then, Christ Church has been better known as Old North Church, and as a national shrine of international stature.