Episcopal Press and News

Search the Episcopal Press and News

Year

All 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962

Enter search query

Official Bicentennial Observance Begins in New York City

Diocesan Press Service. June 9, 1975 [75219]

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- On May 22, New York City's official observance of the nation's bicentennial was begun, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the convening of the First Provisional Congress. Bells, bands, and speeches marked the daylong burst of patriotism.

The day's observance in Manhattan began with a parade from Battery Park up Broadway to St. Paul's Episcopal Chapel, a few blocks south of City Hall. This 209- year-old Georgian brick church is the only surviving church structure in the city from the Colonial era. It was at St. Paul's Chapel, which is affiliated with Trinity Parish, that George Washington worshiped, and there that he went to pray immediately after his inauguration as the first president of the U.S.

Religious leaders who assembled at St. Paul's included the Rt. Rev. J. Stuart Wetmore, Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York; Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America; Terence Cardinal Cooke of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York; the Most Rev. Archbishop Torkom Manoogian, Primate of the Armenian Church of America; Rabbi I. Usher Kirschblum from the New York Board of Rabbis ; and the Rev. Canon Edward West, Subdean of the Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.

After a brief religious ceremony, Mayor Abraham Beame of New York City placed a wreath of red, white, and blue carnations on the portico of St. Paul's at the spot where Maj. Gen. Richard Montgomery, who died in the attack of Quebec on Dec. 31, 1775, is buried.

At City Hall, 3,000 persons gathered at noon to hear the New York Philharmonic orchestra, under the direction of Andre Kostelanetz, play, and to listen to the reading of the Declaration of Independence by Walter Cronkite.

At Rockefeller Center, a red/white/blue "Liberty Cake" was cut by the city's commissioner of public events, Angier Biddle Duke, with a three-foot-long sword. The cake was eaten by 300 people.

A variety of celebrations took part in many other sections of the city.