Washington, DC, May 17, 2008
Indiana to be celebrated in Special Worship Service at Washington National Cathedral
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WASHINGTON – Indiana leaders and citizens will be celebrated at a special worship service June 15 at Washington National Cathedral. Invited clergy and parishioners, music groups and Indiana natives living in the nation’s capital will play prominent roles at the event in the landmark house of prayer.
As part of its national ministry, Washington National Cathedral offers prayers for each state annually. The Cathedral, which hosts state funerals and other events of national significance, honors each state with a major observance once every four years.
Indiana Day will mark a continuation of the Cathedral’s centennial year celebration. With more than 500 Hoosiers expected to attend, it will be one of the major events of the year at the Cathedral, which was built entirely from Indiana limestone.
The Right Rev. Catherine M. Waynick, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, will preside at the 11:15 am service. The Right Rev. Edward S. Little II, bishop of the South Bend-based Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana, will serve as concelebrant.
Indiana choristers will be featured before and during the service. The Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, from Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis and under the direction of Dr. Frederick Burgomaster, will perform as the service choir.
High school students from Vigo County who were formed into a select choir will perform the service prelude. The choir consists of 45 young voices from Terre Haute and West Terre Haute.
The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, dean of Washington National Cathedral, will deliver the sermon.
Dean Lloyd also will moderate the Cathedral’s Sunday Forum at 10 am with former Indiana congressman Lee H. Hamilton as guest for Indiana Day. The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith is a weekly program of dialogue about major issues as seen from the Christian perspective.
Hamilton, president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and director of The Center on Congress at Indiana University, represented Indiana’s 9th Congressional District in the U.S. House for 34 years beginning in 1965.
A former chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hamilton also served as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group and vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission.
Hamilton will converse with Dean Lloyd and with the congregation on the topic: “What Politicians and Religious Leaders Need from Each Other.”
Indiana worshipers will bear communion elements and offer up gifts to the poor. The state flag will be placed on the chancel steps in the cathedral for the following week to further mark Indiana Day.
Key groups participating in the day include the Indiana Society of Washington, the organization of Hoosiers who live and work in the Washington area. The state society along with the Indiana State University Foundation will sponsor a post-service reception. Representatives of Indiana State University and its foundation’s board of directors will be in attendance as well.
Indiana University president Dr. Michael McRobbie and members of the Indiana University Foundation staff also will take part.
The president of the National Cathedral Association, the organization of Cathedral friends and volunteers, is Craig M. McKee of Terre Haute.
The Indiana University Foundation has given a gift of flowers for War Memorial Chapel, in memory of Indiana men and women who have sacrificed their lives for our country.
Afterwards, guides will lead guests on a special tour of the cathedral, the sixth-largest in the world. The tour will highlight references to Indiana, most notably the limestone in its structure that came from quarries in Lawrence and Monroecounties. Also the Eli Lilly family is honored in the Lilly porch in the Cathedral’s west end and a kneeler in St. John’s chapel honors Wilbur Wright.
“As a church for national purposes and a house of prayer for all people, the Cathedral opens its doors to all. On June 15, we especially welcome Hoosiers as we honor their contributions and service to their neighbors and our nation,” said Benjamin Bradburn, the Cathedral’s senior manager for national outreach. “Indiana Day will be an energetic celebration of the role the state plays in the life of the Cathedral and our nation.”
The National Cathedral Association, the organization of national friends and volunteers of Washington National Cathedral that is organizing the Indiana service, has over 30,000 friends and volunteers from many denominations in every state and around the world.
Washington National Cathedral is a church for national purposes called to embody God’s love and to welcome people of all faiths and none. A unique blend of the spiritual and the civic, this Episcopal cathedral is a voice for generous-spirited Christianity and a catalyst for reconciliation and interfaith dialogue to promote respect and understanding. The Cathedral invites all people to share in its commitment to create a more hopeful and just world.
SOURCE: Washington National Cathedral