I was listening to the funeral services for President Ford at the National Cathedral this morning while I took down the Christmas decorations. (Yes, I know, some of you leave them up until the end of Epiphany. But I get antsy to do this after New Year's Day.)
Wasn't the music in the service wonderful? The magnificent pipe organ, the orchestra and the choirs were so inspiring and uplifting. And the congregation sang EVERY VERSE of the hymn For All the Saints Who From Their Labors Rest ! This is one of my favorite hymns and too often you only get to sing a few of the verses.
I also came across this post from Ben Witherington about President Ford and his son, Reverend Ford, who was one of Witherington's seminary classmates which includes some interesting personal anecdotes. It's worth reading.
3 comments:
Very interesting post from Ben Witherington. I'm glad you found that.
I had the laptop nearby while I was watching the service, and when I realized they were singing ALL of "For All the Saints" I turned to cyberhymnal.org and followed along. We seldom hear some of those verses, and I like them all. I sang along, too.
Thank you for the link to Ben Witherington. All the lampoons have sadly overshadowed the facts for me. I have never before given serious regard to President Ford's term in office. This was happily enightening. What a lovely family.
I missed the service, was traveling all day. Thank you for posting this. I'll read the link later.
Happy New Year for you.
We took ours down before the new year, but haven't boxed it up yet.
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