The Lead

Hi folks,

Just back from the National Prayer Service. [On demand video of service here.] The Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins preached a heck of a sermon, but for me the high points of the morning were musical: the gently rocking harmonies of the Washington Performing Arts Society’s Children of the Gospel Choir (Annisse Murillo, soloist) singing He’s Got the Whole World in his Hands; the impassioned majesty of Amazing Grace as sung by Dr. Wintley Phipps, President of U. S. Dream Academy; and the sweet, serene tones of The Cathedral Choir whose version of America the Beautiful makes plain the profoundly prayerful essence of that song.

Amazing Grace

America the Beautiful

I was also taken by the jubilant elegance with which the Rev. Dr. Cynthia L. Hale of Ray of Hope Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Decatur, Georgia read the first reading (Isaiah 58:6-12).

The Obamas are either prayerful folk, or expert mimics. From my seat in the Great Choir—The cathedral clergy and diocesan canons processed with the altar party, and then sat blessedly out of sight.—I could see them throughout the service and their attention never wavered.

Before the service, President and Mrs. Obama met privately with the Bishop John Bryson Chane, Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III, John H. Shenefield, chair of the Cathedral Chapter and their wives. Bishop Chane said the ten-minute meeting was as relaxed and informal as a quick get-together of this sort can be. He asked the president if he was tired after his hectic day yesterday, and President Obama said no, and that he was having a good time. “These are young people,” the bishop told me later.

Karen Chane and Michelle Obama talked about the Obama’s daughters first night in the White House. (I am withholding the details, not because they are especially revealing, but because the children are off limits.)

The bishop said the Obamas are an unpretentious couple. “It was like meeting your neighbors across the back fence,” he said. “That’s just how they carry themselves.”

After the service former President Bill Clinton stuck around for a long time chatting with the crowd, while people climbed the altar steps to get above the crowd so they could take pictures of him.

Mary Francis Schjonberg of Episcopal News Service is working on her story in the office next to mine. We will link to it later.

Cheers,

Jim Naughton

Related item: National prayer service: reports

Comments (12)

Jim,

This sounds just great! I can't wait to see the pictures. It looked like the Cathedral servers were overwealmed with people trying to watch it live (not able to see it), but hoping video is posted sometime.

Awesome reporting, looking forward to more.

Peace and Hope!

Peter+
http://santospopsicles.blogspot.com

Posted by Peter | January 21, 2009 1:50 PM

Peter+,

Your wish is our command:

http://video1.cathedral.org/wmv/Inaugural2009.wmv

Posted by John B. Chilton | January 21, 2009 2:37 PM

Watching the service now - could not watch at the time due to overload, I guess. The Cathedral did us proud.

Posted by ann | January 21, 2009 2:39 PM

My personal favorite is "My Shepherd will supply my need." But maybe that's because my old choir did it many times and the congregation loved it.

Posted by John B. Chilton | January 21, 2009 2:40 PM

The service was also carried on C-span. Sorry I didn't know that sooner, but at least I got to hear the last ten minutes!

Posted by Barbara Miles | January 21, 2009 2:48 PM

Carol Wade, the cathedral's liturgist, does very good work. It has hard to instill a sense of focus and cohesion in interfaith service, but trusting wisely in the service of Morning or Evening Prayer as it comes down to us in The Book of Common Prayer, she succeeded. She also did excellent work on the Presiding Bishop's installation back in 2006.

Posted by Jim Naughton | January 21, 2009 2:48 PM

I found the cathedral's live feed overloaded as well. It stalled out a lot. Or would have video but no audio. I googled around quickly and found a few FOX stations online that were using SilverLight. They were also stuttering and stalling. CSPAN was the best. It was a good solid stream. I plugged the URL directly into QuickTime (on a Mac with Flashplayer installed) and watched full screen. I have learned that with a live stream it helps to give your player as large a buffer as possible and tell the system that you have a slower connection than you actually have.

It was a great service.

Posted by David Allen |dah • veed| | January 21, 2009 3:21 PM

I wish I had known it was going to be on CSPAN. I would have mentioned it yesterday.

Posted by Jim Naughton | January 21, 2009 3:40 PM

I'm watching the Cathedral video on demand. It's great! It appears that C-span used the same video, but they used subtitles to identify the participants. The music is simply wonderful! Can the cathedral give us some of the pre-service preludes too?

Posted by Barbara Miles | January 21, 2009 4:05 PM

I watched it on CNN, and it was outstanding. Kudos to the National Cathedral for once again showing the nation "Our" Cathedral.

Br Ron Fox, BSG
Chicago IL

Posted by Ron Fox, BSG | January 21, 2009 4:21 PM

I watched on Fox News as CNN International didn´t have it, nor BBC...I loved the prayer service and although I felt like I was seated in a Rickwarrentypetrap viewing the affair (I still dislike, hugely, Fox and think of them as snide newsfabricators) I remain full of Thanksgiving and honored OUR President was present at two of OUR Church´s two days in a row...inspiring stuff from any perspective.

Posted by Leonardo Ricardo | January 21, 2009 7:48 PM

The service was long! I joined about the time of the second reading, on C-Span. Oh my did my heart sing along with the music groups. I'm glad the cathedral provided a PDF file of the programme. I like that several references were made to the hymn "Lift Every Voice" today and also by Mr Lowery yesterday. I also liked the Cherokee story in Dr Watkin's sermon. - Jay Vos

Posted by dutchfox | January 21, 2009 8:55 PM

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