Hundreds of Oklahomans descended upon the Washington National Cathedral this morning for the quadrennial observance of Oklahoma Major State Day. We managed to get reserved tickets, so Tony and I got to sit up front with all the dignitaries and special guests. Congressman Dan Boren (D-2nd Dist. Okla.) read the Old Testament Reading during the service and former governor and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Frank Keating and his wife carried the Oklahoma flag in the procession. Principal Chief of the Cherokees Chadwick Smith presented the bread during the offertory, Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Betty Price and another woman whose name escapes me (she used to be administrative hired help at Tulsa Opera) presented the wine, and a woman I didn't know presented the water.
The incumbent governor was a no-show and I didn't see any of the other members of the Oklahoma Congressional delegation there. Federal dignitaries I saw and chatted with included the Special Trustee for American Indians Ross Swimmer (who's a former Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs), the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Pat Ragsdale, and OST's Director of the Office of Trust Regulations, Policies and Procedures Phil Viles (who's a former chief justice of the Cherokee Judicial Appeals Tribunal). I was surprised not to see any of the bishops from Oklahoma there.
Had a nice chat with Governor Keating's wife, who was escorting her mother around, and Congressman Boren introduced me to his very pretty wife. Also talked with Chief Smith before the service and his wife afterwards. The chief has a new Indian jacket in a striped tan fabric, and Bobbie was wearing a tear dress in matching hues. Speaking of clothes, Cathy Keating was in a gorgeous turquoise angora sweater.
During communion, I noticed Mrs. Price was grimmacing a bit after she received her wine. Since she was one of the people who brought it up to the altar during the offertory, I meant to ask her at the reception afterwards what vintage it was so I could avoid buying a wine she so obviously didn't like. Alas, she didn't go to the reception, so I didn't get to ask. She's probably used to my parish back in Oklahoma City, where they always serve white wine on the Epistle side and red wine on the Gospel side.
The Cherokee National Youth Choir (pictured above—those tiny people in the ribbon shirts behind the altar) sang a choral prelude before the service. It was all their standard gospel hymn stuff sung in the Cherokee language. The cathedral acoustic, unfortunately, wasn't terribly kind to their singing, but you know how everybody always thinks kids are cute, so everyone was happy.
The service itself, a standard 11 a.m. communion service for the cathedral, was a little low-key. The dean preached (too long) and their canoness liturgist was the celebrant. She, as usual, wrote some weird text for the service and substituted some weird "Arise your light has come" hymn for the Gloria. The Cathedral Choir of Men and Girls sang, and I noticed the assistant director in procession and conducting (meaning we had the third string today), and I didn't recognize the playing of whoever was at the organ—it certainly didn't sound like the cathedral organist.
The choir did a lovely a capella introit from the rear of the nave, which was Edward Bairstow's "Jesu the very thought of thee." The offertory anthem was "O God who by the leading of a star" by Tomas Attwood and the slated communion motet was "Senex peurum portabat" by William Byrd. The limited Mass setting music was William Mathias' Sanctus and they did a fraction anthem I don't know which wasn't credited in the program; there was no Agnus Dei and nothing else was sung. The Psalm was sung to the Anglican chant Cambridge. Hymns were Truro for the procession, a hideous contemporary thing called Mary Alexandra with the words "Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?" for the sequence, Dix with weird alternative words "As we worship you today" after the offertory, Land of Rest with the words "I come with joy" for post-communion, and Crucifer for the recessional. The organ postlude was an unusually slow and ponderous Fugue in E-flat "Saint Anne", BWV 552 by J. S. Bach. The carillonneur played Truro as a prelude and I couldn't recognize the postlude he was ringing.
I was kind of amused to notice that atheist-wannabe Tony went up and ate Jesus during communion. He has Irish Catholics on both sides of his family, so I'm sure he'll blame it on cellular memory or something. I prefer to think of it merely as the Holy Spirit working in mysterious ways. :-)
After the service and coffee and cookie reception, we wandered around a bit so I could show Tony around the place and so we could kill a little bit of time. Above, Tony is standing in the Great Quire ogling the pipe organ. We were killing time so we could all go to brunch with my friend John who was driving down from Baltimore after playing a service at Old St. Paul's. He also was singing in the Evensong choir at the National Cathedral this afternoon, so we had to have a quick brunch at one of the neighborhood cafes to accommodate his schedule, and landed at Cactus Cantina, since there was a waiting list at Cafe Deluxe.
Alas, we had to be polite during our brunch conversation, since the canoness liturgist was seated at the table right beside us, and we couldn't make catty comments about the sad state of cathedral liturgy these days with her there and protect
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