{"id":119,"date":"2008-05-23T13:56:13","date_gmt":"2008-05-23T17:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/v3\/?p=119"},"modified":"2008-05-23T13:56:13","modified_gmt":"2008-05-23T17:56:13","slug":"presbyterians-to-host-144th-memorial-day-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/?p=119","title":{"rendered":"Presbyterians to host 144th Memorial Day Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>At 10:30 a.m. worship on Sunday, May 25, Tyrone Presbyterians will include two flag pledges, three patriotic carols, a World War II piano solo, and a Civil War battle hymn as they remember\u00a0 Memorial Day, which began 144 years ago in 1864, in nearby Boalsburg, PA.
\nTo open worship, the young people will lead the audience first, in the pledge to the Christian Flag, and next, in the pledge to the American Flag. The pledge to the Christian flag originated in a Coney Island chapel in New York in 1897. On September 26, 1897, a Sunday School superintendent named Charles Overton improvised the first pledge to the Christian Flag as part of a Rally Day Program for a young people\u2019s Sunday School.
\nThe pledge to the American Flag originated in 1892 from the pen of a New York teacher named Francis Bellamy. Bellamy composed the American Flag pledge for a New York City school program to honor the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day. Bellamy first published the flag pledge in the young people\u2019s magazine entitled Youth Companion in 1892. In 1954, with much encouragement from President Dwight Eisenhower, the phrase \u201cUnder God\u201d became part of the American Flag pledge.
\nDuring worship, the audience will sing a panorama of patriotic carols. After the flag pledge, they will sing the 1814 flag song entitled \u201cThe Star Spangled Banner\u201d by Francis Scott Key. Attorney Francis Key composed the National Anthem on September 13, 1814, after being held prisoner on a ship near Baltimore, by the British. All night from his prison ship in Baltimore Harbor, Key watched the British fire on Fort McHenry. In the morning, the American Flag still waved over that early American fort, and Key celebrated that miracle by writing \u201cO Say Can You See, By The Dawn\u2019s Early Light.\u201d
\nIncidentally, the flag over Fort McHenry celebrated by Mr. Key took 400 yards of wool to create, measured 30 by 42 feet, and cost $406 in early American money. A lady by the name of Mary Young Pickersgill sewed the big flag. Surprisingly, Congress did not declare Francis Scott Key\u2019s song about this huge flag as America\u2019s National Anthem until 1931.
\nPresbyterians also will celebrate this 144th anniversary of Memorial Day by singing Samuel Smith\u2019s 1832 hymn entitled, \u201cMy Country \u2018Tis Of Thee.\u201d By composing this hymn, Harvard graduate and Baptist minister Samuel Smith wanted to create a song that would allow Americans to praise God for the blessings of their new country. Church members also will lift their voices in singing the 1893 patriotic carol entitled, \u201cAmerica The Beautiful.\u201d While teaching summer school English in Colorado Springs in 1893, Bates drew inspiration from the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains and found the inspiration to compose \u201cAmerica The Beautiful.\u201d As her song unfolded, Bates celebrated America\u2019s land, founders, heroes, and dreams.
\nAt the Offertory, church organist Richard Merryman will transport listeners to 1942, with a piano\u00a0 patriotic solo made popular at the height of World War II – \u201cThey\u2019ll Be Bluebirds Over, The White Cliffs Of Dover.\u201d Composed by Americans Walter Kent and Nat Burton (who never had seen the White Cliffs of Dover), the song soared to instant success in 1942, when people like Vera Lynn and Kate Smith sang it. In 1944, it served as the theme song for a movie called The White Cliffs Of Dover, starring Irene Dunn and Elizabeth Taylor. The song promised strength for today and bright hopes for tomorrow,\u00a0 as British and American Forces united against the Nazi Terror of the Second World War.
\nQuite appropriately, the Westminster Choir will perform a popular song from another war – the Civil War. The choir singers will recall Julia Ward Howe\u2019s 1862 Civil War battle hymn entitled, \u201cMine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of The Coming Of The Lord.\u201d Miss Howe composed this hymn because she tired of hearing the despicable \u201cJohn Brown\u2019s Body Lies A Molding In The Grave\u201d sung to such a quality American marching melody. Hearing the battle hymn for the first time, President Abraham Lincoln\u2019s eyes filled with tears, and he insisted, \u201csing it again please!\u201d
\nWithout a doubt, Julia Ward Howe\u2019s battle hymn belongs with Memorial Day, since it evolved just two years before the birth of Memorial Day in 1864, in nearby Boalsburg, PA. According to historians in\u00a0 Boalsburg, 144 years ago, in October 1864, three women of that village – Emma Hunter, Elizabeth Myers, and Sophie Keller – walked to the Boalsburg Cemetery to spread wildflowers on the graves of Doctor Reuben Hunter and Amos Myers – both of whom had died in the Civil War.
\nOn that October day, the three women promised each other that they would return to the cemetery the next Summer, once again to remember their loved ones. When these three ladies returned on July 4, 1865, all the people of Boalsburg, joined them, the villagers \u201cdecorated\u201d all the graves with flowers and flags, and Memorial Day was born with a service of remembrance.
\nBy 1868, General John Logan, Commander in Chief of the Army of the Republic, issued an order that each year, citizens should set aside May 30 as a day for \u201cstrewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in service to their country. In 1971, Decoration Day (May 30) became Memorial Day (final Monday of May) to provide federal workers with a holiday weekend to open the summer.
\nAs the 144th anniversary of America\u2019s Memorial Day unfolds this weekend, why not join Tyrone Presbyterians at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 25, 2008 for a service of remembrance that will include two flag pledges, three patriotic carols, a World War II piano solo, and a Civil War battle hymn all intended so that people \u201cwill not forget\u201d those who gave their last full measure of devotion to this country we call America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 10:30 a.m. worship on Sunday, May 25, Tyrone Presbyterians will include two flag pledges, three patriotic carols, a World War II piano solo, and a Civil War battle hymn as they remember\u00a0 Memorial Day, which began 144 years ago in 1864, in nearby Boalsburg, PA. To open worship, the young people will lead the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}