Vespers for the American Semiquincentennial in Philadelphia, This Saturday

The Durandus Institute for Sacred Liturgy & Music invites you to join in a commemoration of the Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) of the founding of the United States, with a celebration of Vespers as it would have been experienced in 1776 in a Catholic chapel of the Thirteen Colonies. It will take place at St. Augustine Church, within walking distance of Independence Hall, on the feast of St. James, this Saturday, July 25, at 6pm. Vespers will be preceded by a choral prelude about 10 minutes before, and music outside the church by the New Jersey Fifes and Drums for a full hour beforehand.

It was Vespers that John Adams experienced during a visit to Old St. Mary’s, Philadelphia in 1774, after which he wrote to his wife Abigail, “The Musick consisting of an organ, and a Choir of singers, went all the Afternoon, excepting sermon Time, and the Assembly chanted-most sweetly and exquisitely.” Much of the music for this event has been taken from the first Catholic hymnal ever published in the United States, A Compilation of Litanies and Vespers, Hymns and Anthems as they are sung in the Catholic Church, printed in Philadelphia in 1787 by John Aitken.

Before the start of Vespers, there will be a ceremonial reading of the Declaration of Independence outside the church, with the support of the 3rd New Jersey Greys, as well as the New Jersey Fifes and Drums. The liturgical portion of Vespers, celebrating the feast of St. James the Apostle, will be officiated by Fr. Robert Pasley (rector of Mater Ecclesiae Church in Berlin, New Jersey, and president of the Church Music Association of America), with the assistance of six other priests in copes. A sermon will be preached by Fr. Alan Bridges (parochial vicar at St. Joseph’s, Toms River, New Jersey and a longtime participant of living history events at Fort Ticonderoga and with the 3rd New Jersey Greys).

The event will conclude with the singing of Te Deum, as was experienced by members of the Continental Congress, together with the French Minister and his chaplain and attendants, when they attended the first celebration of Independence Day in a Catholic church, on July 4, 1779, at Old St. Mary’s, Philadelphia.

A reception will follow in the parish hall next door; please come, and invite your friends!

website: https://www.durandusinstitute.org/event-details/solemn-vespers-te-deum-for-the-250th-of-america 

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