Episcopal Press and News
Alliterations and a World's Fair
Diocesan Press Service. April 15, 1974 [74113]
Dawn Bowers
Ecumenicity, Environment, and Expo '74 are three words which will be synonymous with the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, Washington, this summer.
Graced with an imposing Gothic Cathedral (St. John the Evangelist) and the opening of Expo '74, the diocese has a unique opportunity to serve the 4.8 million people projected to visit the Fair.
Experts have told the Diocese that the Cathedral can expect one thousand visitors a day to view the superb stained glass, wood carvings, and church metal work. The Cathedral also houses a great Aeolian-Skinner organ and a 49-bell carillon cast by John Taylor and Company of Loughborough, England.
What part does such a Cathedral and ecclesiastical tourist attraction play in a world's exposition teemed to "Celebrate Tomorrow's Fresh, New Environment" ? This was the question the dean of the Cathedral, the Very Rev. Richard Coombs, put to himself and his congregation more than a year ago.
The alternatives were many. The Cathedral could have operated as usual, served as a museum for people to tour, or it could play a viable role in the community and in the Fair. Dean Coombs and his congregation chose the latter course. The Cathedral's Expo Committee explored many avenues of how the church could incorporate the Expo theme into Christian dimensions. Exactly where do the church and environment intertwine?
Dean Coombs explains, "Like so many important questions in life, Man and His Environment is a theological, spiritual, moral and aesthetic theme as well as scientific and technical one. We see the Cathedral's role in Expo as seeking to raise the questions which have to do with that other intangible dimension."
From these thoughts the Distinguished Speakers Program was formulated. Each Sunday from June through September a noted preacher will occupy the Cathedral pulpit at the 10 a. m. service and will be available for more informal discussions several days after.
Among those who have already accepted are the Presiding Bishop-Elect of the American Episcopal Church (the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin); the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, London (the Very Rev. Martin Sullivan) ; the Provost of Coventry Cathedral (the Very Rev. H.C.N. Williams) ; the Dean of Washington Cathedral (the Very Rev. Francis t3. Sayre, Jr.) ; former President of the National Council of Churches (Dr. Cynthia Wedel); professor of Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( Dr. Ithiel deSola Pool); the Executive Secretary of the Australian Bible Society (the Rev. James Payne); Air Force Chief of Chaplains (Major General Roy Terry) ; Executive Director of Oak Ridge Associated Universities (the Rev. Dr. William G. Pollard) ; and Vice President of Development of the national Executive Council of the Episcopal Church (Oscar C. Carr, Jr.).
No topics have been assigned to the preachers. Each is being asked to address himself from his own particular viewpoint to the general theme of "Man and His Environment. " As the summer unfolds significant questions should emerge . . . answers could he offered.
But this is not the whole of the Cathedral's program. Dean Coombs says, "The intangible dimensions of man and his environment are expressed through many media,. and our Cathedral is especially blessed with facilities for musical expression." Each week an eminent organist will present an organ recital on Saturday afternoon, and some of the greatest church musicians and organists of the world are part of the program. Among the 25 performing are: Dr. Paul Callaway of the Washington Cathedral, Mr. Larry King of Trinity Church, New York City, Mr. Jere Hancock of St. Thomas' Church, New York City, and Dr. Claire Coci of New York City.
On Thursday evenings from June through September, the Cathedral will present a series of 20 carillon recitals by such carilloneurs as Jacques Lannoy of France, Piet Van Der Broek of Belgium, and Leen T'Hart of The Netherlands.
Included in the program also is the commissioning of two original musical scores, one for the organ, and one for the carillon. These will be presented during the summer following a competition in which musicians around the world have taken part. A modest prize of three hundred dollars has been offered for the composition judged to be the best in each field.
The program has been put together on a financial shoestring, and is only made possible by the generosity of the participants, none of whom is receiving an honorarium for his services. Modest grants of funds from The Episcopal Church Foundation and The Office of Development of The Episcopal Church have provided for part of the traveling expenses of the visiting guests.
An extension of the Cathedral's Expo plans is the Ecumenical Program which makes the Cathedral available to each of the major denominations for use on Sunday evenings. The United Methodist Church, the Disciples of Christ, the United Church of Christ, Greek Orthodox, the Lutherans, National Association of Evangelicals and the Seventh Day Adventists are but a few of the groups who will be using the Cathedral for their own special Expo services.
Another facet of the ecumenical involvement of the Diocese is the Chaplaincy for Expo program. Ten priests have volunteered to join the 150 clerics of Spokane in serving Expo visitors. Each will work one week, six hours a day, touring the Fair site much as a policeman walking his beat.
Volunteers from the Diocese are the Rt. Rev. John R. Wyatt, Bishop of Spokane ; the Rev. Morgan Sheldon, Church of the Holy Spirit; the Rev. Walter Simmons, faculty of St. George's School; the Rev. Peter Stretch, St. David's; the Rev. Charles Wood, assistant to the Bishop; the Rev. Nolan Redmond, vicar of St. Agnes, Sandpoint, Idaho, and St. Mary's, Bonners Ferry, Idaho; the Rev. Thomas Howarth, St. Andrews; the Rev. Fred Jessett, St. Paul's; and the Rev. Canon Ernest Mason.
What will these priests and the other 144 chaplains encounter? Projections have been made by organizations who have handled large crowds as well as experiences from HemisFair in San Antonio, Texas. The latter Chaplaincy program prevented three suicides and counseled relatives of three on-site deaths. Counseling will also be needed by those who are victims of drug abuse, severe depression and abandoned or lost children.
Under the direction of the Chaplaincy Steering Committee Chairman, the Rev. Richard Boyd (Methodist), the volunteers (including many lay persons who will back up telephone lines at the central office in the on-site YMCA) have attended training classes conducted by Chaplain Earl Cooper of Spokane's Deaconess Hospital.
Acting as counselors, a referral agency, a friend to turn to in emergency, and assisting groups of persons from hospitals and institutions who visit the Fair, the chaplains' work will be varied and meaningful. This new volunteer ministry embraces all faiths . . . Christian, Jewish and different brotherhoods such as the Salvation Army.
Episcopalians in Spokane's Diocese are being asked to volunteer, too, in the many varied activities of the church during World's Fair days -- May 4 through November 3. While lay people have been asked to help in the Chaplaincy program, they also have volunteered to act as guides for Cathedral tourists, security . . . child care . . . ushering ... janitorial work . .. a multitude of tasks to be performed. Serving the Mother Church of the Diocese or acting as a reflection of the Diocese in the Chaplaincy program, the alliteration of Ecumenicity, Environment and Expo might just be shortened to one word. Witness.