Order of Service for state funeral of Ronald Wilson Reagan, 11:30 am, June 11, 2004

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT PETER AND SAINT PAUL Washington National Cathedral 11 June 2004 at 11:30 am

The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane Bishop of Washington and Dean of the Cathedral

His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America

The President of the United States President George H. W. Bush The Right Honourable the Baroness Thatcher, L.G., O.M., F.R.S The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney

The Celebrant is led to the center of the rood screen landing; all others to their seats.

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For if we live, we live unto the Lord; and if we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors.

When he has reached the rood screen landing, the Celebrant faces the congregation. When the casket is in position, and the bearers have departed, the Celebrant says

O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered: Accept our prayers on behalf of thy servant Ronald, and grant him an entrance into the land of light and joy, in the fellowship of thy saints; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Celebrant goes to his stall as the first and second readers are led to the lectern. The first reader steps up to the reading desk.

Hast thou not known? Hast though not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

The first reader steps down to the landing, and the second reader steps up to the reading desk

Now the only way…to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God.… We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body.… The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His own people.… For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.

O love of God, how strong and true, Eternal and yet ever new; Uncomprehended and unbought, Beyond all knowledge and all thought! O love of God, how deep and great, Far deeper than man’s deepest hate; Self-fed, self-kindled like the light, Changeless, eternal, infinite.

O heavenly love, how precious still, In days of weariness and ill, In nights of pain and helplessness, To heal, to comfort, and to bless! O wide-embracing, wondrous love! We read you in the sky above, We read you in the earth below, In seas that swell and streams that flow.

We read you best in him who came To bear for us the cross of shame; Sent by the Father from on high, Our life to live, our death to die. We read your power to bless and save, E’en in the darkness of the grave; Still more in resurrection light We read the fullness of your might.

O love of God, our shield and stay Through all the perils of our way! Eternal love, in you we rest Forever safe, forever blest. We will exalt you, God and King, and we will ever praise your name; We will extol you every day, and evermore your praise proclaim

Towards the end of the anthem, Mr. Mulroney is led to the landing lectern for his tribute.

As Mr. Mulroney returns, the landing lectern is removed. The Celebrant stands at his stall, faces the congregation, and introduces Baroness Thatcher’s videotaped tribute, then takes his seat again.

When Mr. Bush has finished, he is led back to his seat as President Bush is led to the pulpit.

ANTHEM, WILLIAM STEFFE SUNG BY THE ARMED FORCES CHORUS WITH THE US MARINE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword; His truth is marching on. Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps; I can read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps; His day is marching on. Chorus

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me. As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on. Chorus

During the last chorus, the third reader is led to the lectern for the Gospel lesson.

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

As the reader returns to his stall, the Celebrant goes to the pulpit for the homily.

As the homilist returns to his stall, the orchestra and soloist begin the anthem.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved; How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed!

The Lord has promised good to me; his word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come; ’Tis grace that brought me safe this far, and grace will lead me home.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

Almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord: Grant, we beseech thee, to thy whole Church in paradise and on earth, thy light and thy peace. Amen.

Grant that all who have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection may die to sin and rise to newness of life, and that through the grave and gate of death we may pass with him to our joyful resurrection. Amen.

Grant to us who are still in our pilgrimage, and who walk as yet by faith, that thy Holy Spirit may lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days. Amen.

Grant to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that we may be cleansed from all our sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind. Amen.

Grant to all who mourn a sure confidence in thy fatherly care, that, casting all their grief on thee, they may know the consolation of thy love. Amen.

Grant us, with all who have died in the hope of the resurrection, to have our consummation and bliss in thy eternal and everlasting glory, and, with blessed Peter and Paul and all thy saints, to receive the crown of life which thou dost promise to all who share in the victory of thy Son Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

During this hymn, those who are required for the departing ceremonies outside are unobtrusively escorted from the Cathedral.

Sing with all the saints in glory, sing the resurrection song! Death and sorrow, earth’s dark story, to the former days belong. All around the clouds are breaking, Soon the storms of time will cease; In God’s likeness, we awaken, Knowing everlasting peace.

O what glory, far exceeding, All that eye has yet perceived! Holiest hearts for ages pleading, Never that full joy conceived. God has promised, Christ prepares it, There on high our welcome waits; Ev’ry humble spirit shares it, Christ has passed th’ eternal gates.

During the last verse, vergers lead the Bishop of Washington, the Vicar, and the Celebrant to the foot of the casket, the Celebrant at the foot, the Vicar to his left, and the Bishop to his right, where they face the congregation

Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.

Thou only art immortal, the creator and maker of mankind; and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and unto earth shall we return. For so thou didst ordain when thou createdst me, saying, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” All we go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant with thy saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting.

Into thy hands, O merciful Savior, we commend thy servant Ronald. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech thee, a sheep of thine own fold, a lamb of thine own flock, a sinner of thine own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of thy mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight;

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be among you, and remain with you always. Amen.

As the introduction to the anthem begins, the three clerics are escorted back to their stalls.

The bodybearers come from the North transept, rotate the casket, and prepare to take it out.

During the last verse, the acolytes take their positions at the rood screen, and vergers take positions by their charges.

ANTHEM, NICK GLENNIE-SMITH SUNG BY THE ARMED FORCES CHORUS WITH THE US MARINE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

To fallen soldiers let us sing Where no rockets fly nor bullets wing Our broken brothers let us bring To the Mansions of the Lord.

No more bleeding, no more fight No prayers pleading through the night Just divine embrace, eternal light In the Mansions of the Lord.

Where no mothers cry and no children weep We will stand and guard though the angels sleep Through the ages safely keep The Mansions of the Lord.

John Winthrop A Modell of Christian Charity 1630 WRITTEN ON BOARD THE ARBELLA, ON THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. God Almighty, in his most holy and wise providence, hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, others mean and in subjection. THE REASON HEREOF First, to hold conformity with the rest of his works. Being delighted to show forth the glory of his wisdom in the variety and difference of the creatures; and the glory of his power, in ordering all these differences for the preservation and good of the whole; and the glory of his greatness, that as it is the glory of princes to have many officers, so this great king will have many stewards, counting himself more honored in dispensing his gifts to man by man, than if he did it by his own immediate hands. Secondly, that he might have the more occasion to manifest the work of his Spirit. First, upon the wicked, in moderating and restraining them: so that the rich and mighty should not eat up the poor, nor the poor and despised rise up against their superiors and shake off their yoke. Secondly, in the regenerate, in exercising his graces in them: as in the great ones, their love, mercy, gentleness, temperance etc.; in the poor and inferior sort, their faith, patience, obedience etc. Thirdly, that every man might have need of other, and from hence they might be all knit more nearly together in the bond of brotherly affection. From hence it appears plainly that no man is made more honorable than another, or more wealthy etc., out of any particular and singular respect to himself, but for the glory of his creator and the common good of the creature, man. Therefore God still reserves the property of these gifts to himself, as Ezekiel, 16.17: he there calls wealth his gold and his silver; Proverbs, 3.9: he claims their service as his due: honor the Lord with thy riches etc. All men being thus (by divine providence) ranked into two sorts, rich and poor, under the first are comprehended all such as are able to live comfortably by their own means duly improved; and all others are poor, according to the former distribution.... This law of the Gospel propounds likewise a difference of seasons and occasions. There is a time when a Christian must sell all and give to the poor, as they did in the apostles' times. There is a time also when a Christian (though they give not all yet) must give beyond their ability, as they of Macedonia, II Corinthians, 8.8. Likewise community of perils calls for extraordinary liberality, and so doth community in some special service for the church. Lastly, when there is no other means whereby our Christian brother may be relieved in his distress, we must help him beyond our ability, rather than tempt God in putting him upon help by miraculous or extraordinary means.... The definition which the scripture gives us of lave is this: 'Love is the bond of perfection.' First, it is a bond, or ligament Secondly, it makes the work perfect There is nobody but consists of parts, and that which knits these parts together, gives the body its perfection, is love.... From hence we may frame these conclusions. First, all true Christians are of one body in Christ, I Corinthians, 12.12.27: "Ye are the body of Christ and members of its parts" Secondly, the ligaments of this body which knit together are love. Thirdly, no body can be perfect which wants it proper ligament. Fourthly, all the parts of this body, being thus united, are made so contiguous in a special relation as they must needs partake of each other's strength and infirmity, joy and sorrow, weal and woe, I Corinthians, 12.26: "If one member suffers, all suffer with it, if one be in honor, all rejoice with it." Fifthly, this sensibleness and sympathy of each other's conditions will necessarily infuse into each part a native desire and endeavor to strengthen, defend, preserve and comfort the other... It rests now to make some application of this discourse by the present design, which gave the occasion of writing of it. Herein are four things to be propounded: first, the persons; secondly, the work; thirdly, the end; fourthly, the means. First, for the persons. We are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, in which respect only though were absent from each other many miles, and had our employments as far distant, yet we ought to account ourselves knit together by this bond of love, and live in the exercise of it, if we would have comfort of our being in Christ. This was notorious in the practice of the Christians in former times; as is testified of the Waldenses, from the mouth of one of the adversaries Aeneas Sylvius "mutuo [ament] pene antequam norunt"-they use[d] to love any of their own religion even before they were acquainted with them. Secondly, for the work we have in hand. It is by a mutual consent through a special overvaluing providence and a more than an ordinary approbation of the churches of Christ, to seek out a place of cohabitation and consortship under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical. In such cases as this, the care of the public must oversay all private respects, by which not only conscience, but mere civil policy, cloth bind us. For it is a true rule that particular estates cannot subsist in the ruin of the public. Thirdly, the end is to improve our lives to do more service to the Lord; the comfort and increase of the body of Christ whereof we are members, that ourselves and posterity may be the better preserved from the common corruptions of this evil world, to serve the Lord and work out our salvation under the power and purity of his holy ordinances. Fourthly, for the means whereby this must be effected. They are twofold, a conformity with the work and end we aim at. These we see are extraordinary, therefore we must not content ourselves with usual ordinary means: whatsoever we did, or ought to have done, when we lived in England, the same must we do, and more also, where we go. That which the most in their churches maintain as a truth in profession only, we must bring into familiar and constant practice, as in this duty of love. We must love brotherly without dissimulation, we must love one another with a pure heart fervently, we must bear one another's burdens, we must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren. Neither must we think that the Lord will bear with such failings at our hands as he cloth from those among whom we have lived, and that for three reasons. First, in regard of the more near bond of marriage between him and us, wherein he hath taken us to be his after a most strict and peculiar manner, which will make him the more jealous of our love and obedience. So he tells the people of Israel, you only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your transgressions. Secondly, because the Lord will be sanctioned in them that come near him. We know that there were many that corrupted the service of the Lord, some setting up altars before his own, others offering both strange fire and strange sacrifices also; yet there came no fire from heaven or other sudden judgment upon them, as did upon Nadab and Abihu, who yet we may think did not sin presumptuously. Thirdly, when God gives a special commission he looks to have it strictly observed in every article. When he gave Saul a commission to destroy Amalek, he indented with him upon certain articles, and because he failed in one of the least, and that upon a fair pretense, it lost him the kingdom which should have been his reward if he had observed his commission. Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with him for this work, we have taken out a commission, the Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles, we have professed to enterprise these actions, upon these and those ends, we have hereupon besought him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath he ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, [and] will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it. But if we shall neglect the observation of these articles, which re the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, be revenged of such a perjured people and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant. Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah: to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly affection, we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others' necessities, we must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality; we must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us as his own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of his wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies: when he shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations: "the Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill: The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world: we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us, till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going. And to shut up this discourse with that exhortation of Moses, that faithfull servant of the Lord, in his last farewell to Israel, Deuteronomy, 30: beloved, there is now set before us life and good, death and evil, in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our covenant with him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other God-our pleasures and profits-and serve them , it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it: Therefore let us choose life, that we and our seed may live by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him, for He is our life, and our prosperity.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.