Posted on 02/22/2018 1:26:58 PM PST by Kaslin
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The body of evangelist Billy Graham will lie in honor under the U.S. Capitol rotunda next week as Congress pays tribute to a clergyman who counseled presidents and preached the Gospel to millions worldwide, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday.
Graham, who died at his home near Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday at age 99, will arrive at the white-domed Capitol on Feb. 28 and lie in honor there until the following day, Ryan said in a statement.
“Members of the public and Capitol Hill community are invited to pay their respects to the late reverend while he lies in rest,” the speaker of the House of Representatives said.
Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will take part in a bicameral service when Graham’s coffin arrives, the statement said.
A spokeswoman for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Charlotte, North Carolina, said by phone that the family had approved a request from McConnell and Ryan for the public tribute.
Graham preached Christianity to more people than anyone else in history during his 70-year career, reaching hundreds of millions of people either in person or via TV and satellite links, his ministry said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Hardly one minute later. It would be nice to give Rev. Graham until the end of next week in the Capitol just to frost the ACLU.
FWIW, lots of us non-Catholics think the same of Pope John Paul II. Great man, great moral leader who deserves to stand alongside Reagan and Thatcher for winning the Cold War.
Looks like I clicked post while the other one was going up. :^)
Graham is gone. For the believer, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:8).
His dead flesh is all that remains on earth.
For the unbeliever, Jesus in Luke 16:19-31) describes that man's experience immediately after death.
Not even a question on that.
JPII was a Pope that held the respect of people of all faiths.
It's the place that makes the difference, not the position. To lie in state is a government honor and is a public viewing that takes place in a government building, usually a prominent one. To lie in repose is a public viewing in non-governmental building.
Home wakes were done all over,not just in The South.
.
Ping!
Rev Graham to lie in State.
Screw the American Communist Liars Union.
My wife grew up in South Carolina and she tells stories based on that tradition. Not only did friends and family bring lots of food, but it wasn’t uncommon for someone to bring a bottle or a mason jar and pass it around. And pretty soon, everyone’s spirits had been raised, literally and figuratively.
She recalls one “sitting up” where things got a little rowdy. Her mother walked into the parlor, where the dearly departed could be viewed in his coffin. Except the coffin was empty, while various “mourners” climbed in and out of the casket to “see how it felt.” The deceased family member, dressed in the only suit he ever owned, was propped up in the corner, with a lamp shade on his head.
As the custom of “sitting up with the dead” became less common, visitations and services shifted to the funeral home. This didn’t sit well with other members of her family, who missed the “buffet” that came with paying your respects at the home. So one evening, as they stood around the coffin, someone decided snacks were in order. A few of the bereaved chipped in some cash and sent one of their sons to a nearby grocery store. He returned with Pepsi Cola for everyone, along with chips, peanuts and of course, moon pies.
After declining their offer of refreshments, my wife tracked down the funeral director and asked if he knew what the mourners were up to. Tactfully, he went into the parlor and asked the “snackers” to take their food and drink outside. He told my wife that despite decades in the business, that funeral marked the first time he would have to vacuum a corpse, to get rid of the chips, moon pie crumbs and peanut shells that fell into the coffin.
My strangest memory of a funeral came at the service of one of my sisters-in-law, about a decade ago. The young minister delivering the eulogy took time out to issue an altar call. That was a first for me.
Having just been to a couple of funerals in the past year, the tradition has changed.
Now the family gets together after the funeral and has a big banquet, pot luck brought by everyone..........
Not only palatable - maybe even palpable. ;)
He will not lie in State. He will lie in honor. There is a difference in protocols, and the former is for Govt. Officials and Military only.
Our denomination, and the denominations akin to it, give altar calls quite abit. I do think that it is by family request in an effort to reach unsaved loved ones. There was NOT one at my dad’s funeral in Jan. There were no lost loved ones.
You are right. I misspoke.
My denomination has an altar call at the end of every worship service. But not at funerals.
What a great time for the Rapture of the church!
Billy Graham laying in state at the capital building - the eyes of the world are upon him, and suddenly . . . HE’S GONE!
but at the same time (well, a twinkling of the eye later) the rest of the living saints are vanished and evermore with their Lord!
Think the world will take notice?
NOTE: Methuselah lived the longest of the OT persons, and when he died the Bible tells us that the flood came.
I’ve sometimes conjectured that Billy Graham might just be the ‘Methuselah of the church age’ . . .
“Some day you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”
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