Items of Interest January 31, 2011 Issue

Governor's inauguration—interfaith service

Kim Shippey

On January 6, Sandy Sandberg, First Reader of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, was among the special guests invited to participate, along with representatives of other faiths, in a church service on the morning of the inauguration of Deval Patrick and Timothy Murray to a second term as Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

With sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows on the Boylston Street side of Old South Church, organist Harry Huff opened with a stirring prelude based on “O God, our help in ages past,” which was followed by a processional hymn, “God of the Ages . . . with sure command.”

Patrick and Murray launched the service by lighting ceremonial candles of “hope” and “service,” after which several inspirational and patriotic songs were sung. Prayers included a reading of Maya Angelou’s call to our “Father, Mother, God” to “pour Your love out in waterfalls of tenderness,” and this excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865: “With malice toward none, with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; . . . to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” 

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