The Washington times., 1919-11-08

Impressive ceremony today marked
the conservation of the Bethlehem
Chapel of the Holy Nativity at Wash
ington Cathedral today. This was the
first service of it's kind in connection
with the great building that on COM
pletion will rank with the finest
sacred buildings in America or Eu-
rope.
The Rt. Rev. Alfred Harding,
Bishop of Washington, who officiated
as consecrator, took the text for his
sermon from the prayer of King Solo
mon, uttered at the dedication of the
Temple in Jerusalem, beginning with
the words: thine, o Lord, is the
greatness and the power and the
glory and the majesty"
The audience, which more than FILL
ed the chapel, included practically all
of the Episcopal clergy OF the Wash
ington diocese and many prominent
laymen. The service followed closely
the form laid down in the Book of
Common Prayer. the form of conse-
Grafton being succeeded by the order
for daily morning prayer and the
Holy Communion.
Laymen Meet Bishop.
At the stroke of IL o'clock Bishop
Harding was met at the entrance of
the chapel by DR.. w. c. Rives, Charles
c. Glover and Charles ]. Bell, lay
members of the Cathedral. Repeat
ing alternately the verses of the
Twenty-fourth Psalm, the bishop and
the clergy moved slowly up the aisle
to the altar, where the bishop was
seated within the rail.
The instruments conveying title ia
the chapel were delivered by DR.. Rives
to the Bishop, who stated the purpose
or the conservation and asked the
divine blessing on the chapel. Canon
q. c. +. Bratenahl, dean of the cath
edral, read the conservation sentence,
which was then laid on the COM
munion table. concluding the cere-
mony of conservation.
The morning prayer through the
psalter was read by the Rev. DR.. Ram
dolph III. McKim. rector Of the Church
OF the Epiphany. The Rev. G. f. Dud-
ley. rector OF st. Stephens, read the
Old Testament lesson from the
chapter of Genesis, and
the New Testament lesson from the
twenty-first chapter of Revelations
was read by the Rev. Roland Cotton
Smith. The creed and prayers were
said by Canon Austin.
ohueTs " no oIncIuted.
Others who officiated were Canon
Walden Myer, epistoler; Canon Bra
tenahl, gospeller; Canon DeVrjes.
server, and Bishop Harding. Canon
Bratenahl, DR.. McKim. the Rev. DR..
III. S. Smith, the Rev. j. w. Blake
rector of Christ Church, and the Rev.
Lewis L. Levering, of LaPlata. Md.
administrants.
At the beginning of his sermon.
Bishop Harding said the chapel lust
consecrated to holy use was a sermon
In itself, eloquent in the story Of faith
and home and sacrifice on the part Of
those who had made il a reality, II
was, he said, memorial to the late
Bishop Satterlee, but at the same time
1t was tribute to those still living
and to the undying faith and energy
OF a Christian people.
The bishop emphasized the thought
that the chapel. and the cathedral of
which II Is part, belong to the fu.
ture. to generations yet to come and
to divinely appointed tasks We, 70 he
accomplished. But he touched ten.
derby on the vision OF Bishop SatterIee,
and the labora OF that pioneer church
man In the mi crest of the building.
Ground Broken In 1905.
The chapel is located in the ans of
the cathedral, where it will he lust
below the high altar when the ca
thedral is completed. The ground for
1t was broken on Ascension Dav 1905
and the contract for the chapel proper