Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1952-04-07

ago as the 6O-voice choir filed
down the aisles, Offering the Sun
day morning professional hymn
at the church attended a quarter
century ago by Calvin Coolidge.
This family church at the
heart of the city," as it sometimes
calls itself, officially is the First
Congregational Church of WASH
ington. It was founded the same
year that Abraham Lincoln was
so tragically assassinated only a
few blocks away. The present
building, dedicated for service
three years later in 1868, has been
continuously used-except for one
period, described somewhat as
follows by a longtime member
who was there:
It was like this: At an evening
service when President Coolidge
and his family were in the presi-
Dental pew, a piece of plastering
descended from the
ceiling of the church. No one was
hurt. But the fallen plastering
served as timely warning that the
place must Immediately be made
safe. and especially so when the
President of the United States
attended its services. So
the building was promptly closed
for remodeling. The congrega-
ton worshiped on Sunday morn
ings at the Metropolitan Theater,
and of evenings at the Eighth
Street Jewish Synagogue for
awhile. The Coolidges went along.
Near 1,1O0 Members.
Today the First Congregational
Church of Washington has a
membership Of around 1,100 per-
sons who have united Gin church
fellowship, believing that thus I
shall the better honor God,
strengthen Gods children. en-
courage the Godlike in all my
fellow men, and build up spiri-
tual kingdom in my own heart and
in the world"
The church holds to those "tra-
ditions of self-government, and
freedom of individual belief which
have been handed down from
our pilgrim forefathers."
The present pastor-the Rev.
Carl Heath Kopf-this Sunday
morning spoke on 1.-THE Brimming
Cup" But before that, there had
been the invocation; the congre-
CATION had repeated the Lords
Prayer. Rev. F. I. Winter had
read from Matthew KNOBS.
There had been a period of silent
prayer, with soft organ tones in
the background; then hymn. the
offertory and an anthem.
"Our tears and our laughter are
often closer to each other than we
think" said DR.. Kopf, because
our joy is so often the ending of
a deep sorrow, and our sorrow is
so often the tragic fracture Of an
exquisite joy. One is bound up in
the other.
Because you have known Joy,
you are capable of knowing sor-
row." he said.
And then the pastor spoke of
"the cup of establishment" He
urged that we keep the capacity of
wonder. He spoke of miracles.
Sometimes the cup of life
overflows with trouble, as it did
for Jesus. Sometimes the cup of
life overfows with joy, as it did
for st. Francis. Sometimes the
cup of life Is an overlooking mix
ture of joy and sorrow"
He spoke of the mother of
James and John. She wanted a
promise of favoritism for her sons
in the future kingdom, one to sit
on the right Of Jesus, the other
on the left. The pastor called
this "a misunderstanding of the
kingdom"
Preliminary Worship for Young.
DR.. Kopf concluded, mo wonder
Jesus had to set the record
straight. Only God can grant
such honors. Are you able to
drink the cup that am to
drink?'" And he summed up with
the challenging question, Can
you and I say we are able to
drink the cup with Jesus, not even
asking whether it be sweet or
bitter?"
A special touch of the morning
service at the First Congregation
..@I 004ho.~