Rosalea Barker: Anzac Service, Grace Cathedral

Anzac Service, Grace Cathedral

This afternoon, Sunday, April 22, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco hosted an ANZAC Day service, as it does every year. http://www.gracecathedral.org/

Being welcomed on the cathedral steps by the Officiant, the Venerable Anthony Turney, are Hon. Bonnie Joy Kaslan, Honorary Consul-General for Turkey, and Ertugrul Turhal, Colonel, Turkish Air Force (Ret.) who carried the Turkish colors. Obscured by the New Zealand ensign is Keith Cooper, of the NZ-American Association.

The Address was given by Commodore Pat Williams of the NZ Defence Force. “ANZAC Day promotes a sense of unity perhaps more than other day in our national calendar,” he said. The pulpit has hosted, among others, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lech Walesa, the Dalai Lama, and Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Wreaths were laid on the steps leading to the High Altar by the Hon. Rob Taylor, Consul-General for NZ; the Hon. David Lawson, Consul-General for Australia; the Hon. Peter Broom, HM Deputy Consul-General for Great Britain; and the Hon. Bonnie Joy Kaslan, Hon. Consul-General for Turkey.

The Australian Girls Choir were to have helped us sing the national anthems of the US, New Zealand and Australia, and the hymns, as well as perform two songs, but they were delayed getting in from the airport. After the colors had been trooped back out, they entered in a swish of purple, and sang the anthems and the songs, “You Raise Me Up” and “I Still Call Australia Home”.

After the service, which included The Last Post and Reveille performed by Mr H.M. Sarkisian of Bugles Across America, the congregation was invited over to the Chapter House Dining Room to a reception hosted by The New Zealander restaurant.

Cries of “I’d kill for a sausage roll!” and “Look! Real tomato sauce, not ketchup!” and “Mince or minted lamb?” were heard in the vicinity of the pie warmer, which held that Holy Grail of all Kiwis and Aussies living in the US.... savouries.

rosalea.barker@gmail.com

--PEACE--

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