The service at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church — the largest by membership of any in North America — was officiated by Rev. Dr. Russell Levenson, Jr. The rector of SMEC since 2007, Levenson also officiated the service for Barbara Bush held here on April 21, and gave the homily at President Bush's D.C. funeral yesterday.
The program is posted to the church website and summarized on the ATWNews site. Among other TV stations, the funeral was broadcast live on the website of Houston station CW69 (and also available on C-SPAN).
Funeral Music
While the D.C. funeral was Rite II, today’s Houston funeral was Rite I. Below is a summary of the music by the congregation and the St. Martin’s choir; as with other SMEC service booklets, the full hymns with harmony are included in the appendices. The worship music comprised- Preludes
- Brass voluntary: “America the Beautiful”
- “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies” (H82: 719)
- Anthem: “This is my Country” (choir)
- Lessons: Psalm 23, 1 Cor 12:31-13:13, John 11:21-27
- Sequence Hymn: “Eternal Father, Strong to Save”: rather than the H40 or H82 version, this is the version from Baptist Hymnal 1991 (“Eternal father, strong to save, Whose arm doth bind the restless wave”)
- Anthem: “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (choir)
- Recession Hymn: “Onward, Christian Soldiers” (H82: 562), announced by Fr. Levenson to be one of the late president’s favorites
- Organ and Brass Voluntary: Widor “Toccata”
I’ve twice attended services at St. Martin’s and even under normal circumstances the choir is impressive as their voices echo through the resonant spaces of the poured-concrete Gothic structure. However, today’s augmented choir (which appeared to more than 50) must have offered an unmatched experience for those attending. I thought the choir’s talents were best demonstrated in the Battle Hymn, with an arrangement that separated the men and women’s choir and included an a capella verse.
While the front of the church was filled with VIPs, it appeared as though in the back rows of the parish were filled with parishioners who opened their 12-page booklets and sang the closing hymn. At least among those in the front rows, nobody crossed themselves during the Apostle’s Creed (in a normal service, my experience was 5-10%).
The Concert
During the middle of the service, there was a country-western music concert by some of the late president’s favorite entertainers. Having been on funeral standby for weeks, The Oak Ridge Boys sang three voices of “Amazing Grace”, as they had for the president’s 1989 inauguration and several other occasions. However, at ages 70,75,75,and 79 (rather than in their 40s), their singing was not what it used to be.
This was followed by Reba McEntire singing a version of the Lord’s Prayer. She paced across the
My daughter and I were surprised to see the scattered applause after the first performance (including by Jeb Bush). The decision by some to applaud seemed to give permission for everyone (including former president Bush-43) to applaud the second performance. The later choir performances were also applauded.
Heading to the Burial
When the service was over, the casket was taken outside and loaded into the hearse while the family and a select group of St. Martin’s clergy participated in the final part of the service.
The military band played the customary flourishes and Hail to the Chief. Then it played Lobe den Herren, the tune for the Lutheran hymn “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!” by Joachim Neander.
The former president was buried at his library at Texas A&M. When the service was ended, the casket was loaded into a hearse to take it to a special Union Pacific train traveling from Houston to College Station.
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