Churches: Grace Episcopal Church #7

Today is the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day (now Veteran's Day), the day when fighting was suspended in World War I.    

Grace Episcopal Church, the church we attend in Georgetown, commemorated the historical event by beginning the service at a Memorial Cross in the churchyard.  

The Memorial Cross stands 12 feet tall in the southwest corner of the churchyard, next to Wisconsin Avenue, where the first church, a temporary wooden building, once stood.  

The Memorial Cross was the first public memorial in D.C. to commemorate local soldiers who served and died fighting in World War I.  It was dedicated on July 11, 1921, by the USMC Commandant, Major General John A. Lejeune, and the Undersecretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.  Also in attendance was the church's rector, who served as a chaplain in World War I.  

Grace Episcopal Church, Dedication of the Memorial Cross, July 11, 1921

Today's service was a solemn event and, as is customary at the church, part of Ode of Remembrance by Laurence Binyon was read:

          They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
          Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
          At the going down of the sun and in the 
          We will remember them.