Page:Bruton parish church restored and its historic environments (1907 V2).djvu/200

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of all obligations and debts for the building and the restoration, now, therefore, I,


Alfred Magill Randolph

Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Virginia, do consecrate this building by the name


Bruton Parish Church

thereby setting it apart from all worldly and common uses, and dedicating it to the worship of Almighty God, to the preaching of the Gospel, to the administration of the Sacraments of Christ, and to the performance of all the other offices of our holy religion, and I pray God to bless this place with His continual presence, and to answer the prayers that are offered in this house that is called by His name, and to accept the ministrations of His Word, so that here the comfortable Gospel of Christ may be truly preached and truly received, and the Sacraments duly administered, and the worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church may be preserved in its purity throughout all generations.

Done under my hand and seal this twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seven, and in the twenty-second year of my Episcopate.

 Signed, A. M. Randolph
 Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Virginia."


The Consecration Sermon was preached by the Bishop from 2 Cor. v: 17. Hymns Nos. 491, 196, 299, 218, 225, and 176 were sung during the service, which embraced the Form of Consecration, the Order for Morning Prayer, the Order for Confirmation, and the Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion.

Visitors, for whom the transepts, the Governors' pew and the pew of the Surveyor General were reserved, were present in large numbers from all parts of the country to participate in the service. The offering of the congregation was asked for the Missionary Thank Offering, and the offer-