Choral Evensong for the USA’s Independence Day
Thurs 1 July 2021 | 6:00pm UK time

Music including: Behold now praise the Lord (Hallock); Canticles: (Noble in B minor); Alleluia (Randell Thompson) 

In 1584 Walter Raleigh dispatched an expedition across the Atlantic; one of the ships was commanded by Philip Amadas. In 1602 Benjamin Gosnold explored New England and ‘discovered’ Martha’s vineyard, which he named after his first daughter. John Popham, Edwin Sandys and Edward Coke together drafted the Virginia Charter, 1606. All of these were members of Inner or of Middle Temple. The rights enshrined in Magna Carta were crossing from the Old World to the New.

Five members of Inner or Middle Temple signed the American Declaration of Independence; seven, the Constitution.

“The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history. It permeated the ancient life of early peoples. It blazed anew in the Middle Ages. It was written in Magna Carta. In the Americas its impact has been irresistible.” – President Franklin D Roosevelt, 3rd Inaugural Address, 1941.

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