Seventeen Years in Paris: A Chaplain's StoryNoyes, H. E. (Henry Edward)
Religion
Seventeen Years in Paris: A Chaplain's Story
Noyes, H. E. (Henry Edward)
Church of England -- France -- Paris; English Church (Paris, France)
“At the Embassy Church, in the Rue d’Aguesseau, there were two
thanksgiving services, one at eleven a.m., at the close of which the
Rev. Dr. Noyes, who wore the scarlet cassock of a Doctor of Divinity,
delivered a touching and eloquent address. He stirred a deep chord in
the heart of those who heard him by reminding them that, though in a
foreign land for the time being, they were in communion of thought with
millions of their countrymen at home, and many more millions of their
fellow subjects in distant regions, even in the most remote corners of
the earth, in offering their thanksgivings for the blessings the Queen’s
reign had conferred on England and the British people.
“The official thanksgiving service also took place at the Rue
d’Aguesseau, at three o’clock in the afternoon. The admission to the
church was by tickets, as a large portion of the nave had to be reserved
for the French officials and the members of the Corps Diplomatique; but
the English community was also present in large numbers, and the church
was densely crowded. The Corps Diplomatique, with the exception of the
United States Ambassador, whom etiquette compels to wear evening dress
on State occasions, were all in full dress. Our Embassy received the
various officials and Diplomatists, and showed them to their places.
There were present, representing England, Sir Edmund and Lady Monson (the
late), Mr. Gosselin, Colonel Dawson, Mr. Clarke Thornhill, Sir Brook
Boothby, Mr. Marling, Mr. Barclay, Sir Berkeley Sheffield, the British
Consul General and Vice Consul, Messrs. Percy Inglis, and Mr. Falconer
Atlee. President Faure was represented by the captain of the frigate
Serpette, and the French Government by M. Hanotaux and M. Mollard. The
German Ambassador and Countess Marie de Münster, the Russian Ambassador
and some of his Attachés two of whom wore the splendid uniform of
the Chevaliers Gardes; the Austrian Ambassador, in whose suite was a
Hungarian magnate in a splendid national dress, the Italian Ambassador,
one of whose Attachés was attired in the picturesque garb of a Colonel
of Bersaglieri; the Persian Ambassador, Munir Bey, and his Staff, decked
in gorgeous uniforms, contrasting strangely with the unpretending fez,
which, of course, they did not remove; the Chinese Ambassador and a
couple of quaintly dressed Mandarins, filled the nave of the unpretending
little church with a glittering array of gold lace such as I think was
never before congregated within its walls. The rest of the nave and the
galleries were filled by the ticket-holders, and they were all obviously
English, ladies largely predominating. The service was shorter than that
in the morning, but there was no sermon, and at the close the choir sang
the first and last verses of the National Anthem, in which the English
part of the congregation joined. The Ambassador and his Staff then
took up places at the entrance of the nave, and shook hands with the
diplomatists and officials as they passed out.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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