America’s national day of Independence will be celebrated at 11 a.m. this Sunday, July 4 at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 1165 Seville Drive.
“All Pacificans are most cordially invited to participate and join in on this joyful celebration of God and country,” said the Rev. Tom Nibbe.
The service will include the group singing “When the Saints Go Marching In” at the beginning of the program and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” at the conclusion. It will include the reading of the Preamble to the Constitution, as well as the Gettysburg Address. These will be interspersed with great American music within the context of a Sunday morning service in church.
“We all enjoy fireworks, hot dogs, and watermelon when the Fourth of July comes around. It’s a great time of the year! But isn’t this very special occasion for all Americans really more than just eating special foods and shooting off fireworks? It seems that often in the United States of America we perpetuate a “culture of food and fireworks—” when it comes to remembrance of what American Independence is really all about. We can do better than we have in past years,” said Nibbe.
“Unfortunately, as a general populace we have become farther removed from the roots of what moved the Founding Fathers and Founding Mothers of our American Republic to stand their ground, put their possessions and lives on the line, signing the (1776) Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States of America. Basically, celebration of Independence Day must have “substance” to it, a reminder of the fact that, though we are a “free people,” the cost of personal freedom did not, even at the beginning of our republican form of government, come free.”
There will be the very best of patriotic pageantry with the official United States Navy Color Guard on hand. Performing will be Big Butter and Egg Band— “the best Dixieland band in Northern California, maybe of all California.”
There is no cost involved, although a love offering will be taken for the band members.
The service program will include the Honorable Sue Digre, Mayor of the City of Pacifica. The message will be delivered by Rev. Tom Nibbe, designed to give American citizens helpful and inspirational insight into their experience of being Americans.
“The special program is designed to give pertinent and appropriate expression to the whole idea of celebrating the Fourth of July,” Nibbe said.
