1999 Valley Forge Commemoration

Valley Forge Commemoration — 1999

The 111^th Annual Church Service of the Society to commemorate the 222^nd anniversary of the Encampment of the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1777 and in memory of the members of the Society who have died during the past year was conducted on Sunday, 16 May 1999, at 5:00 p.m., at the First Presbyterian Church, Ardmore, Montgomery Avenue and Mill Creek Road in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Reverend William Preston Proctor, Chaplain of the Society and Pastor of the Ardmore Presbyterian Church, both officiated and gave the sermon. Jeffrey DeVault, Organist, performed the sacred music. Walter Jeffrey Maiden, President Emeritus of the Society, read the Old Testament Lesson. Mark Frazier Lloyd, President of the Society, read the Sermon Lesson. Jonathan Henry FitzGerald, Registrar of the Society, read the Necrology.

THE ORDER OF SERVICE
PRELUDE
PROCESSIONAL HYMN:	God of the Ages, Whose Almighty Hand
PRESENTATION AND POSTING OF THE COLORS:	The National Anthem
CALL TO WORSHIP:	Psalm 100
PRAYER OF PRAISE		Rev. Proctor
CONFESSION OF SIN (In Unison)
ASSURANCE OF PARDON		Rev. Proctor
GLORIA PATRIA
OLD TESTAMENT LESSON:	Psalm 16	Mr. Maiden
MINISTRY OF MUSIC	Psalm 23	Henry Smart
	Duet: Jeffrey and Christine DeVault
SERMON LESSON:	Ephesians 1: 15-19	Mr. Lloyd
SERMON:	"Our Glorious Inheritance"	Rev. Proctor
WASHINGTON’S PRAYER	(In Unison)
THE OFFERING	Now Sing Joyfully Unto God	Gordon Young
	Duet: Jeffrey and Christine DeVault
THE PRESENTATION:	The Doxology
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING		Rev. Proctor
NECROLOGY		Mr. FitzGerald
MEMORIAL PRAYER		Rev. Proctor
BENEDICTION		Rev. Proctor
RECESSIONAL HYMN:	Now Thank We All Our God
ORGAN POSTLUDE	Fugue from Sonata No. 2	Mendelssohn

A reception followed at the Merion Cricket Club in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

135 members and guests were in attendance. George Shaffer Wood, III was Chairman of the Valley Forge Commemoration Committee

"Our Glorious Inheritance"

Ephesians 1: 15-19

Reverend William Preston Proctor

Chaplain of the Society

"As I begin my words to you this evening let me say that it is a great privilege to stand before you as the new chaplain of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution. I am also pleased to welcome you to this, the marvelous church and congregation that I am also privileged to serve.

"I know that quite a few of you have already been in worship this day, and so this evening it is not my intention to ‘preach’ at you as it were, as much as it is to tell you a story — a story that relates to our sermon lesson of course — but a story nevertheless.

"My story begins with what I think will be a surprising revelation; I am here because of a fourth-grade class assignment. Not my own, but my daughter’s, an assignment that took place two years ago.

"When my family and I moved here almost exactly three full years ago now, we were coming to a part of the country in which we had never lived. I grew up in Dallas, Texas and my wife grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We met in graduate school out in Los Angeles, California, married, moved overseas, moved back to the States, settled in Texas, and thought we would be there the remainder of our lives. But after serving for many years at a church in Houston, we did a surprising thing for a son and grandson of native Texans, we moved to serve a church outside of Chicago. After many happy years there, we thought when our next move came we would be heading back to Texas, but then the congregation of this wonderful church invited me to come and be their pastor, and I accepted their call.

"After our move here we settled into our home, this church and community, and did what we needed to do to adapt to life on the East Coast. And then near the end of our first year here, my daughter was given a class assignment. She was to trace her ancestry, going back as far as she could and try to identify our family’s earliest immigrants to America.

"Well, when this assignment came home, my wife and I panicked, we had no idea where to begin to find out the required information, because our families had never really discussed our extended ancestry. But then I remembered something, many years ago my grandmother, who now 96, gave me a book about her side of the family, the Phillips. Like nearly every grandson in the world I suppose, I took the book, thanked my grandmother, and promptly put it away. I was too busy and too disinterested to read any of it at all.

"But now, in a panic, I begged my wife to begin hunting through all of our as yet unpacked boxes to see if the book was anywhere to be found. Miraculously, considering the state of our home at that time, since it was undergoing a complete rehab, the book was found.

"When I opened the book I was basically flabbergasted. Published in 1935, it began with a wonderful account of Joseph and Mary — Joseph and Mary Phillips, that is — who immigrated to this country from Wales in 1755. They arrived in Philadelphia and first settled near Devon, probably traveling out Lancaster Pike in the process, which is only a block from where I stand.

"They joined the Great Valley Baptist Church, which is out on Swedesboro Road, and then moved to the vicinity of present-day Exton and Lionville. The Great Valley Church near Devon was a missionary church, so the Phillips’ left with fifty-one other individuals to found the Vincent Baptist Church in present-day Vincent Township. In time, all four of the Phillips sons found in the Revolution, and one of the sons, David, by name, I discovered is my great-grandfather five times back. Coincidentally, David Phillips, the Rev. David Phillips, is the first in a long line of descendants who became a pastor.

"Inside the book on one page were four small, old, black and white photographs. One shows the grave of David Phillips, which somewhere in a place called Library, Pennsylvania. A second photograph shows the Revolutionary War marker beside his grave. A third photo shows a tiny picture of the original family homestead as it looked in the early 1930s. The fourth and final photograph then shows the grave of Joseph and Mary Phillips in the church yard of the Vincent Baptist Church.

"As I began to read the book my grandmother had purchased back in 1935 and saved for so many years, I was amazed to discover that I was in a way, back home, because one branch of my family had started out in this country right here.

"But the story doesn’t stop there. With book in hand I drove to the historical society in West Chester, and discovered that there was an extensive collection of information on the Phillips family. I found out that the Phillips have been having an annual family reunion for well over 100 years, a reunion that always meets at the family homestead and then winds up at the church yard cemetery. But where was the house? And where was the church? As I looked through file after file I finally found a map, drawn in pencil, from 1936, which had directions to the house. From West Chester it said to take Route 100 towards Pottstown, cross Route 30, turn at the Lutheran Church and drive to the house.

"With a Xerox copy of the map in my hand I found Route 100, crossed Route 30 and then found myself driving past the Exton Mall, where everything was brand new. Wondering that old Lutheran church was still standing, I rounded a bend and there it was, the only old structure along the highway. I pulled off, drove past the church as the map described, and found myself in one of those new housing developments. As I slowly made my way around the new housing, no old home was to be seen. Feeling discouraged I pulled over to check my map once again, when I chanced to look between two houses and saw a big, old farmhouse off in the distance. Back to the old Lutheran church I drove, and took the only other street that remained.

"One block away, at the next stop sign, I looked up to see where I was, and guess what the street sign read: ‘Phillips Road.’ I had found it! I turned right, drove down the street, and soon came upon the big, old farmhouse I had seen through the trees. I pulled out my book, compared the tiny old black and white photograph to the house before me, counted the windows across the front, and decided it had to be the place. The house was changed, the front porch was now enclosed and a management company occupied it, but there were cars out front, so I parked, got out, walked up the steps, opened the door and went inside. A lovely woman was sitting at a receptionist desk, so I introduced myself, held up my book, told her I was there because my daughter was doing a report on our family history, and she said, ‘Oh yes, we see members of the family quite often. Would you like to go upstairs and see some of the original timbers from the log home Mr. Phillips built?’

"It was an amazing feeling to realize that I was in the very place that my distant relatives had built by hand and in which they had raised their sons. This was especially so because until that very moment I had no idea if the house still existed, or that it would be open for me to enter.

"Emboldened by my discovery, I returned to my car and set out to find the church. I figured it couldn’t be far, but I figured wrong. All the map told me was that it was off Route 100 and Route 23. Now remember, this was two years ago and I was driving where I had never been before, but I found Route 23, drove several miles and was about to give up and turn back when I had to stop at a light. I chanced to look across the intersection there on the opposite corner was a small sign with an arrow pointing to the Vincent Baptist Church. Traveling down narrow country roads and following sign after sign, I finally came upon the church. Again, with book in hand, I started through the churchyard cemetery, and soon found the graves of Joseph and Mary and so many other family members. Clearly, the Phillips family, through the generations, has cared for their history, for at the base of each worn headstone is a bronze plaque that transcribes the old engraving that has almost weathered away.

"From there I turned my attention to the church. I tried the door. It was open. I walked inside and found the pastor. I introduced myself, told him why I was there, and he asked, ‘Would you like to go up to the sanctuary and see the Phillips family window?’ And sure enough, the largest stained glass window in the church is dedicated to Joseph and Mary Phillips.

"The next week I took my then 9-year-old daughter and a camera, and we photographed for her report all of the places we had found and wrote up the family history for her class project. And all of that eventually led me to you, the members of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution.

"How does all of this relate to our sermon text for this evening? Paul is writing to the Christians in Ephesus and he is reminding them of their glorious inheritance in Christ Jesus. Lest they forget, God, in Jesus Christ, had given them remarkable, life-changing, life-giving, life-everlasting gifts.

"Lest we also forget, we too are recipients of these same gifts from God. Like me in the case of my family history, this is a fact with which we may be vaguely familiar, or we simply may not know it at all. It is only when we place ourselves on an active path of discovery that we can come to learn and understand all that is ours in Christ Jesus. For example, all of us have received from our families marvelous gifts that we have not earned. Some of these gifts are tangible, we can see them and touch them, while some of these gifts may not be so readily visible, but we possess them nevertheless, gifts such as character, diligence, a standard of morality and ethics. In the same manner what we have inherited through faith may not be so visible, but what God has given us in Christ Jesus has infinite value. Through faith we receive the gifts of hope, confidence, and trust — just to name a few — and these are gifts that the world around us is not likely to bestow upon us. This is especially so when we think of the headlines that greet us each new day. The world around us simply cannot give us the inner spiritual hope, or confidence, or trust we need to live our lives daily in faith.

"Those of us who are gathered here this evening stand in a long line of blessedness. The faith and courage of those who have gone before us serve as a witness and inspiration to us. All of us are linked by an event in history that brought about the greatest freedom the world has ever known. In the same manner, all of us are also linked by our Creator, to the greatest of freedom the world will ever know, and that is the life of faith lived in Christ Jesus.;

"What a glorious inheritance we have. Amen."

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