The Way I See It: Celebrating Mr. Peabody's Bicentennial Anne Garside -------------------------- Special to The Gazette I had the thrill of attending the memorial service for George Peabody that took place at noon, on Thursday, Nov. 16, in Westminster Abbey, London. Over 1,600 invited guests filled the abbey almost to capacity. I arrived early with my camera outside the Great West Door of the abbey to watch people come in. There were hundreds of tenants from Peabody Trust housing in London, Britain's largest nonprofit housing association, established by Peabody in 1862 to provide affordable housing for the poor in almost every borough of London. Similar to, but much larger than, James Rouse's Enterprise Foundation, the trust currently houses 27,000 people in 14,000 units. "We wouldn't miss this for the world!" Sandra Hussey, who lives in the Peabody Cottages in southeast London, cheerfully told me. She had come with a friend and her three small children. American accents mingled with BBC English and pure Cockney. Representatives of the institutions George Peabody had founded in America and descendants of the Peabody family had crossed the Atlantic to be part of the celebration. U.S. Ambassador Admiral William Crowe came to read a stirring lesson from the Old Testament. Lords and ladies, bishops and baronets, members of Parliament, and top executives from J.P. Morgan and Morgan Grenfell swelled the crowd. The conservatory had sent organist Donald Sutherland and his wife, soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, to perform as part of the service. Peabody director Bob Sirota was also present, musically speaking, since Donald played one of his compositions, Festival Prelude on "Now Thank We All Our God," on the abbey's magnificent organ. Peabody Advisory Council chairman Jacques Schlenger and his wife, Suzanne, planned their annual visit to London around the Nov. 16 event. The day was overcast with the occasional squall of rain, but there were brilliant splashes of scarlet on the grass around the abbey from the poppies planted in the Field of Remembrance, this being the week that Britain celebrated its war dead. The previous Saturday, the whole country had observed a two-minute silence on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the original time of the armistice in 1918. This meant that the Lord Mayor's Parade, scheduled to start off promptly at 11 a.m. that morning, waited for two minutes, before commencing its three-mile route through the city of London. The Peabody Trust had a float in the parade, with about 50 of its tenants marching behind in various costumes of the past 50 years, including many WWII uniforms and the famous "pearly" costumes of London's East End. "Hard on the soles but good for the soul," punned one Peabody Trust staffer. In this general climate of remembrance, what better week to hold a memorial service for George Peabody? As a long procession of clergymen, in vestments that glowed brilliantly against gray walls, wended their way up the nave, they paused at the memorial stone that marks where George Peabody was first buried in the abbey. A very young resident of the Peabody Housing Estate at Bethnal Green, 9-year-old Joleigh Brown, laid a posy of flowers there. The dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Michael Mayne, began by reminding us of Peabody's "work for social justice among the marginalized and outcast; his interest in and promotion of the arts and sciences; and his valiant attempts through the provision of education and housing to secure dignity, purpose and quality of life for all." The words struck responsive chords, as did the music. Phyllis Bryn-Julson's voice floated in the upper reaches of the abbey in Mozart's "Laudate Dominum," soaring above the choir with an otherworldly beauty. At the reception afterward, Ambassador Crowe came to a rolling halt before Phyllis to thank her with obviously genuine warmth. We also sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Later in the day, over a pint of beer, Don Sutherland told me of a slight kerfuffle in the organ loft. "Just prior to the hymn being sung," he related, "we discovered that the version in the Anglican prayer book did not have the American tempi. So while the sermon was in progress, I had to hurriedly teach the choir how to sing it with the American rhythms." The service was followed by receptions in two locations due to the numbers attending. We went round the corner to the Atrium to eat miniature fish-and-chips wrapped in newspaper. Amid much happy commingling, all agreed that rather than memorializing a great man born 200 years ago, we were celebrating his living legacy, in every enterprise from housing the poor to providing the spiritual uplift of great music. Looking back, the week in London was full of news: remembrance commemorations, the state opening of Parliament by the Queen, the Beatles reunion, the Queen Mum's hip operation and, at week's end, the shattering revelation of Princess Di's Panorama interview. But the Times of London got things in the right order of priority by giving the George Peabody Memorial Service a prominent place in its "Weekly Happenings" column. For those who were in Westminster Abbey, George definitely stole the show. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Anne Garside is director of public affairs at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. -----------------------------------------------------------------