Story and photo submitted by the Rev. Justin R. Cannon
On Wednesday, June 24 (The Feast of Saint John the Baptist), Holy Hikes held a stational Eucharist around Blue Heron Lake and concluded this outdoor Eucharist at the foot of the Prayer Book Cross. This service began with a land acknowledgment recognizing that San Francisco is situated on the unceded ancestral lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples.
On June 24, 1579, on the Feast of Saint John the Baptist, Sir Francis Drake’s chaplain presided over the Holy Eucharist in Drake’s Bay, which was the first service in the English tongue on our coast and the first use of the Book of Common Prayer in this country. The Prayerbook Cross in Golden Gate Park, which bears the seal of the Episcopal Diocese of California, commemorates this event.
Full text from the Cross:
- Front: “Presented to Golden Gate Park at the opening of the Mid-Winter Fair January 1 AD 1894, as a memorial of the service held on the shore of Drakes Bay about Saint John Baptist’s Day, June 24 Anno Domini 1579 by Francis Fletcher, Priest of the Church of England, Chaplain of Sir Francis Drake, chronicler of the service.”
- Back: “First Christian Service in the English Tongue On Our Coast, First Use of the Book of Common Prayer in Our Country, One of the First Recorded Missionary Prayers On Our Continent, SOLI DEO SIT SEMPER GLORIA.”
Learn more about the cross on Wikipedia >>
