Upcoming Centennial Celebration at only WWI Chapel in US
By Reverend Dr. Phebe L. McPherson
Maryland WWI Centennial Commission
Odenton's Epiphany Chapel and Church House served U.S. soldiers in WWIEpiphany Chapel & Church House, located at 1419 Odenton Road in Odenton, Maryland, opened its doors in 1918 to be a “home-away-from-home” for WWI soldiers, including “reinforcements to the Chaplains of the colored regiments.” Second-floor rooms provided overnight accommodations.
To celebrate its 100 years, on June 3, 2018 the public is invited to an outdoor concert and dedication of a WWI Centennial Monument with keynote speaker, and National Public Radio figure Diane Rehm. The event includes WWI music by The Maryland Military Band and an opportunity to discover online information about family members who served in WWI.
Diane Rehm -- whose own father was deployed through Camp Meade to the trenches of WWI -- will address the crowd, on the topic of “Keeping Faith in Troubled Times.” Her father, Wadie S. Aed, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Mersin, Turkey, enlisted and served in France with the United States Army, Camp Meade Detachment 147th Infantry 37th Division at the age of twenty-two.
The Maryland WWI Commission, established by the Governor in 2015, has partnered with the Chapel for this event.
The Chapel is a National Register Historic Site featuring a Chaplains’ Peace Garden with bronze plaques naming 2,929 WWI chaplains among them 24 rabbis and 108 African Americans. The museum is staged as in 1918 with bunk beds, original posters, victrola, trench art, uniforms, and items of everyday life and culture during WWI.
The Centennial Memorial Gardens is a half-acre open-space chapel created with granite boulders from a Maryland quarry and featuring dozens of iron poppies forged by blacksmiths from Belgium. Epiphany Chapel & Church House, this 100-year old relic, remains a unique voice in troubled times.
About Keynote Speaker Diane Rehm: The Diane Rehm Show was distributed nationally and internationally by National Public Radio until her retirement in December, 2016. She now hosts a weekly podcast, On My Mind (NPR). Rehm has been the recipient of the Peabody Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award.