The Old North Church is offering a traditional Lantern Service on Friday, April 18 at 7 p.m. in honor of the 250th anniversary of the "one if by land, two if by sea" lantern signal from the church's steeple on the eve of the American Revolution. The keynote address will be given by the author and historian Dr. Heather Cox Richardson, professor of history at Boston College.
Modeled on the service offered for the 200th anniversary in 1975 and organized by Old North's clergy and congregation, this 250th Anniversary Lantern Service recalls the lights of freedom and encourages reflection on the meaning of faith, freedom and American democracy today. It will include inspirational music; Paul Revere’s own recollection of his historic ride and Old North’s signal lights; Heather Cox Richardson’s address; and prayers for our nation as we begin our semiquincentennial. The service will culminate with the lighting of the church’s historic lanterns.
Tickets are $60 for center aisle seats and $35 for general seating in side aisles and gallery.
Courtesy photo
Heather Cox Richardson
About the keynote speaker:
Heather Cox Richardson has written about the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age and the American West in award-winning books whose subjects stretch from the European settlement of the North American continent to the history of the Republican Party through the Trump administration.
She is the author, most recently, of the best-selling Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America which New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer has called “a vibrant, and essential history of America’s unending, enraging and utterly compelling struggle since its founding to live up to its own best ideals.” Heather Richardson’s work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian, among other outlets. Her nightly newsletter, Letters from an American, reaches more than four million readers.