Washington National Cathedral

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Image:National Cathedral.jpg Washington National Cathedral, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington and an Episcopal cathedral church, is designated as a monument: the National House of Prayer of the United States. This affiliation in no way designates an Established Church for the nation, however. Concurrently, the cathedral is also the official seat of both the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA and the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, motherchurch of the Episcopal Church in the District of Columbia and Maryland counties of Charles, St. Mary's, Prince George's and Montgomery. Located at Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues, Northwest in Washington, D.C., it is the sixth largest cathedral in the world and second largest in the United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The National Cathedral is affiliated to the government by a charter of Congress, signed on January 6, 1893, but does not receive any federal, state or city funding. The National Cathedral Association provides most funding for the cathedral. Construction began in 1907, when the foundation stone was laid in the presence of Theodore Roosevelt, and lasted for 83 years; the last finial was placed in the presence of President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

The Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation officially oversees the Washington National Cathedral and its sister institutions: National Cathedral School, St. Albans School, Beauvoir School, and Cathedral College

Contents

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Leadership

The cathedral is both the episcopal See of the Bishop of Washington, currently the Rt. Rev. John Bryson Chane (the sixth Episcopal Bishop of Washington), and the primatial See of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, currently the Most Rev. Frank Griswold.

The current dean of the Washington National Cathedral is the Very Reverend Samuel T. Lloyd III who officially took office on April 23, 2005. Prior to becoming dean, Lloyd was the rector of Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts.

The current Bishop of Washington, the Right Reverend John Bryson Chane, was formerly the dean of the St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego, California.

Former Deans of the cathedral are:

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Establishment

Image:Washingtonnationalcathedral.jpg In 1792 Pierre L'Enfant's Plan of the Federal City set aside land for a "great church for national purposes." The National Portrait Gallery now occupies that site. In 1891, a meeting was held to renew plans for a national cathedral. In 1893 the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia was granted a charter from the United States Congress to establish the cathedral. The commanding site on Mount Saint Alban was chosen. Right Reverend Henry Yates Satterlee, first Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Washington chose Frederick Bodley, England's leading Anglican church architect, as the head architect. Henry Vaughan was selected supervising architect.

Construction started September 29, 1907 with a ceremonial address by President Theodore Roosevelt and the laying of the cornerstone. In 1912, Bethlehem Chapel opened for services in the unfinished cathedral, which have continued daily ever since. When construction of the cathedral resumed after a brief hiatus for World War I, both Bodley and Vaughan had died. American architect Philip Hubert Frohman took over the design of the cathedral and was henceforth designated the principal architect. Funding for the National Cathedral has come entirely from private sources. Maintenance and upkeep continue to rely entirely upon private support.

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Music

The Great Organ was installed by the Ernest M. Skinner Organ Company, 1938. The Washington National Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, founded in 1909, is currently one of very few cathedral choirs of men and boys in the United States with an affiliated school, in the English tradition. The 18-22 boys singing treble are ages 8-14 and attend St. Albans School, the Cathedral school for boys, on singing scholarships.

In 1997, the Cathedral Choir of Men and Girls was formed, using the same men as the choir of the men and boys. The two choirs currently share service duties and occasionally collaborate. The girl choristers attend the National Cathedral School on singing scholarships.

Both choirs have recently recorded several CDs, including a Christmas CD and a Patriotic CD, on both of which the choirs collaborated.

Currently, Michael McCarthy serves as Director of Music. Erik Suter is Organist and Associate Choirmaster. Scott Hanoian is Assistant Organist and Choirmaster. Former organists and choirmasters include Edgar Priest, Robert George Barrow, Paul Callaway, Richard Wayne Dirksen, Douglas Major and James Litton.

The resident symphonic chorus of the Washington National Cathedral is the Cathedral Choral Society. Every summer, the choral society performs with the National Symphony Orchestra.

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Worship

The worship department, led by the Rev. Carol L. Wade, like the cathedral itself, is rooted in the doctrine and practice of the Episcopal Church, and based in the Book of Common Prayer. Four (five in the summer) services are held each weekday, including the daily Mass. On Monday through Thursday (as well as Sunday), the Cathedral Choirs sing Evensong. The forty minute service is attended by roughly fifty to seventy-five people (more on Sunday). Five services of the Eucharist are also held on Sundays, including the Contemporary Folk Mass held in the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea and a Healing Eucharist in the late evening.

The cathedral also has been a temporary home to several congregations, including a Jewish pro-synagogue and an Eastern Orthodox community. It has also been the site for several ecumenical and/or interfaith services. In October, 2005 at the cathedral, Rev. Nancy Wilson was consecrated and installed as Moderator ("Presiding Bishop") of the Metropolitan Community Church by its founding Moderator, Rev. Troy Perry.

Each Christmas, the cathedral holds special services that are broadcast to the world. The service of lessons and carols is distributed by Public Radio International and broadcast live. Christmas at Washington National Cathedral is a live television broadcast of the 9 AM Mass on Christmas Day. It is produced by Albritton Communications and is shown on national affiliates in most cities around the United States. Some affiliates broadcast the service at noon. The Christmas service at the cathedral has been broadcast to the nation on television since 1953.

In 2005, the television order of service appeared as the following:

  • Processional Hymn: O Come, All Ye Faithful
  • Opening Acclamation
  • Gloria in Excelsis by Richard Shephard
  • Collect (Opening Prayer)
  • Reading from Isaiah 9 & 11
  • Anthem: Sir Christemas by William Mathias
  • Hymn: Angels we have heard on high
  • Gospel Reading from Luke 2
  • Homily by the Bishop of Washington
  • Nicene Creed
  • Prayers of the People
  • The Peace
  • The Offertory & Anthem: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day by John Gardner
  • Hymn: Angels, from the realms of glory
  • The Great Thanksgiving (preface)
  • Sanctus & Benedictus by William Mathias
  • The Great Thanksgiving (continued)
  • The Lord's Prayer
  • The Breaking of Bread & the Fraction Anthem
  • At communion, Alleluia! A new work is at hand by Peter Wishart
  • At communion, brass music
  • At communion, the hymn Joy to the world!
  • The Post Communion Prayer
  • The Blessing of Christmas Day

At this point, the broadcast ended. The service continued with:

  • Hymn: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
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National Cathedral Association (NCA)

The National Cathedral Association is an organization that seeks to provide funds and promote the Washington National Cathedral. It consists of more than 14,000 people nationwide. Subdivided into committees by state, more than 88 percent of its members live outside the Washington area. Every year, a state has a state day at the cathedral where a state is recognized by name in the prayers. Every four years, a state has a Major State Day, at which time those who live in the state are encouraged to make a pilgrimage to the cathedral and dignitaries from the state are invited to speak.

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Architecture

Image:Episcopalchurchwashingtonseal.jpg Image:Space Window.JPG Washington National Cathedral was completed on 29 September 1990 after almost a century of planning and 83 years in construction. Its final design shows a mix of influences from the various Gothic architectural styles of the middle ages, marked, among other things, by pointed arches, flying buttresses, vaulted ceilings, stained-glass windows, stone-carved decorations, and three similar towers, two on the west front and one surmounting the crossing. Its west end is reminiscent of Bristol Cathedral.

Washington National Cathedral consists of a long, narrow rectangular mass formed by an eight bay nave with wide side aisles and a five bay chancel, intersected by a six bay transept. Above the crossing rising 91 m (301 ft) above the ground is the Gloria in Excelsis Tower. Its top, at 206 m (676 ft) above sea level is the highest point in Washington, D.C., with the Pilgrim Observation Gallery providing a sweeping view of the city. In total, the cathedral is 115 m (375 ft) above sea level. Uniquely, the tower has two full sets of bells — a 53-bell carillon and a 10-bell peal for change ringing. The cathedral sits on a landscaped 57 acre (230,000 m²) plot on Mount Saint Alban, in northwest Washington, D.C.

Image:Washington National Cathedral ironwork.jpg The one story porch projecting from the south transept has a large portal with a carved tympanum. This portal is approached by the Pilgrim Steps, a long flight of steps 12 m (40 ft) wide. Most of the building is constructed using gray Indiana limestone. Modern materials only replaces features that are were wooden, such as steel in the the roof, or the concrete in the support structures for bells and floors in the west towers.

Stones from Canterbury Cathedral were sent for construction of the pulpit. Glastonbury Abbey provided stone for the bishop's cathedra, his formal seat. The high altar is made from the ledge of rock in which Christ's sepulchre was hewn.

There are other works of art including over two hundred stained glass windows, the most familiar of which may be the Space Window, honoring man's landing on the Moon, which includes a fragment of lunar rock at its center. Most of the decorative elements have Christian symbolism, in reference to the church's Episcopalian roots, but the cathedral is filled with memorials to persons or events of national significance: statues of Washington and Lincoln, state seals embedded in the mosaic floor of the narthex, state flags that hang along the nave, stained glass commemorating events like the Lewis and Clark expedition.

It is also interesting to note that the cathederal was built with many intentional "flaws" in keeping with an apocryphal medieval custom that sought to illustrate that only God can be perfect. Artistically speaking, these flaws (which often come in the form of intentional asymmetries) draw the observer's focus to the sacred geometry as well as compensating for visual distortions, a practice that has been used since the Pyramids and the Parthenon. Architecturally, it is thought that if the main isle of the cathedral where it meets the cross section were not tilted slightly off its axis, a person who looked straight down the isle would have a slight feeling of disorientation, like looking down railroad tracks. The architects designed the crypt chapels to have architecture from earlier styles, as though it had been built as a successor to earlier churches, a common occurrence in Medieval times.

Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, the Cathedral sports what is probably the world's only Darth Vader sculpture in a religious building. During construction of the west towers of the Cathedral, developers decided to hold a competition for children to design decorative sculptures for the Cathedral. The image of Vader, sculpted by Jay Hall Carpenter and carved by Patrick J. Plunkett, was placed high upon the northwest tower of the Cathedral, fulfilling the role of a traditional gargoyle.

The master plan of the cathedral was designed by George Bodley, the preeminent British Gothic architect of the time, while Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. integrated it into the close. After Bodley died in 1907, his apprentice, Henry Vaughan, executed revisions to the original design, which the chapter saw as weak. After his death and the cessation of work during World War I, the chapter hired Philip Frohman and partners to execute the building. Frohman was committed to completing a perfected version of the Bodley plan, which included addition of the carillon section of the central tower and the enlargement of the west façade, along with countless smaller changes. Since Frohman's death in 1971, no major changes have been made. Interestingly, Ralph Adams Cram was hired, because of his experience with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City to supervise Frohman, but insisted on so many major changes to the original design that Frohman convinced the Cathedral Chapter to fire him.

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National house of prayer

Washington National Cathedral's role as the national house of prayer has over the years united Americans in several religious and secular services hosted at the site. During World War II, monthly services “on behalf of a united people in a time of emergency” were held.

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Major events

Image:PresidentsWatchReaganCasketCarriedIntoCathedral.jpg Washington National Cathedral has played host to many major events, showing the cathedral's proud distinction as being "the national house of prayer for all people." Some of the major events that showed the cathedral's proud distinction include:

  • State funerals of two American presidents:
  • Funeral for Katharine Graham (2001)
  • Presidential prayer service the day after a presidential inauguration
  • Memorial services. Most notable ones:
    • President Harry Truman (1973)
      • Truman had planned a state funeral and burial at the cathedral. However, due the advanced age of his wife, Bess when he died, all the services were done in Missouri and were private. Foreign dignitaries gathered for a memorial service at the cathedral a week after the funeral.
    • Victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks in 2001 during which George W. Bush declared: "Our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil." He also claimed: "This nation is peaceful" and "our unity is a kinship of grief, and a steadfast resolve to prevail against our enemies. And this unity against terror is now extending across the world." [2] While the rest of the world heard Bush, Canada saw the simultaneous service on Parliament Hill, the largest single vigil there, in the nation's capital.

In addition, Washington National Cathedral's pulpit was the last one from which Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke prior to his assassination in 1968.

Many major events have been interfaith services, showing the cathedral's proud distinction. Services held at the cathedral that fall in this category are the 9/11 memorial service and the Reagan funeral.

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References in popular culture

  • setting of Margaret Truman's Murder at the National Cathedral
  • place of Mrs. Landingham's funeral in Season 2 finale of The West Wing Two Cathedrals
  • Cathedral Close (area in and around the cathedral) is alluded to, often, but rather vaguely, in movie Along Came a Spider.
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Last resting place

Washington National Cathedral and its mausoleum and columbaria are the last resting places of many notable American citizens:

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Bibliography

  • Marjorie Hunt, The Stone Carvers: Master Craftsmen of Washington National Cathedral (Smithsonian, 1999).
  • Step by Step and Stone by Stone: The History of the Washington National Cathedral (WNC, 1990).
  • A Guide to the Washington Cathedral (National Cathedral Association, 1945).
  • David Hein, "For God and Country: Two Historic Churches in the Nation's Capital," Anglican and Episcopal History 56 (March 1987): 123-26.
  • David Hein, Noble Powell and the Episcopal Establishment in the Twentieth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001). Chapter three covers the deanship of the Very Revd Noble C. Powell, who was also Warden of the College of Preachers.
  • Peter W. Williams, Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997).
  • Cathedral Age (magazine).

Most of these items should be available in the Cathedral's Museum Shop: see https://commerce.cathedral.org/exec/ms/index.html. But, strangely, the Noble Powell biography is not.

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Online resources

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