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CATHEDRAL AGE WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL | AUTUMN 2015

race and responsibility

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CATHEDRAL AGE AUTUMN 2015 4

Called for a Time Such as This



Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry



the rt. rev. mariann edgar budde

6

Confronting America’s Original Sin



the rev. kelly brown douglas

10 Jonathan Myrick Daniels

50 years after his martyrdom



kevin eckstrom

12

Black Lives Matter in the Episcopal Church, Too



richard m. weinberg

13

What Would Jonathan Do?



the rev. gary mitchener

14 Mission-critical, Counter-cultural, Change Agent Dean Gary Hall reflects on

his tenure at Washington National Cathedral

interview with the Very Rev. Gary Hall

19 In the Name of God 20 The Cathedral Goes Green 21

Is That the Confederate Flag?

22 Jewels of Light Renewed and Restored

Window repairs and installations



james w. shepherd photos by colin winterbottom

27 Scaling Washington

The Lee-Jackson windows

28 Builders and Ambassadors

Bringing the Cathedral’s voice to the nation

the rev. canon jan naylor cope

30 Focus

News from the Cathedral

34 In Memoriam

Norman Scribner and Richard Hewlett margaret shannon

36 Passages “Godspeed the New Work Yet to Begin”

A look at the history and wisdom in the Cathedral Age archives

above the transfiguration window, located on the north side of the apse, near the high altar on the cover removal of north te deum window for restoration  photos c. winterbottom

autumn 2015

contributors Bishop of Washington Mariann Edgar Budde is the spiritual leader of 40,500 Episcopalians in 89 congregations and 20 Episcopal schools in the District of Columbia and four Maryland counties. She also serves as the chair and president of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, which oversees the ministries of Washington National Cathedral and the three Cathedral schools.

2 cathedral age 

The Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, Cathedral provost, oversees the Cathedral’s development department; assists in identifying, cultivating, and soliciting major donors; and works closely with Cathedral leadership on its strategic vision, ministry, and mission.

The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas is the Elizabeth Conolly Todd Distinguished Professor of Religion at Goucher College in Baltimore and priest associate at the Cathedral. Her recent book, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God was released in May 2015 by Orbis Books.

CATHEDRAL AGE Cathedral Age is the official publication of Washington National Cathedral. the very rev. gary hall dean Cathedral Age is produced by the Communications and Marketing Department of Washington National Cathedral: kevin eckstrom chief communications officer mimi m. mcnamara creative director sunny betts communications coordinator cathedral chapter David J. Kautter, chair; Alexander H. Platt, vice-chair; The Rev. Martha Horne, secretary; Thomas W. Anderson; Maxmillian Angerholzer III; John D. (Jack) Barker; The Rt. Rev. Frederick Houk Borsch, Ph.D.; The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of Washington; Timothy C. Coughlin; Robert B. Coutts; John G. Donohue; Andrew C. Florance; Patrick W. Gross; The Very Rev. Gary R. Hall, dean; Dr. Steven Knapp; Virginia C. Mars; Raymond C. Marvin; Hollis McLoughlin; Dr. Eric D. K. Melby; Dr. Eric L. Motley; The Hon. Thomas Pickering; David F. Webb; The Rev. Dr. James P. Wind; Dorothy Woodcock

To Subscribe to Cathedral Age

Cathedral Age is a benefit of nca membership. For information on membership, email [email protected].

Postmaster

Send subscription orders, change of address, and other circulation correspondence to Cathedral Age c/o Records Department, Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20016-5098. Copyright ©2015 Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation issn 0008-7874. Cathedral Age is published by the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, 3101 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington, DC 200165098. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC. Editorial comments should be addressed to The Editor, Cathedral Age, Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington, DC 200165098. Telephone (202) 537-6200. Cathedral Age is a member of the Associated Church Press and Episcopal Communicators. (FSC mark placed by printer)

Washington National Cathedral is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. It receives no direct funding from the government or any national church for operations.

Kevin Eckstrom is chief communications officer for the Cathedral. His principal portfolio includes all internal and external Cathedral communications, including the award-winning Cathedral Age magazine, advertising, video, and photography, and media relations.

James W. Shepherd, AIA, LEED AP, is the Cathedral director of preservation and facilities. His work focuses on leading the institution’s efforts to repair all earthquake damage, upgrade critical infrastructure systems, and preserve the fabric of the Cathedral and related properties on the Cathedral Close.

The Rev. Gary Mitchener is a retired Episcopal priest and seminary classmate of Jonathan Daniels. He still preaches around the Diocese of Ohio.

Richard M. Weinberg, the Cathedral’s former director of communications, is currently a postulant for ordination in the Diocese of Washington and a student at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.

autumn 2015

“I love this Church. I love our Lord. And God is not finished with us yet.”

4 cathedral age 

for a time such as this Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry

by the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of Washington “I love this Church. I love our Lord. And God is not finished with us yet” Thus Michael Curry began his sermon on July 3 to the General Convention that elected him as our next Presiding Bishop. In those three declarative statements, he described the spiritual convictions that inform his life and leadership. Michael Curry loves the Episcopal Church that baptized, confirmed, and ordained him. His prayer life is grounded in the Daily O≈ce, nourished at Christ’s table, and enlivened by the breadth of the Anglican Communion. He is equally at home at youth events, vestry meetings, spiritual retreats, and the General Convention. He lives the baptismal covenant, with wholehearted faith in the Triune God and commitment to evangelism, faith formation, and witness in the world. With a�ectionate relationships across the church, Bishop Curry knows that we are stronger in diversity, and that no part of the Body of Christ can say to the other, “I have no need of you.” (I Corinthians 12:21 )

Bishop Curry is unapologetically in love with Jesus. The son of an Episcopal priest, grandson of a devout Baptist, and with a soul nurtured in the black church, his relationship to Jesus is both personal and expressed in a commitment to social justice. Bishop Curry believes that God sent Jesus to show how us to live, and to reconcile us to God and one another. On this he is clear: Jesus incarnates God’s unconditional love for all people. “If your religion preaches hate,” he says, “it’s not of God.” “Every time I hear Michael preach,” a bishop colleague wrote, describing the elation we all felt at the General Convention, “my spirit soars.” Bishop Curry likes to remind us that in baptism, we are called into “the Jesus movement,” which is to say, that in Jesus, God is actively at work healing the world. “So go!” Bishop Curry says to us. “Jesus didn’t call you to church membership, but discipleship in his movement of love and justice.” He urges us to follow in the footsteps of our forebears who crossed the Red Sea or traveled the Underground Railroad to freedom, and like them, to keep

opposite the most rev. michael curry at his installation service photo d. thomas

going even when discouraged, or tired, or persecuted. For Jesus will not rest until the nightmares of this world are transformed into God’s dream of beloved community. Bishop Curry also believes in the future of the Episcopal Church “This is a good church,” he says, “and we are good people. But God is not finished with us yet.” Hold onto your hats, friends. As the bishops quietly processed into the church where we would cast our votes for the next Presiding Bishop, I saw our brother Michael walking among us. Words from Scripture came to me: called for a time such as this. (Esther 4:14) There was no lobbying among the bishops and little conversation. But we all felt it. We all knew it. Michael Curry has been called by God to lead our church for a time such as this. Bishop Curry’s installation as the 27th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church at Washington National Cathedral on Sunday, November 1, is available for viewing at youtube.com/wncathedral. autumn 2015

6 cathedral age 

Confronting America’s

ORIGINAL SIN

A

fter nine African-Americans were gunned    down inside Emanuel AME Church in           Charleston, S.C., in June, Cathedral Dean Gary Hall declared from the Canterbury Pulpit that he would be “moving the Cathedral’s work on racial justice to the very top of our missional agenda.” “Nothing is more important in this moment than for us to lead American people of faith not only to healing and repentance but to the hard and freeing work of taking the lid o� a past we would rather ignore, exploring that past’s ongoing e�ects in the present, and working together with men and women and children of goodwill across the ethnic and racial spectrum of America to build a future in which racism, violence, and false notions of supremacy will cease to have a place,” the dean preached on June 21. The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas is a priest associate at the Cathedral and the author of the recent book, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God. Following is an excerpt from Stand Your Ground, released in May 2015 by Orbis Books. In his Second Inaugural Address Abraham Lincoln lamented that “American Slavery” was an o�ense to God. It was in his estimation a sin. He conjectured that the Civil War, which had torn the nation apart, was a result of that sin. He feared the “judgments of the Lord” if the sin of slavery were not removed. Lincoln was right in naming slavery as a sin, and thus, that which God opposed. What he did not understand was the original sin that produced slavery, the very exceptionalism upon which the nation was built. Some one hundred and fifty years later, our nation is still a nation divided by war. It is divided by a stand-yourground culture war. It cannot be said enough that such a war will reinvent itself throughout history until the original sin of America’s Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism is forthrightly addressed and eliminated. The salvation of the nation depends upon it. The manifestation of this salvation will be nothing less than the justice of God.

opposite and above production drawings from were you there when they crucified my lord, illustrated by allan rohan crite, cathedral archives

by the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas God’s justice means a restoration of the sacred dignity of all people. This begins with the crucified class of people. The context through which God enters human history is revelatory. It matters that Jesus died on the cross, just as it matters that God freed the Israelites from bondage. For it is only when the least of these are free to achieve the life, that God’s justice will be realized. The profound meaning of God’s preferential option for freedom is seen in God’s solidarity with the crucified class. Their freedom will mark an eradication of all that separates people one from another and thus disengages all people from the goodness of their humanity. Thus, the justice of God also begins from the bottom-up. Put simply, it is in the freedom of those who are crucified, that one can see the justice of God working in the world. God’s justice is freedom from the bondage of sin. In the context of a stand-your-ground culture this means the sin of setting one’s self above or against another. Hence, it again means exposing the myths, the narratives and hence the sense of American exceptionalism. This narrative is a violent narrative that creates and maintains a cycle of violence. Justice therefore represents the peace of God. This peace is freedom from the violence that distorts the human person. It is the elimination, in other words, of systems, constructs and all actualities of violence. God’s peace thus requires a radical restructuring of a political, social and economic order that is sustained by and thus creates “crucified classes of people.” These again are the systems and structures that maintain the myth of America’s Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism. As [liberation theologian Gustavo] Gutierrez rightly points out, “All injustice is a breach with God.” The very identity of a nation that claims to be “a city on the hill” reflecting the glory of God actually reflects a breach with God. God’s justice is the healing of that breach. In a stand your ground culture war this begins with the victims of that very war. Recognition of this has implications for the church.

autumn 2015

“The church is compelled as a bearer of the memory of Jesus to step into the space of the Trayvons and Jordans who don’t know whether to walk slow or walk fast in order to stay alive. To step into their space is what it means for the Church to bring . . . Jesus into the present crucifying realities of standyour-ground culture.” 8 cathedral age 

For whatever the justification may be, historically the white religious community has been reluctant to respond, if not antagonistic in their responses regarding matters that pertain to race. The cross has indeed been a “stumbling block” for many churches when it comes to matters of race. In this instance, it prevents far too many white churches from seeing the reality of Jesus’ crucifixion in their very midst. They “stumble” when it comes to recognizing the face of the crucified Jesus that is not white. What this means is that the crucified Jesus is virtually ignored. For in a context brimming with Anglo-Saxon white supremacy, the crucified Jesus is simply not white. Whiteness is an oppositional construct. It opposes the freedom of God that is life and love for all of God’s creation. In opposing the reality of blackness, it actually opposes the crucified Jesus. Whiteness signifies a crucifying reality. The challenge for white churches is to step out of the space of cherished white property to be where Jesus is, with the crucified class of people. This is the significance of Jesus entering into the space of the Samaritans. He let go of his privilege of Jewish maleness in order to show forth the full measure of God’s love. The church must follow Jesus in this regard. It must cross over into the space of the Samaritans in its own time. If Jesus crossing over was an exodus event, then for white churches it would be ekstasis, a stepping outside of themselves. Such a stepping out is the first requirement in pointing the way to the salvation that Jesus o�ered to the Samaritan woman. Such salvation is about the life of the body inasmuch as it is about the life of the soul. It is the way of justice. During what has come to be known as the Last Supper, Jesus instructed his disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The Greek word for “remembrance” used in this instruction is anamnesis. This word means more than simply a mental recollection of past events. It means to

bring the past into the present. Anamnesis is perhaps best understood as the reenactment of past events. During the Last Supper, Jesus was calling his disciples to remember him through their actions—that is, to act in their present as he did throughout his life and ministry. One of the fundamental tasks of the church is to bear the memory of Jesus. This means being in the world as he was. To do this requires entering into solidarity with the crucified class in any given context. In the context of stand-your-ground culture war, this necessitates understanding this war from the vantage point of its victims. The church is compelled as a bearer of the memory of Jesus to step into the space of the Trayvons and Jordans who don’t know whether to walk slow or walk fast in order to stay alive. To step into their space is what it means for the Church to bring the past, which is Jesus, into the present crucifying realities of stand-your -ground culture. Moreover, it is only when one can enter into the space of the crucified class, with sympathetic understanding, that one is able to realize what is required for the salvation of God, which is justice, to be made manifest in our world. God is freedom. God is love. God is life. And so it is that God is with our black sons and daughters as they live into the freedom, love and life that is theirs to claim. God is with them as they resist the sinful realities of a standyour-ground war that tries to demean and destroy their very lives. God is with them on their journeys to be the best people they can be or that they can be—fun-loving, hard-workers on their way to becoming Marines, aviation mechanics, or pilots. Where was God when Trayvon was slain? What we know for sure is that God was not a part of the crucifying mob. Thus, on the night when Trayvon was slain, God was where life was crying out to be free from the crucifying death of stand-your-ground culture.

Allan Rohan Crite (1910–2007) was a Bostonbased artist and a devout Episcopalian. His paintings can be broadly categorized into general two categories: religious themes and the African-American experience. His work illustrating Negro spirituals blurs the lines between these categories, often including Boston scenes in biblical context. The illustrations in this article are from his 1944 book Were You There When They Crucified My Lord: A Negro Spiritual in Illustrations. The original ink drawings for this book are housed in the Cathedral Archives. autumn 2015

jonathan myrick daniels 50 years after his martyrdom 10

A New Carving

11

A Timeline of His Life

12

Black Lives Matter in the Episcopal Church, Too by richard m. weinberg

13

What Would Jonathan Do? by the rev. gary mitchener

a new carving The Human Rights Porch, located at the western-most entrance of the Cathedral’s narthex, celebrates the extraordinary contributions that individuals have made to advance human equality. The new stone carving of Jonathan Myrick Daniels, designed by artist Chas Fagan and sculpted by Cathedral Stone Carver Sean Callahan, joins depictions of Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bishop John Walker, and Archbishop Óscar Romero in the Cathedral’s Human Rights Porch. The newest addition to these distinguished champions of human rights is Jonathan Myrick Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian who was killed in Hayneville, Ala., in 1965 while trying to save a young civil rights activist. His likeness has been carved into the west label mould termination stone of the south arched opening of the porch. Chas Fagan sculpted the bust in clay. The Cathedral’s own stone carver, Sean Callahan, worked from a plaster cast and transferred the dimensions to the stone using a pantograph. Carving began in mid-June 2015 and was completed in August 2015. The carving was dedicated at an Evensong service in October. Following the service, Ruby Sales spoke about Daniels’ legacy.

10 cathedral age 

top left  sculptor chas fagan and stone carver sean callahan bottom left the nearly completed jonathan myrick daniels carving with presiding bishop katharine jefferts schori right  dedication of the carving, october 11, 2015

a timeline of his life On October 11, the Cathedral formally dedicated a new carving of civil rights martyr Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who died 50 years ago this summer while working for civil rights in Alabama. Daniels’ life and legacy are celebrated in the Episcopal Church each year on August 14, the date in 1965 when he and other civil rights workers were arrested in Alabama:

1939

Born in Keene, N.H. to Dr. Phillip and Constance Daniels.

1961

Graduated as valedictorian of Virginia Military Institute.

1962

Daniels experiences an Easter awakening at Boston’s Church of the Advent while a graduate student at Harvard.

1963

Daniels enrolls at Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass.

March 7, 1965

Civil rights workers are badly beaten on “Bloody Sunday” while trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on their way to Montgomery. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. issues a call for clergy and students to join the movement in Alabama, and Daniels flew to Alabama on March 9.

August 14, 1965

Daniels and roughly 30 others are arrested in Fort Deposit and jailed in Hayneville, Ala.

August 20, 1965

Daniels is released from jail and shot by Deputy Sheriff Tom Coleman outside a store in Hayneville while attempting to buy a cold drink. A Catholic priest was also shot but survived. Ruby Sales, a black teenager, was pushed out of the way by Daniels and survived. Coleman was later acquitted by an all-white jury.

August 24, 1965

Daniels is laid to rest in Monadnock View Cemetery in Keene, N.H.

1991

Daniels is added to the Episcopal Church’s Calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

2015

Daniels is added to the Cathedral’s Human Rights Porch alongside Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks and others. Ruby Sales was there to see the dedication.

autumn 2015

“Black lives matter.” At first glance, it’s a simple and seemingly obvious statement, and many who hear or read it respond by thinking, “Of course black lives matter—all lives matter.” Yet such a reaction fails to understand that implicit in the phrase is the point that black lives matter, too. The #blacklivesmatter movement that has emerged in the past year is evidence of the tensions surrounding the events in Ferguson, Staten Island, Baltimore, Charleston, and elsewhere. But it is also about a movement that is more than riots, protests, tragic deaths, and acts of civil disobedience. Ultimately what the phrase

As part of the events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the tragic end of Jonathan’s exemplary life, I had the honor of traveling to Alabama this August with a contingent from the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, including Cathedral Dean Gary Hall, his wife Kathy, and Director of Programs Ruth Frey. We and other church leaders from across the country joined a pilgrimage sponsored by the Episcopal Divinity School (where Jonathan had been a student), which took us to historic sites of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery. We literally walked in the footsteps of the heroes, saints, and martyrs of the 1960s— from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in

parish where Jonathan worshiped and attempted to integrate by bringing his black companions with him. At first, St. Paul’s leadership made abundantly clear to Jonathan that his companions were not welcome. Today, the Episcopal Church is woefully under-represented by members of color, and throughout its history too often has fallen back on the comforts of privilege and position when confronted with injustice and oppression. Just like having a black president doesn’t erase racism from our country, electing a black presiding bishop doesn’t mean racism no longer exists in the Episcopal Church.

in the Episcopal Church, Too by Richard M. Weinberg black lives matter demands is a recognition that our nation’s laws and justice systems are so flawed that they value white lives over black and brown ones. This is true in 2015—just like it was absolutely true in 1965. Fifty years ago, Jonathan Daniels, a 26-year-old white Episcopal seminarian from New Hampshire, died by throwing himself in front of a shotgun blast intended for a black teenager named Ruby Sales. I’d like to think that if Jonathan were a young seminarian today, he would state publicly and emphatically that black lives indeed matter. So true was this statement for Jonathan, in fact, that he died to prove his conviction by sacrificing his own life for his black friend. 12 cathedral age 

Birmingham to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Jonathan’s witness is inspiring to me as a seminarian and postulant for the priesthood. But it is a humbling thing to imagine living up to a ministry at all similar to his. I’m not likely to die for the cause of racial equality as Jonathan did. Yet while I firmly believe that Jonathan was surely a saint whose life we should honor and emulate, I also believe that we ought not to let honoring him lead us to forgetting our own church’s troubled history with race. After all, part of Jonathan’s ministry included working toward the desegregation of the Episcopal Church. Our visit to Selma included a stop at St. Paul’s—the

As Dean Hall has said: “What does it mean to belong to an 86 percent white denomination when, by 2040, there will be no one majority race or ethnic group in America?” I would add another question: How does a majority-white denomination that has proclaimed a commitment to social justice go about working toward racial equality within the church and society? One way is by remembering that God doesn’t value one life over another. Jonathan recognized this. Will we? Jonathan was surely saintly. But let’s not let honoring him distract us from the realities our church faces. Instead, let’s be inspired by his example, and seek to make ours a country where black lives really do matter.

above students march because black lives matter, minneapolis, minn., may 2015, licensed under creative commons by fibonnaci blue

What Would Jonathan Do? As we left Brown A.M.E. Church that warm day in March of 1965 on our way to the courthouse in Selma, Ala., the hood of every Alabama Highway Patrol car was draped with a large Confederate flag. The message couldn’t have been more clear: “Don’t for one minute forget who you’re messin’ with.” Several state patrolmen would slap their billy clubs into their open palms in sync with the cadence of our footsteps. I wasn’t with Jonathan Daniels and the other 11 classmates from Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., when they all drove to Selma that first time. But I do remember what triggered their decision to go. We had all just been to Evensong where we’d sung Mary’s Magnificat about how God “hath put down the mighty . . . and exalted the humble and meek.” We had just watched the evening news the day after “Bloody Sunday.” We had just heard Dr. King’s impassioned plea for students and clergy to come join him in making the March from Selma to Montgomery. And knowing Jonathan as we did, we also knew why Jonathan told us that he “must go to Selma.” All of us who attended seminary with Jonathan remember a letter he wrote to us back in Cambridge following the march to Montgomery, after he’d

by the Rev. Gary Mitchener returned to Alabama to register AfricanAmerican voters. “I lost all fear,” he wrote, “when I knew in my bones . . . that in the only sense that really matters, I have already died, and my life is hid with Christ in God.”

alluding to baptism—having “already died,” being—as St. Paul put it, “hid with Christ in God.”

Now, 50 years later, I wonder how Jonathan might have responded to Cathedral Dean Gary Hall’s call to remove and replace at the Jackson-Lee windows and their Confederate battle flags at the Cathedral. Were he still alive, what might he say to a tourist from a small town in, say, Alabama, visiting the Cathedral for the first time.

The Cathedral’s new stone carving of Jonathan in the Human Rights Porch is now complete, formally dedicated in October. At the same time, the Cathedral Chapter is starting the process of considering the future of the Lee-Jackson windows. My hope is that when that work is done, the Cathedral will be able to more fully live into its call of truly being “a house of prayer for all people.”

wwjd: What Would Jonathan Do?” If you were fortunate enough to have known Jonathan, you would already know that Jonathan would treat that Alabama tourist with utmost respect. At the same time, Jonathan was and would be fully capable of taking responsibility for his own moral choices. Jonathan and the tourist, having just met, might share their personal stories as they walked together through the Cathedral. Despite their political, cultural, or theological differences, I imagine they would each be surprised at the many ways their stories overlapped at a level much deeper than their differences. Perhaps they’d even share a common vocabulary of having “lost all fear” and—

top participants in the civil rights march from selma to montgomery, ala., in 1965, p. pettus, library of congress catalog 2003675345

In other words, they might experience the joyful surprise of recognizing themselves to be brothers in Christ.

I wonder what it would be like for Jonathan and that tourist, newly acquainted, not only to share their personal testimonies, but to share in a far deeper and more vulnerable intimacy: to actually to pray together in that charged space between that Human Rights Porch and those Confederate windows. When that happens, that’s we’ll all be one step closer to Dr. King’s vision of a Beloved Community.

Continuing the Story View civil rights activist Ruby Sales reflecting on Jonathan Myrick Daniels’ legacy on our Civil Rights playlist on youtube.com/wncathedral. autumn 2015

14 cathedral age 

mission-critical counter-cultural change agent as he prepares for retirement, cathedral dean gary hall reflects upon his tenure at washington national cathedral In mid-August, Dean Gary Hall announced that he will retire at the end of 2015 after three years of service to the Cathedral. He and Kathy plan to return to California for a season where he can devote more time to his first loves: teaching, preaching, and writing. Cathedral Age Editor Kevin Eckstrom sat down with the dean to reflect on his time on Mount St. Alban and his vision for the future of the Cathedral: you announced this summer that you’ll be retiring. can you explain why? I turned 66 in September, and when we started talking about the need for a capital campaign, it became clear that that process, from start to finish, would take a decade. And because of the church’s mandatory age of 72, I simply don’t have a decade to give to it. So it became clear in my conversations with the Bishop and the Chapter that it would be less disruptive for me to leave now than it would several years down the road. how has the cathedral changed since you arrived in october 2012? I’ve tried to enact the strategic plan that the Chapter adopted before I came here, so one of the changes is the Cathedral is a more programmatic and missional organization. I’ve tried to do a lot of thinking about the Gospel foundations of our mission and grounding the Cathedral in a theological understanding of mission.

that we’ve never really had before. I’ve tried to be much more present to the Diocese of Washington and the parishes of the diocese and stand in that tension between being a national institutional and a diocesan cathedral. We’ve been much more connected to the schools, and I think I brought my school experience to build relationship with the three heads of the schools. I think we’re more intentionally collaborative with the parishes, the schools and the wider diocese. and how has the cathedral changed you? That’s an interesting question. I’m a lot older and tired-er (laughs). There’s no institution like the Cathedral; no job fully prepares you for this job. It’s a very big, very complex job. I think I understand the complexities of leadership in a way that’s different from when I came here. Leadership is much more relational and collaborative than I thought. I’ve become less of a believer in what I’d call romantic theories of leadership; leadership involves the ability to build community and relationship and consensus. It’s not just about bringing personal strengths and habits; it’s about how you really forge alliances with other institutions and constituencies.

I think I’ve also used the Cathedral pulpit in a way not really done since Dean Sayre to address public issues and try to do what I would call public theology. We’ve talked about gun violence and human sexuality and race, and we’ve advocated on those issues.

It’s also taught me how incremental long-term change in a church institution needs to be. Churches are, by their nature, conservators of culture and conservators of values. There’s a difference between seeing where an institution needs to go, and the pathway to getting an institution to go there. One of the things I’ve learned is there’s no just no substitute for time in making change in an institution. When I came here I was 63, and nobody thought it was strange to ask a 63-year-old to come and make a bunch of changes in a hurry. But the transformation of the Cathedral into a different institution from what it’s been is going to take time.

Operationally, the Cathedral is a very different place than when I came. We’ve built a best-practices development office

I don’t want to say it’s made me more humble, but it’s made me aware of my own limitations and the need to work more

right dean hall speaking out on the capitol steps about the need for commonsense gun laws, march 2014

autumn 2015

collaboratively. The longer I’m in the ministry, the more I believe that the vibrancy of a community depends on the whole community and not just the leader. This is a daunting job, and whatever success I’ve had has not been because of my own gifts or abilities but the amazing resources of my colleagues and the people who love this place. There’s something about the depth of care for this place and what it represents that has been supporting me, and I’ve been very grateful for that. when you announced your retirement, you said the cathedral needs to undergo a “culture shift.” what did you mean by that? The Cathedral is a product of a moment in American Christendom that has largely passed; Christianity was the established religion of America in 1907 when we started building this place; I’m not so sure that’s still the case in 2015. While we’ll always be the place where we bury presidents and hold important affairs of state, Christianity is more of a counter-cultural force in the 21st century than it is an enforcer of a cultural consensus. I’m talking about moving toward a more mission-focused sense of church and away from an established sense of church. In the twentieth century, the Cathedral was built and supported by a broad base of small donors for its first 100 years. For it’s next 100 years, the Cathedral is going to have to be supported by major gift philanthropy. And we have to be much more of a programmatic and missional institution because major gift donors no longer give to institutions; they give to transformative work. Moving from an institutional mindset to a missional mindset that fosters transformative work is, and needs to be, a major shift for the Cathedral. you’ve challenged the cathedral staff and leadership to become more “missionally” focused. what does that mean, in your mind? What’s the role of religion in American society? My parents’ generation were the enforcers of cultural values—to not talk in libraries and take your vitamins. But now, mission has much more to do with the question of what the Jesus movement has to say about public life. Those are different questions. We have to ask the question: What is God calling us, or the faith community, to do in the current moment, and where do religious values come into the public discourse? We’re not here as the Cathedral to do the work of a typical parish church as a service provider, but we are here to frame the questions about race, about human sexuality, about ecological issues. Wherever public policy decisions are being made, the Cathedral needs to be at the forefront of how the faith community gets into the conversation. We don’t need to be there walking around with picket signs, but ask how are we at the table with other elements of society contributing to the making of public policy in the twenty-first century. 16 cathedral age 

under your watch, the cathedral started to wed same-sex couples, and welcomed the first transgender preacher into the canterbury pulpit. what’s the next frontier on the lgbt issue? Even though the Episcopal Church and Washington National Cathedral are welcoming and friendly to lgbt folks, there are a lot of churches in America that are not. There are still a lot of kids in America being stigmatized at home, at church and at school. The Cathedral has the opportunity to be a kind of sanctuary for lgbt youth across America, and if I were staying longer, that would be one of the things I’d be working on. The second thing is international lgbt human rights issues. There are, what, 78 countries where it is illegal to be lgbt. A disturbing number of those countries are former British colonies, and the Anglican Church has been coopted in some ways in those countries. The Cathedral can be, and should be, a leader in the international Anglican community in stepping up advocacy for human rights for lgbt people.

to raise. The next stage is to segment Phase 2 into smaller segments, and to do it in $5 million segments rather than a $22 million segment. It’s also a chance for us to better align ourselves with our mission. Up until 1990, the Cathedral’s mission was to get itself built, but it really took another 25 years to say, "What’s the Cathedral’s mission and how are we going to live it out?" Now we can go back and ask how the earthquake restoration syncs with the Cathedral’s mission. The Cathedral has a real opportunity to be a place of welcome and entry into Christianity. That’s what Gothic buildings are—sermons in stone and glass; they tell the story of the faith through windows, carvings, and the kind of grandeur of the place itself. If we can make the case that having this building in full total repair is a point of entry for unchurched people in the twenty-first century, I think that will motivate a lot more generosity that simply something that says “Please help us restore a beautiful Gothic building.”

“We need to be much more intentionally Christian and evangelistic in the Christian community and at the same time be more welcoming of other faiths. That’s a tension we need to stand in.”

also under your watch, the cathedral opened its doors to muslim prayers for the first time. in retrospect, after the criticism, was it a good move?

Yes, it was absolutely worth it. We got criticism from the fringe, from Franklin Graham, but we got an awful lot of support, especially internationally. Part of the job of a leader is aligning what an institution says about itself with what it actually does. We’ve said that we’re a house of prayer for all people for 108 years. This was a moment when the Cathedral actually put meaning behind those words. Before that, everything we’d done had been interfaith with quotes around it. We’re not trying to do the lowest common denominator kinds of services anymore; it’s entirely appropriate to invite other faith communities in, not to do some watered-down version of what we do as an Episcopal faith community, but to bring their own practice into our space. That’s a model for us to truly be a house of prayer for all people, and a way for Christians, Muslims, and Jews to be together in our next 100 years. If we can pray together from our own traditions and in our own traditions, we can better engage each other rather than trying to do some made-up thing that isn’t anybody’s. you also oversaw the completion of phase 1 of the earthquake restoration. how do we motivate supporters and benefactors to help us finish the job? Phase 2 is going to take a while; it’s a large amount of money, and as the earthquake recedes in memory, it becomes harder

so is the cathedral a vaguely christian national institution, a distinctly christian local cathedral, or both? I’ve tried to walk the line between being a house of prayer for all people and an intentionally Christian institution. That’s a tension, but not a dichotomy. We need to be much more intentionally Christian and evangelistic in the Christian community and at the same time be more welcoming of other faiths. That’s a tension we need to stand in. The Cathedral stands in a series of creative tensions—national versus local, Christian versus interfaith, Episcopal versus Christian. Bishop Budde feels very strongly, and I agree, that one of the things we could do in this moment is use the Cathedral not only to do interfaith work but to do intrafaith work, to reach out to evangelicals and members of other traditions who would find the Episcopal Church’s liturgy and social positions very congenial. If I were on the outside, I’d be much more willing to give a gift to restore the Cathedral if I felt the Cathedral was living out that kind of evangelistic gospel mission in the world. opposite dean hall at the blessing of the bikes with rolling thunder, may 2015 photo r. sokol

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if you could gaze into a crystal ball and see the cathedral 10 or 15 years from now, what would you like to see? I would like to see more worship and music that’s reflective of the diversity of America and the Anglican Communion. I would like to see the College building as a sort of think tank that helps mainline Christianity think about how it can be vibrant and robust in the twenty-first century. I’d like to see us being a point of engagement for unchurched people who come through the doors or find the building inspiring and want to know about the faith tradition behind this building and its liturgy. I’d like to see us be more institutionally connected in the District of Columbia and the Diocese, to be more connected with the congregations of the Diocese, with the schools, with the police, with the city. We need to find a way to be present in the other three quadrants of D.C. And I’d like to see the Cathedral serving the families of the schools on the Close—maybe in terms of after-school programs, parenting programs, or some kind of values we could offer the schools. one last thing: what’s the one thing you’ve done as dean that’s been the most fun? Seeing Deeper. It wasn’t just the week where we took all the chairs out of the nave, but also the weeks leading up to it, where it was something new for the staff and everybody got the chance to be a little playful about it. It was fun to be here and see the people coming in who you normally don’t see in this building, and what taking the chairs out did to people. The Reformation, for all the good it did, also did some things wrong. It made worship more intellectual, more cerebral, where churches became sort of lecture halls with the chairs all facing the same way and everyone listening to the same thing. When you take the chairs out, it was like going to the beach—you suddenly saw people sort themselves out. Some people sat and looked at stuff, some people wandered around, some people laid on the floor and stared up at the ceiling. You got this wonderful sense of the way people engage sacred space with their bodies in a way that they don’t do on Sunday morning. It’s really a tremendous witness to the power of the building; the building has a kind of real spiritual power, and we just need to let the building do what it does. I walk through this building every day, and you see people here with their baseball hats and fanny packs and you can tell most of them don’t spend a lot of time in a building like this, but they suddenly walk in and they’re awe-struck. They get down and pray or they go light a candle. The building has a kind of power; we need to follow the building rather than try to restrain it. top dean hall with civil rights leader julian bond, february 2014 top center dean hall recording the kojo nnamdi show, february 2013 bottom center dean hall with his holiness the dalai lama, march 2014 bottom rededication of bishop’s garden, october 2013 photos  d. marks and cathedral file

18 cathedral age 

in the name of

God

The Rev. Canon Gina Gilland Campbell, canon precentor for Washington National Cathedral, offered the following prayer at an interfaith Iftar dinner to break the Ramadan fast at the Embassy of Pakistan on July 9, 2015

IN THE NAME OF GOD: Most gracious and most merciful.

All praise and thanks and honor be yours, now and forever. Blessed are you, Holy One of blessing: We thank you for this evening; for all that has been prepared for our enjoyment, for the energies of planning and creation; for generous hospitality and warm welcome. Send your blessing upon the life and labors of those who have made this time of rejoicing possible, that in all things they may continue to work for good.

strong god

Bless this gathering of faithful people with your presence. We know you as love, and your love has power. We know you as mercy, and your mercy births compassion. We know you as grace, and your grace gives rise to justice and peace. Work in and through our prayer to unsettle the world as we know it and move it towards something better.

creating god

Make it the calling of our hearts to nurture and protect a space for shared faith in our world; space to discover the similarities of belief and spirit that bind us more deeply together than any division of doctrine or dogma; space where the distance between heaven and earth grows thin and we live as you intend us to live; space where the strength and tenderness and challenge of human community cannot be broken by violence, hate, or greed.

purposeful god

Give to all the people of our good earth the desire to serve you and one another in our lives and vocation. May your compassion be manifest in every act of kindness, in every generous impulse of the heart, in every hand extended to help, in every effort to forgive and to mend, in every gesture of comfort, in caring efforts to both support and challenge. Quicken in us every impulse to support and sustain persons and communities struggling to flourish. Surely the time has come, O God, for the world’s groaning to diminish. We dare to imagine a world free of suffering and disease, of war and conflict, of persecution and pain; for our lives are held as one in the immensity of your love. And on this night, we who approach the same God, ask that in your loving kindness you bless all your people with courage, will, and grace to be all that you call us to be; and to do all that you would have us do; that in all things your vision of new heaven, new earth, new life may come to pass.

IN THE NAME OF GOD

Giver of all that brings fullness of life to this world Source of truth and love Most gracious and most merciful. Hear our prayer:

Salaam, shalom, peace.

autumn 2015

The Cathedral

Goes Green

283,000

kilowatt hour reduction

145

tons of CO2

annual reduction

1,500+

10%

decrease in energy usage

84

types of fixtures

lightbulbs replaced

$33,000 annual savings

The Cathedral recently partnered with DC Sustainable Energy Utility, a contractor for the DC Department of the Environment, to replace more than 1,500 light bulbs in 84 different types of light fixtures throughout the Cathedral and its Administration Building with Energy Star-approved led and fluorescent light bulbs. These efficiency improvements are anticipated to reduce consumption of electric energy by nearly 300,000 kilowatt hours annually, saving about $33,000 in the first year alone. The Cathedral plans to implement this program within 10 other buildings on the Cathedral Close and will continue to explore ways to reduce its overall carbon footprint. Learn how to contribute to the effort at www.cathedral.org/restoration. 20 cathedral age 

the lee-jackson windows

Soon after nine worshipers were gunned down at Emanuel ame Church in Charleston, S.C., by a gunman who was later shown embracing the Confederate battle flag, the Cathedral was asked by the media and extended members of the Cathedral family about two stained glass windows that contain images of the Confederate battle flag. Dean Gary Hall spoke quickly and decisively, calling for the windows featuring Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson to be removed and replaced by new windows that “could adequately represent the history of race, slavery, and division in America” and also “best represent our shared history of war and peace, racial division, and reconciliation.”

key members and Cathedral staff are now sketching out what that process might look like. The Committee’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Cathedral Chapter for a final decision. The discussion about the windows and their Confederate imagery echoes similar conversations occurring across the country. Other institutions—from the South Carolina legislature to the University of Texas to the Cathedral’s neighbors in Montgomery County, Md.—are taking a fresh look at their own connections to slavery and Confederate memorials, particularly the battle flag and its history of racial violence and intimidation.

The windows remain in place; whatever the outcome, the windows will always remain a part of the Cathedral collection. The process to consider their future is now underway.

The Cathedral anticipates a vibrant public discussion about the windows, as well as questions of the role of art in religious life, new understandings of old symbols, and a cathedral’s shifting understanding of itself and its role in public life.

In September, the Cathedral’s Facilities and Fine Arts Committee—which oversees all art and iconography within the Cathedral—received its mandate to begin a wideranging discussion about the windows. The committee and

The Cathedral welcomes all comments on the windows. Formal submissions can be emailed to windows@cathedral. org, and those entries will be compiled for consideration by the Facilities and Fine Arts Committee.

autumn above lee (left) and jackson (right) windows photo k. cobb 2015

JEWELS OF LIGHT RENEWED & RESTORED

Soon after the August 2011 earthquake that caused extensive damage to the Cathedral, sca�olding was erected to inspect and repair large portions of the ceiling. The sca�olding also provided unprecedented access to the Cathedral’s 45 clerestory stained glass windows and three large rose windows—most of which hadn’t been cleaned since their installation decades ago. That improved access served as an impetus for two major stained glass window projects—the restoration of the Te Deum windows and the completion of “refinements” to the Isaiah window. Both projects were part of Phase 1 restoration, which was completed this summer.

te deum windows Extending more than 65 feet in height, the north and south Te Deum windows are the tallest stained glass windows in the Cathedral, and mark the transition from the great choir to the high altar. The two windows, designed by Earl Edward Sanborn and installed in 1932, are each composed of three pairs of lancets with tracery. The design is based on an interpretation of Te Deum Laudamus, a hymn of praise and thanksgiving that dates to the fourth century and is often incorporated in the service of Morning Prayer. The location of these windows close to the Glastonbury Cathedra (the o≈cial seat of the bishop of Washington) is no coincidence as Te Deum Laudamus is also traditionally part of the service for the seating of a bishop. Unlike many of the clerestory windows that use larger pieces of colored glass to create figures and images readable from the floor of the nave, the Te Deum windows use refined painted glass techniques with copious amounts of detail to depict martyrs, prophets, and apostles (north window) and the spread of Christianity (south window). The center portion of the window panels utilizes color to convey important figures while the edges capture details in sepia tones. 22 cathedral age 

Due to their size and age—they were some of the first stained glass to be installed at the Cathedral—the windows had deteriorated and were no longer weatherproof. Makeshift Plexiglas ba�les had been installed on the interior to collect rainwater so that it did not reach the floor of the high altar. Much of the putty that sealed the gaps between the glass and lead caming had deteriorated or disappeared, and many of the panels had started to bow. Earthquake sca�olding erected on the interior and exterior of the Cathedral’s east end provided a perfect opportunity to remove and restore these windows. After a competitive bidding process, the New Jersey-based Femenella & Associates was selected to restore the north Te Deum window, and Virginia-based Goldkuhle Studios was chosen to restore the south Te Deum window. If those names sound familiar to you, they should. Art Femenella, founder of Femenella & Associates, apprenticed at, and became co-owner of the Greenland Studio, which fabricated and installed several of Cathedral’s clerestory windows designed by Rowan LeCompte. “It was a privilege and amazing experience to work at the Cathedral, a highlight of my 40-year career,” he said. “It was as if I had been transported back in time to the Medieval Period. We would be close to 100 feet in the air on sca�old at the interior of the window, installing jewels of light into carved stone openings while the organ master practiced, thundering away on the great organ. It took me to a very spiritual place.” Andrew Goldkuhle apprenticed with his father, Dieter Goldkuhle, who fabricated more than 50 Cathedral windows, including many of those designed by Rowan LeCompte. “I am humbled to be involved with these extraordinary windows that tend to be hidden from a direct line of sight in the high altar area,” Goldkuhle said. “In addition to revitalizing the soundness of the windows, our hope is that they wills sparkle anew and draw the opposite femenella & associates remove the north te deum window for restoration above restored panel from the same window

by James W. Shepherd • photos by Colin Winterbottom

autumn 2015

visitor’s glance for a more deliberate study of the remarkable details contained within.” After removing and documenting all the panels of each window, the artisans crated and shipped the panels to their respective studios in October 2014. The most challenging components to remove were the pieces of the four-point quatrefoils due to their unusual and irregular shapes. At the two studios, the windows were uncrated, documented with photographs and tracings, and fully disassembled. Glass was removed from existing lead caming and fully cleaned. The panels were then reassembled and prepared for their return to the Cathedral in July. Prior to reinstallation, the masonry openings and the bronze armatures that support the window panels were cleaned and prepped. Once the windows were fully reinstalled, an exterior water test found that both windows were adequately sealed. The twin windows now have a new radiance, and the refined imagery that was previously di�icult to detect from the ground resonates with new clarity. The Te Deum set in glass is prepared for celebrating praise and thanksgiving for another century.

isaiah window replacement The earthquake sca�olding also enabled the Cathedral to come to closure on a 43-year journey to complete the Isaiah window. Located in the eighth bay of the south 24 cathedral age 

clerestory in the nave, the four lancets of this 15-by-29 foot window depict the stories of Isaiah and Micah. As described in Jewels of Light, the Cathedral’s stained glass guidebook, the artistry of Rowan LeCompte depicts: Isaiah, in the right center lancet, witnessing a powerful vision in the temple when an angel of the Lord reaches down with a hot coal to touch his lips and cleanse him of sin, thus consecrating him as an honored prophet. Upon purification, Isaiah was then able to prophesy the coming of the Messiah. The left center lancet depicts Micah, who also prophesied that a deliverer would come to establish a messianic kingdom. He is gesturing down to an unrepentant Jerusalem that would eventually fall. His raised arm points to a flowering tree to indicate the fruitful life of a humble, virtuous nation. The outer two lancets are abstract in design but complement the two inner panels in color and form. LeCompte was commissioned by the Cathedral in 1972 to design the Isaiah window, the first of 18 nave clerestory windows he would design. Work on LeCompte’s signature piece, the west rose window, put the Isaiah window on hold, but by 1981, the window was completed by Greenland Studio, installed and approved by the Cathedral’s Building Committee. Soon after, concerns arose that the darkness of the window made the imagery unreadable. Those concerns led to conversations with LeCompte about making adjustments, including the possibility of substituting lighter glass for some of the darker glass.

opposite andrew goldkuhle studios installing the south te deum window after restoration this page the new isaiah window this page, right rowan lecompte working on a window cartoon photo cathedral archives

autumn 2015

In 2004, LeCompte was contracted by the Cathedral to make refinements and provide full-scale cartoons to illustrate recommendations prior to implementing any adjustments. When the cartoons were approved in 2006, LeCompte began working with Dieter Goldkuhle to fabricate the “refined,” or replacement, windows. In 2009, after fabricating three of the replacement lancets and cutting glass for the fourth, Goldkuhle transferred the fabrication to Mary Clerkin Higgins, who completed the assembly. “I’d know Rowan and Dieter for over 30 years and my studio had made two other clerestory windows for Rowan for the Cathedral, as well as worked with him on other projects, so it was a very smooth transition” Higgins said. Although the window fabrication was completed in 2010, a Cathedral review committee noted that there were deviations from the approved cartoon that were deemed unacceptable. The 2011 earthquake put an indefinite hold on both the installation and approval process, and LeCompte died in February 2014 before those issues were able to be fully resolved. Five months later, the Cathedral was proud to host a memorial service for its most famous artisan. In October 2014, with the interior earthquake repair sca�olding in place, the Cathedral reviewed the Isaiah replacement window in situ, or in place. The original two outer lancets were installed by Mary Clerkin Higgins. 26 cathedral age 

Climbing 65 feet above the nave floor, five members of the Cathedral’s Facilities and Fine Arts Committee reviewed the installation, and unanimously agreed that the hybrid mixture of the new interior replacement panels with the original darker outer panels was not acceptable, and requested that Higgins install the two remaining replacement panels. After all four replacement panels were installed, the Facilities and Fine Arts Committee approved the full installation, and recommended that the Chapter vote to accept the window. “After many years and many gifted hands, the second Isaiah window has emerged to complete this glorious nave,” said Peggy LeCompte, Rowan’s widow. “Rowan said in his lecture that ‘The great windows sing. I hope these nave clerestory windows will work together to achieve a great visual harmony with the architecture that will lift our hearts and invite the eye and spirit to dance and sing.’ Rowan and I sing hallelujah!” The Chapter’s vote at its May meeting to accept the window provided a joyous ending to a long creative journey. The window now blends harmoniously with the adjacent clerestory windows, providing an improved balance of color and luminosity. The dedication of the window took place on October 15. above staff from clerkin higgins stained glass, inc., installing the new panels of the isaiah window

SCALING washington

Photographer Colin Winterbottom’s exhibition at the National Building Museum, Scaling Washington, features stunning images of the restoration work of two Washington landmarks that were damaged by the August 2011 earthquake: Washington National Cathedral and the Washington Monument. “Honestly, working at the Cathedral has been the most engaging and highest honor of my career,” said Winterbottom, who has documented the full range of the Cathedral’s Phase I earthquake repair. “I enjoyed rare views and insights to this stunning structure and the remarkable work that keeps this architectural gem so vital.” As artist-in-residence at the Cathedral and sole photographer for restoration efforts at the Washington Monument, Winterbottom blends documentation with artistic expression. Composed in areas that are generally inaccessible, the photographs transform scaffolding from an industrial workhorse to compelling geometry that complements the historic structures they seem to engulf. Scaling Washington is on exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. through January 3, 2016. photos c. winterbottom and c. stapert

autumn 2015

sustaining support a community of cathedral friends

Builders and Ambassadors bringing the cathedral's voice to the nation by the rev. canon jan naylor cope Twenty-five years ago, on Sept. 29, 1990, a large crowd led by President George H. W. Bush filled the west lawn to watch Joe Alonso set the final finial in place at the completion of the Cathedral. On the following day, the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was officially consecrated in a celebration of worship and ceremony. To mark that historic day and the Cathedral’s work and ministry over its entire 108 years, friends and supporters gathered on September 26—the weekend of the anniversary—for a virtual celebration. The webcast featured a panel of old and new friends, of Cathedral builders and ambassadors, of people passionate about the Cathedral and the unique work that only the Cathedral can do in our country. We remembered those 83 years of construction and memories, we spoke of programs dear to our hearts, and we looked to a future with the “west doors flung wide” as the vision and work of the Cathedral reaches out across the nation. Maryland Bishop Eugene T. Sutton, a former director of the Cathedral Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage, captured the Cathedral’s mission as a church with a solid Christian faith at its core and with a welcoming, inclusive place for ecumenical 28 cathedral age 

and interfaith work. Panelists Ray Foote, a member of the development committee, and congregation member Jan Smith spoke of the Cathedral as a beacon of light that radiates across our nation as a Christian voice of compassion. Stone mason Joe Alonso captured the beauty of the building and the joy of preserving it. Most importantly, this Cathedral Day celebration provided an opportunity to thank you and to share glimpses of the vital work we’re doing here. With your generosity, the Cathedral reached a milestone $15 million in total attainment—gifts, pledges, planned gifts—during the fiscal year that ended June 30. This exceeded budget targets, and we thank you for helping us reach that goal. Two other events this summer help us showcase the Cathedral and its work. The second annual Grand Spaces/ Unexpected Revelations breakfast brought nearly 300 old and new friends together on June 12, a four-fold increase over the inaugural event in 2014. The morning featured not only the beauty of the building but all that this building makes possible: stunning music and arts, programs and lectures, worship and spirituality, outreach and advocacy. Through testimonies and video presentations, attendees

gain new inspiration about why this place is so special to each of us and how it daily transforms lives. Gifts made in response to that breakfast contributed $750,000 to our operations, helping us end the fiscal year in the best health in recent years. We are enormously grateful for each friend and supporter who has helped us live out our mission and transform lives here and around the nation. The music, the keynote address by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, and the custom videos on Cathedral life are all available for you to view at www. cathedral.org/breakfast. Your support is visible in brick-and-limestone ways, too. Just a week after our breakfast, we gathered in the nave again to celebrate the completion of Phase I of the earthquake repairs, totaling $10 million. Yet more work remains: Together, we will need your support to cover the remaining $22 million for Phase II of the repairs. We also are embarking on a time of transition as Dean Gary Hall approaches his retirement. His leadership and vision have positioned our development operations in a strong, vibrant place with talented staff. As provost, I have the joy and responsibility of shepherding our fundraising work as we continue to make real God’s plans for this amazing institution. In the end, this 108-year-old majestic Gothic building is more than just limestone, carvings, iron, and stained glass. It’s the people who gather here, who join us online, who carry the message of the Cathedral across the nation. It is the incredible staff, the dedicated volunteers and our faithful worshipers and supporters. And in this incredibly diverse nation and in a world yearning for spiritual authenticity, the Cathedral’s work and mission are more crucial than ever. Ongoing communication with you is a priority for the Cathedral and for me personally, and I hope you’ll drop me a note or an email or maybe post on our Facebook page. A long-time friend of the Cathedral emailed me, in fact, right after the birthday webcast to remind me of Bishop Satterlee’s words on Christmas Eve 1901, words that just as relevant a century later: “It is ours, in our time and generation to realize—that is, make real in our thought and action—the grandeur of our ideal, in its many-sided possibilities and opportunities, in its organization and its work; in its spiritual influence and practical usefulness.” May God continue to bless you and our Cathedral.

opposite june breakfast this page, top david ignatius speaking at june breakfast photos e. graham this page, bottom canon richard t. feller, with stone masons joe alonso and otto epps, placing the "final finial" on september 29, 1990 photo g. martineau

autumn 2015

[focus] Staff Updates The Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope was named provost of the Cathedral by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde and Dean Gary Hall in April 2015. As provost, Canon Cope oversees the Cathedral’s development department; assists the dean in identifying, cultivating, and soliciting major donors; and works closely with the Cathedral’s leadership on its strategic vision, ministry, and mission. Canon Cope previously was the Cathedral vicar 2010–2014, and served as the leader of the Cathedral worshiping community and represented Dean Hall in his absence. She is a former associate rector at St. David’s Church in Northwest D.C., and also served as a lay leader at St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square, prior to ordained ministry. This summer, she served as a deputy to the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in Salt Lake City, representing the Diocese of Washington. Kevin Eckstrom joined the Cathedral as chief communications officer in June 2015 after a 15year career with Religion News Service, including nine years as editor-in-chief. At the Cathedral, Eckstrom oversees all internal and external communications, including media relations, the Cathedral’s website, videography, photography and advertising. He holds degrees from the George Washington University and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He and his family live in Washington and are members of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Bethesda, Md. 30 cathedral age 

The Rev. Stuart Kenworthy joined the Cathedral as interim vicar on June 1, 2015, after the Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope was promoted from vicar to provost. He was previously the rector of Christ Church Georgetown, Washington, D.C., from 1991 until his retirement in 2014. He also served as a chaplain in the Army National Guard 1994–2007, including a deployment to Iraq 2005–2006. Kenworthy serves as the pastoral leader of the growing Cathedral Congregation, which now numbers more than 1,350 members. Kenworthy is married to Fran Prescott Kenworthy, and they have three grown children. Joseph Peralta joined the Cathedral staff as the director of the Cathedral Scholars Program. His role is to direct the mission, vision, and implementation of this college preparatory program for a select group of D.C. public high school students. Peralta brings more than five years of coordinating and managing college access and readiness programs for students in the D.C. Metro area. He holds a B.A. from Lafayette College and a M.A. from the George Washington University. Andy Solberg joined the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation as director of security, where he and 18 officers oversee security concerns for all institutions on the Cathedral Close. Solberg retired after 27 years with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington,

D.C., where his assignments included eight years as a commander, including the local Second District in Northwest Washington. Solberg holds degrees from Haverford College and American University and lives with his family in Washington.

50 Years of Flowers In recognition for her remarkable 50 years of service to the Cathedral’s Altar Guild, Linda Roeckelein was named an honorary Cathedral Canon by Bishop Budde, Dean Hall, and the Cathedral Chapter. “There is no place I know of in America or in all of the Anglican Communion that manages the accouterments of liturgical worship as well as we do here,” Dean Hall said in honoring Linda at an October 13 Evensong service in celebration of the Altar Guild. “The beauty and dignity of our flowers and linen and silver are no accident: they derive from visionary, dedicated work by all the members of the Altar Guild and especially from the leadership of the faithful, brilliant woman who leads them.”

Lincoln & King: “With Malice Toward None” A century and a half after Abraham Lincoln’s memorable Second Inaugural Address, the Cathedral and Ford’s Theatre convened a panel of speakers on March 4 to explore the powerful words of our sixteenth president alongside those of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Both men, said Paul Teatrault, executive director of Ford’s Theater, “dealt with polarizing divisions and called for a unified nation.”

n e w s f ro m t he c at h ed r a l

Lincoln’s last major address, delivered in 1865 as the Civil War reached its bloody end, called slavery the nation’s original sin, and the war was its punishment. Both sides, he said, “read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other.” Yet “the prayers of both could not be answered.” Dean Gary Hall said Lincoln, like King, offered a “theological reading of history that we just don’t do anymore.” Whereas Lincoln was trying to distill the meaning of the Civil War, King “was trying to sum up the meaning of his life,” said Dr. Clayborne Carson, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. King’s last major address, his “Mountaintop” speech, was delivered in Memphis, Tenn., just days after he preached his last Sunday sermon from the Cathedral’s Canterbury Pulpit. “I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will,” King preached in Memphis the night before he was gunned down by an assassin’s bullet. “And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land.

I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!“ King was assassinated the next day; Lincoln was killed shortly after his second term as president began. Both died violently while seeking justice and peace. “Isn’t it an irony that Lincoln and King were actually the best hope of the other side?” Carson asked rhetorically. “They were the ones who were ready to reach out.” —Amy Babcock

Edward Brooke 1919-2015 “A Full And Blessed Life” “You do not grow up desiring to be a United States senator if you were born in the District of Columbia in 1919,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting representative, in celebrating the life of former Sen. Edward Brooke of Massachusetts at the Cathedral on March 10. Brooke, the first popularly elected black senator, was a District native, altar boy in the Episcopal Church, and a decorated hero of World War II. ”He endured great loss and enjoyed exuberant triumphs. He would be the first to tell

left “lincoln & king” dean gary hall, dr. douglas wilson, dr. clayborne carson, and moderator chris matthews right u.s. secretary of state john kerry and u.s. delegate eleanor holmes norton at the funeral for senator edward brooke iii photos d. marks

us he led a full and blessed life,” said Secretary of State John Kerry, himself a former senator from Massachusetts. “For him, and for that, we will always be grateful.” Before his father’s casket was transferred to Arlington National Cemetery for burial with full military honors, Brooke’s son, Edward Brooke IV, extolled the lessons learned at his father’s knee. “When I was but a child not so long ago, my father would always say, ‘Waste not, want not’ . . . When I now consider the familiar saying in the full context of his life, it reveals a powerful truth: That if we never waste the opportunity to help each other live better lives, then none among us would ever have to want for a life that could not be attained. In this generous spirit and leading by example, my father constantly strived toward the realization of a better world, a world in which the apparent differences between individuals would never again be mistaken as cause to deny justice, humanity, or dignity, nor used to justify violence, exploitation, or disrespect.” — ­ Margaret Shannon

autumn 2015

[focus]

General Convention Washington National Cathedral was proudly represented at the Episcopal Church’s 78th General Convention in Salt Lake City. Dean Gary Hall and Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde welcomed Cathedral guests and friends to an opening reception where the Rt. Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish, retired Bishop of Utah, was honored for her founding role in the Cathedral Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. The Cathedral’s exhibit booth was a popular stop for visitors and deputies—if you stood just right for a photo, the backdrop image made it appear as if you were perched on the Cathedral’s roof. Cathedral Provost Jan Naylor Cope represented the Diocese of Washington as a Deputy, and also gave the keynote address at the 48th Triennial meeting of Episcopal Church Women.

Marriage Equality Days after the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the right of same-sex couples to wed in all 50 states, hundreds of people gathered at the Cathedral to celebrate marriage equality as a civil right and religious rite. “God is up to something big,” said Brandan Robinson, a national spokesman for Evangelicals 32 cathedral age 

for Marriage Equality, who offered one of two reflections that night. “And this rushing river of progress cannot be stopped. It’s flame will not be extinguished.” The Rev. Allyson Dylan Robinson became the second openly transgender clergy to speak at the Cathedral, and talked about the end of a culture war. “I am compelled to lay my weapons down, and to assume a different posture relative to those who have been my enemies,” she said. “I am compelled by sacred text and by ancient tradition and by the spirit of God alive within me and by the example of the one I call Savior and Lord ... to surrender my instruments of war for instruments of reconciliation.”

Recalling the Armenian Genocide Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Vice President Joe Biden, and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan joined a full Cathedral on May 7 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, which claimed more than a million lives. “We gather here tonight to ask God to take our lament over senseless violence and death and turn it to resurrected hope,”

the Presiding Bishop said in welcoming the hundreds of worshipers. Sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Council of Churches, the service featured remarks by His Holiness Karekin II, supreme patriarch and catholicos of all Armenians, and other leaders of the Armenian Church. “We commemorate today those who became witnesses to death, they became martyrs, witnesses of the truth,” said the Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, in his homily. “But tonight we also commemorate them as witnesses to life. They gave witness to the dignity of meaning of life . . . and today their lives under death give testimony to us, to call us to become witnesses to life in the midst of death and sin in our time.”

Conserving Our Treasures The Cathedral stewards a range of treasures beyond the fabric of the building. The treasures collection includes such items as tapestries, rosaries, vestments, and paintings, to name a few. A significant portion of

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the collection is composed of valuable and historic liturgical vessels, many of which continue to be used as part of regular worship services. Given the age and regular use of some of these vessels, several of them required urgent attention. That’s where Ohiobased Wiebold Studio stepped in. A representative of Wiebold reached out to the Cathedral to offer free conservation services as part the company’s 70th anniversary. The Cathedral jumped at the opportunity and provided them with nine pieces, most dating from 1880 to 1915, that required conservation: five silver flagons, a silver chalice, a silver-plated tray, a silver and gemmed ciborium cross, and a brass baptismal ewer. The damage included badly tarnished silver, dents, bent elements, and scratches. When the items were returned, it was like Christmas in September! The Worship Department was thrilled to have these historic items fully restored and prepared to be put back in circulation. Thank you Wiebold Studio for your generous support of the Cathedral and congratulations on year 70! opposite, left the rev. michele hagans, bishop mariann budde, and provost jan naylor cope at general convention photo c. stapert opposite, right advocate allyson robinson photo d. marks above silver vessels restored by weibold studio photo d. thomas

Blessing of the Bikes On Memorial Day weekend, the Cathedral welcomed nearly 100 members of the Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia chapters of Rolling Thunder, Inc., as well as members from many other chapters, for a Blessing of the Bikes. This is the second year this event has been held. photos r. sokol and d. marks

autumn 2015

When the Rev. Dr. Frank Wade once commended Norman Scribner for one of his numerous musical honors, Scribner replied: “But it’s just sound!” Not so, said Wade, the Cathedral’s former interim dean and longtime rector of neighboring St. Alban’s Parish, in eulogizing Scribner at the Cathedral on April 9. “There is something,” said Wade, who collaborated with Scribner at St. Alban’s for 22 years, “that makes music more than just sound. . . . Something—a force or a feeling, a pull or a push, a wind or a tide—raises sound to the level of music, music to the level of worship, and worship to the level of praise, which is the entrance to the joy of God.” After Scribner died on March 22 at age 79, the extended Cathedral family gathered to bid farewell to the founder and artistic director emeritus of the Choral Arts Society of Washington. Scribner’s ties to the Cathedral stretched back more than a half century to 1960, when then-organist and choirmaster Paul Callaway hired Scribner as his musical staff assistant. That same year, at age 24, he was appointed organist and choirmaster of St. Alban’s, a post he held until his retirement in 2007. Scribner founded the Choral Arts Society of Washington in 1965, and led its more than 170 singers for 47 years at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and other venues until his retirement in 2012. His work with the Choral Arts Society, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, and other groups earned him the Washington Post’s title as “one of Washington’s finest musicians and one of the most gifted choral conductors in the country.” Scribner’s funeral culminated with more than 200 past and present Choral Arts musicians singing, in German, the heartrending final chorus from Bach’s monumental St. Matthew Passion. As they sang “With the greatest content, there our eyes will close in sleep,” the procession carried Scribner from the Cathedral for the last time. For his final appearance with the Choral Arts Society, Scribner chose to perform Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem. The text of its last movement has now become his epitaph: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. yes, the Spirit declares that they rest from their labors; for their works follow after them. 34 cathedral age 

Richard Greening Hewlett, an award-winning public historian, founding Cathedral archivist, and historiographer of the Diocese of Washington, died on September 1 at age 93. A graduate of Dartmouth, Dr. Hewlett earned his master's and Ph.D. in history at the University of Chicago. In 1947, he became the first official historian of the Atomic Energy Commission where he wrote the definitive two-volume history of the Manhattan Project, a runner-up for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize. In 1980, he and three other historians left government service to establish History Associates, Inc., which grew into one of the nation’s preeminent historical research firms. In 1978, Bishop William Creighton asked Hewlett to become diocesan historiographer to begin the organization and preservation of diocesan history. Two years later, the Cathedral Chapter appointed Hewlett as historiographer of Washington National Cathedral. At the Cathedral, he established an archives department that preserves documents of historical importance to the Cathedral, the city of Washington, and the nation, all of which are now organized into more than 200 record groups with a digital finding aid. “Richard inspired his volunteers with his love of history, his unquenchable curiosity, and his unfailing enthusiasm,” said his successor, Cathedral Archivist Diane Ney. “Under his tutelage and supervision, the Archives, with its large collection of historic documents and photographs, has become a source of invaluable information for those on the Cathedral Close as well as scholars across the United States and abroad.” In 2003, Richard Hewlett was appointed an honorary Cathedral canon “in recognition of his exceptional voluntary leadership, over a period of years, which has furthered the goals of this Cathedral Church.” For the Cathedral Centennial in 2007, Dr. Hewlett published The Foundation Stone: Henry Yates Satterlee and the Creation of Washington National Cathedral, an annotated scholarly edition of Bishop Satterlee's “Private Record.”

in memoriam —Margaret Shannon

On August 21, 2011, a magnitude 5.8

earthquake shook the eastern seaboard. It severely damaged the Cathedral’s fabric. Grand pinnacles rotated and came apart; flying buttresses cracked and separated. These flying buttresses support the walls of the high altar and the great choir, and were some of the first completed segments of the Cathedral. During Phase I earthquake repairs, masons made core drills 22 feet deep—from the exterior face of the flying buttress towers, through the buttress flyers, and into the exterior walls of the east end of the Cathedral—in order to reinforce the buttresses. From these core drills, the Cathedral’s own stone masons have hand crafted limited-edition founding stones. For a donation of $3,000 toward the Cathedral’s restoration e�orts, you will receive one of these founding stones. To learn more, please contact Joey Peyton at [email protected] or (202) 537-5768.

Restoring the nation’s cathedral to its original glory, one stone at a time, is an honor and a privilege. Thank you for the opportunity. www.lortonstone.com

passages . . . turning the pages of cathedral age

Godspeed the New Work Yet to Begin

On Sept. 27, 1990, President George H.W. Bush joined Cathedral dignitaries to mark the completion of construction on Washington National Cathedral, just as President Theodore Roosevelt led the laying the Cathedral’s foundation stone on the same date 83 years earlier. An excerpt of President Bush’s speech as it ran in Cathedral Age magazine, Winter 1990 issue.

pinnacles of St. Paul’s Tower, the last step in an eightdecade-long journey.

“When we need to grieve, we come here. We held funerals for Presidents Truman and Eisenhower and Vice President Humphrey, the burial of President Wilson, and a fantastic memorial service for Winston Churchill. When we want to understand, we come here. Over a three-day period, at the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial, the names of 57,939 lost Americans were read in chapels. Other times, we listened to Bishop Tutu or Billy Graham or Martin Luther King.

Now that our national treasure is complete, how will it fit into our lives? I would love to see the entire country discover this cathedral as America’s resource, refuge, and reminder, somewhere to strengthen the Nation’s heart. We should consecrate this place in the words of Isaiah: ‘For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.’ All people. All America. And we should come here to pledge ourselves to the work of Martin Luther King, envisioned from the splendid Canterbury pulpit in his last sermon, three days before he died. And he said: ‘We will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And on that day, morning stars will sing together, and the sons of God will shout for joy.’

When we want to celebrate, we come here. When the hostages were freed from our Embassy in Tehran, there was a service of thanksgiving. Later, a national prayer service for the 50th Presidential inauguration. And bells peal out on the national holidays. When we want to express our concern, we come here: to hold a memorial for victims of the American Embassy bombing in Beirut; a service of reflection on the 40th anniversary of Hiroshima; and even now, prayers for our brave young service men and women in the harsh, distant deserts. And so, today, we prepare to raise that final 1,008pound grand finial to its spot on one of the great

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above president george h.w. bush at the final stone ceremony, cathedral age, winter 1990, pages 27–28

For eight decades, the dream of a completed cathedral dominated this hill, and now Dr. King’s words should become our new vision. Eighty-three years ago on this spot, President Teddy Roosevelt said: ‘God speed the work begun this noon.’ And today I say: God speed the work completed this noon and the new work yet to begin.”

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THE NATIONAL CATHEDRAL TOOk 83 yEARS TO COmpLETE. yOu CAN’T RuSH pERfECTION. WE GET IT. Whatever the timeline, DAVIS has always believed that when you combine skilled craftsmanship with innovative problem solving and genuine passion, anything is possible. Can we get an amen?

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natural



& supernatural

holy people, sacred place

a pilgrimage to iona, scotland april 28–may 8, 2016

Join the National Cathedral on a pilgrimage to the sacred Isle of Iona, a renowned pilgrimage site in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, led by Cathedral Dean Gary Hall. In this journey to Iona we will root ourselves in a sacred place so we can open ourselves to what Thomas Merton called the “continuity between the natural and the supernatural, between the sacred and the profane, between this world and the next.” Information and a preview video can be found at www.cathedral.org/events/Iona2016.shtml

photo jan smith, brisbane, australia, via wikimedia commons