When I was a seminary professor, I started something of a yearly pilgrimage with my students. It wasn’t a long pilgrimage; nothing like the Canterbury Trail in England or the Camino in Spain. We simply went up the street to the National Cathedral here in Washington, D.C. In class lectures and readings we had already engaged some of the great medieval thinkers: Anselm, Bede, Julian of Norwich, Bonaventure, and, of course, Aquinas. We had also engaged the social history of Christendom, a widely misunderstood period of immense depth, ingenuity, and creativity. After all of this, we went to the Cathedral and it was there that I took my church history students on an immersive experience with the medieval worldview, using the sixth-largest gothic cathedral in the world as the ultimate teaching tool.
Most of us know the National Cathedral as a place of national gathering for both celebration and times of grief. It is at the Cathedral where we pray for presidents at their inauguration. Additionally, it’s where we hold many of their funeral services years after their presidential tenure at the White House. The Cathedral is, however, more than just a place to pray for presidents. And, in fact, it’s more than just a place for national gatherings. Some people have yet to realize that it is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and therefore the seat of the diocesan bishop, Mariann Budde. It’s also—uniquely—the seat of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, currently Michael Curry, but soon to be Sean Rowe. It rightly describes itself as a place of prayer for all people. But this article isn’t just about the National Cathedral as a contemporary institution. The reason that I took my students there is the fact that the Cathedral, like gothic architecture around the world, is one of the best examples of theology in stone.
I was reminded of this on a recent visit to the Cathedral with a friend here in Washington. He is discerning the priesthood and we have started to meet on a regular basis to discuss some of the books of the late Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey as my friend continues to explore God’s will for his life and vocation. We had a few hours of unexpected free time and he had never been to the Cathedral, so we went up St. Alban’s Hill in the Northwest quadrant of the District to explore it.
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Ryan N. Danker is the director of the John Wesley Institute in Washington, DC. He is also Assistant Lead Editor of Firebrand.
Comment by Thomas on July 9, 2024 at 9:20 pm
You know that Washington National Cathedral isn`t Christian anymore, right? Its now the seat of a dead, post-Christian church, who embraces same-sex marriage, gender ideology and abortion rights in the same building. Its a dissacrated speace so I never will set foot there. If the author of this article is an orthodox Methodist I am perplex about why he fails to mention that.
Comment by Douglas E Ehrhardt on July 10, 2024 at 4:40 am
Home of the great saint Matthew Shepherd. The saint of Sodomy.
Comment by David on July 10, 2024 at 8:28 am
It is also home to President Woodrow Wilson, a staunch segregationist. Princeton University, where he was president, removed his name from a building.
The National Cathedral is a pretty building and worth being seen by Americans who cannot travel to Europe. It was actually finished unlike that in NYC. The late Victorian interest in using only the building methods of the Middle Ages proved unfortunate as shown by the earthquake damage whose repairs are ongoing.
Refusing to visit places of worship of other beliefs is narrow-minded. I have enjoyed seeing pagan Roman temples and also Buddhist and Hindu temples.
Comment by Thomas on July 10, 2024 at 5:31 pm
In fact I am quite open minded about visiting temples of other religions, if I find their beliefs respectable, or if their original religious purpose is now long gone. My problem is that Washington National Cathedral, once a respectable Christian temple, represents a church that committed fully apostasy from the Christian faith and claims that to marry a man and a woman is the same as marrying two men or two women, who says that murdering innocent human beings in the mothers women is a human right, who hosts anti-Christian farses, like the drag queens gay group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and whose former dean, Gary Hall, was a self-described “non-theistic Christian”. This cathedral has been dissacrated beyond recognition and is totally under demonic influence. So I think its a mortal sin to give any Christian credit to a cathedral of a now apostate church. Maybe someday the cathedral can be bought by a proper Christian denomination and reconsecrated once again. As for Matthew Shepard is death was certainly a tragedy, but he was killed not for being gay but for being involved in the drug trade.
Comment by MikeB on July 13, 2024 at 1:45 pm
The National Cathedral has always been a hive of humanism.
Beyond just the Lee, Jackson glass, there are a number of windows dedicated to war.
Windows are dedicated to humanism with Albert Schweitzer on the window.
That place was not what you imagined it to be.