Cathedral

Last week when I was in the city I spent one afternoon at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I've long felt a sort of connection with the cathedral, for reasons I don't really understand. No doubt Madeleine L'Engle's stories set in and around the cathedral influenced me, but when I am there it feels to me like what it is proclaimed to be, "a house of prayer for all people."

My first visit was in 1985, when I visited friends who had moved to the city. They lived on the Upper West Side and the Cathedral was just a short walk from their apartment. At that time the stone masons were still at work (the Cathedral has been under construction on and off since 1892) --part of a project begun in the 1970s to train unemployed and underemployed people in the neighborhood in stone craft as work on the cathedral proceeded. But by the time I returned in 2002, the project had been disbanded for lack of funding, and work had ceased. The scaffolding on the south tower, however, remained, rusty and unsightly, because there was no money to dismantle it.

In 2001 the Cathedral suffered a devastating fire. The whole time I lived in the city parts of the Cathedral were blocked off. My last Christmas there I was part of the altar party (as a Eucharistic minister) at the Christmas Eve service--the last service before the high altar and chapels (off an ambulatory behind the high altar) were closed for cleaning.

That was the last time I was at the Cathedral until last week. Walking over to Cathedral Parkway from Broadway, I immediately noticed a difference....the scaffolding that had been surrounding the south tower since th 80s was gone! And the stones underneath were clean. Amazing. But there is something a bit sad about it, too, because there are still parts of the cathedral that are unfinished, and there is no plan for further construction. The scaffolding, as rusty and unsightly as it had been still seemed like a sign that someday building might resume.

St. John the Divine is one of the largest cathedrals in the world. Inside the high altar, choir, and all but one chapel are cleaned and reopened. But the nave which is the length of three football fields is 2/3 closed off for the rest of the cleaning and restoration. So it was very weird to walk down what I knew to be the center aisle but have walls on either side.

I wanted to get some good pictures, but my camera skills failed me at the Cathedral. The lighting was such that I really needed to understand how to use all the manual settings, and I'm just not there yet. So I have lots of dark and/or blurry pictures. Gah.

But here are a few outdoor shots...