A Convening Authority The Cathedral was founded as “a center of intellectual light and leadership.” From the beginning, this has been a place for social and political activism, for the exploration of ideas, and for community in the widest sense. Many people—both known and unknown—have chosen the pulpit of St. John to bring their messages to the world. As times change, the conversations change. What doesn’t change is the effort to see, understand, include, and most of all, to listen. The Cathedral of our Common Humanity
THE DALAI LAMA
In 1979, I visited the USA for the very first time. Although I am a simple Buddhist monk from faraway Tibet, I remember being warmly welcomed at the Cathedral as a fellow spiritual brother. What began then was a conversation, which continues to this day, about the value of love, kindness, compassion, and the sense of global responsibility. Despite the different philosophical approaches we may take, we agreed then as now that these qualities are at the heart of all the world’s major religious traditions. PRISCILLA BAYLEY The Cathedral was founded as a specifically American Cathedral, which makes it unique because of its commitment to democratic and egalitarian ideals.
BILL BAKER The Cathedral is the biggest indoor space in New York City. That it is also a place for moral purposes and that it has a history of people coming to share and express their values and faith makes the Cathedral a special place to hold the heart of this great city. MIKE EDWARDS The Cathedral’s identity is well known in the city, forged in the social movements of 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 20 years ago and the present moment. From the welcoming of European immigrants to support for civil rights to the care of AIDS patients and the environment, the Cathedral has always been in the forefront of new struggle.
BRUCE MACLEOD There are no other places like this in New York. Our issues are universal— value of being an our issues are everything that affects humanity. American space is that it provides a way to broaden the category of the sacred. A lot of my family’s stories are about the Cathedral community, “This is the Cathedral of our common people being in this space regardless of what humanity.” DAVID DINKINS they believe. That says something important about the Cathedral. DEAN KOWALSKI When people say the Cathedral is only a place for worship and art, it overlooks history. The Cathedral has always been a place PHILIPPE PETIT The policy of open doors, where the meeting of the sacred and the secular open to all religions, all persuasions, and all people were expressed not as opposites, but as dialogical is what makes this Cathedral different. The tensions. Here, the secular and the sacred work Cathedral becomes a beacon of the community. together. The Cathedral expresses God’s love affair with the unfolding world. THE REV. TOM PIKE You should walk into a religious building and say, “Something is missing. It’s the people.” That sense of embracing MIKE EDWARDS The Cathedral is foremost a community, and being the sign of community, is place to be used. The Cathedral’s mission the very center of what the Cathedral is all about. has ever been democratic and egalitarian; as the centuries pass, that mission requires more service, and to some extent, different kinds of service. MARNIE WEIR Since its founding the mission has been to be a center for intellectual light and leadership and a house of prayer for all people. WAYNE KEMPTON A building this size can take That’s what we’re supposed to do, and that’s what anything. The Cathedral is big enough to allow the Cathedral has done. The Cathedral is a forum a community inside and let the space change to to shape society. There are ways to make that be what you want it to be. It can take Gregorian happen here. chants, whirling dervishes, the Dalai Lama, or dope-smoking peace freaks listening to The Chambers Brothers. HANNAH WOLFE EISNER The
Dean Kowalski, scholar Thupten Jinpa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Professor Sakena Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning, participating in a dialogue on “Kinship and its meaning in our world today,” May 23, 2010. 186 186
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