Unfinished: A Cathedral for the 21st Century

Whatever Complete Means

“The commandments are written in stone but the way we live is in our daily lives. The many small decisions we make every day depend on situation and circumstance, which are not carved in stone.”

Unfinished: A Cathedral for the 21st Century

The Cathedral, built stone-on-stone by thousands of hands over more than a century, remains unfinished. Periods of intense construction were followed by long stretches when no building could be done. Will the Cathedral ever be finished? Could the Cathedral ever be finished? What the Cathedral will be in the future depends on how powerfully we imagine it and how enthusiastically we participate.

DEAN DANIEL God calls us to work together to create a just society, where all are fed, all are clothed, all are educated and respected in order that all may flourish. That’s what the Cathedral was called to do 125 years ago and it's what we will be called to do 125 years from now.

DAVID KIRBY Since the cornerstone was laid in 1892, construction has been halted by engineering problems, economic shortfalls, and changing architectural tastes, as well as two world wars, the social upheaval of the 1960s, and the real estate bust of the late 1980s.

DEAN HARRY PRITCHETT We could argue back and forth about whether it’s advantageous to have the biggest Gothic cathedral in the world but the truth is, we’ve already got it. The question becomes, what to do with it? How can you be a good steward of this incredible gift?

DEAN MORTON Cathedrals are monsters. They are big, heavy, and very expensive. They’ve got to be maintained. If not, you’re in deep trouble.

REBECCA MERRILL In our first 125 years, the Cathedral completed chapels and grillwork, built ceilings by Tiffany, installed organs, mounted stained glass, and committed to ongoing stonemasonry. Construction is always happening at the Cathedral. Projects might not always be visible, but that doesn’t mean we’re not working and building on the mastery of the past with 21st-century vision.

JIM PATTERSON Most places say, “Okay, 20 years from now this will still be fine.” But we’re doing things that need to be fine 100 years from now. That gets intimidating. I would love to know that everybody is working towards completing this Cathedral, whatever complete means. Complete is different for everybody. To know what to complete or just conserve and to what degree depends on a balance of emotions and good judgment. We just need to make sure that whatever we do, people can enjoy it in the future. LAURA F. BOSLEY Of course, we would like to finish it. If we had the money, we would. If a donor wished to make it possible for the North Tower to rise or the North Transept to open its doors, the Cathedral community would be very thankful but the needs of people, programs, and ongoing maintenance take precedence.

SUSAN RODRIGUEZ The day-to-day care is challenging. We all consider it vulnerable. The Nave is complete, the Apse is complete, but the crossing is completely incomplete. The towers on the west front facing Amsterdam were supposed to have been completed before the Second World War. The War happened, and the work was never finished. Anything that happens to move the Cathedral forward has to build on the past. Each piece and each part of this history is important.

BRUCE MACLEOD That the Cathedral is not finished, it’s not buffed up and shined, it is vulnerable and needs the care of human hands. That gives it a special character, a kind of human frailty.

JIM PATTERSON It’s not just the building and it’s not just the people here. It’s the concept. When you see the guests come in all smiling or with that surprised look when they see the inside the first time, you get a feeling of “I am a part of this.” That’s what the Facilities team has. They feel they are a part of what the Cathedral represents.

LISA SCHUBERT The enduring legacy of the Cathedral will not be in the stone, the artwork, the organs, or other treasures. The fire of December 2001, coming so soon after 9/11, made it clear that even the biggest and most venerable buildings are vulnerable. The heart of the Cathedral’s legacy is and will be what happens in the lives of the thousands of people who come here: the results of an Easter service, an evening of music, a hot meal, a childhood of summer camp on the Close, or a prayer under the dome looking up at the Rose Window.

We Have Hardly Started

Top Dean Daniel pictured with his grandchildren. Easter service, 2018.

Bottom The Boots Project: Honoring Those Who Lost Their Lives in Combat, 2006. SUSAN RODRIGUEZ I don't think you'll ever fly over and see the Cathedral as it was originally conceived because history has made it something else—something better, something richer.

MICHAEL BIERUT In some ways, the lights go out when the artist declares that a work is finished. The whole time something is being created it is unfinished. In ways, unfinished is really closer to life. The Cathedral may be perpetually unfinished and maybe that is exactly what it should be to make it alive. The unfinished, even the unfinishable.

GREG WYATT When you begin a sculpture you have an inspiration, you make something, and then it evolves through the events of time and emotion. The Cathedral is the same. It evolves through the events of time, through the artworks added, the emotions of those who come to pray, or who come for whatever reason. A church is always unfinished.

WILLIAM BRYANT LOGAN Cathedrals belong to the life of humanity. Many are scarcely begun after one hundred years. It is better to suggest that after one hundred a cathedral leaves its infancy and enters the time of its real possibility and real struggles. We have hardly started.

“As I look around at this Cathedral and am reminded of other cathedrals around the world, I think that those who start such a project do so knowing that they will not live to see it finished. We need more of those people.”

WYNTON MARSALIS

DEAN KOWALSKI The one thing that will never be finished is a place that is convened through liturgy, art, and discourse. We can never stop looking and stop asking. We can never assume we have arrived at the answer.

SUSAN RODRIGUEZ The incompleteness asks questions of you, the bigger questions about how the Cathedral could be relevant today.

“The dream is the truth.” ZORA NEALE

HURSTON, INDUCTED INTO THE AMERICAN POETS CORNER, 2015 MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN Let us hope that in the hundreds of years to come, the Cathedral will continue into its mission to heal the frayed bonds of community and spirituality. As the population of youth grows in our nation, and particularly in our cities, let us turn to institutions like the Cathedral as sources of regeneration... Let us remember the fate of our children in each choice we make for the future.

“In all our deliberations, we must be mindful of the impact of the decisions on the seven generations to follow ours.” FROM THE

CONSTITUTION OF THE IROQUOIS NATION, WHICH INSPIRED FREDERICK FRANCK'S SCULPTURE, THE SEVEN GENERATIONS, LOCATED ON THE CATHEDRAL CLOSE

WILLIAM BRYANT LOGAN A cathedral is not a building. It is an idea that takes form in times when old ways are dying and the new ones have not quite come to exist. Today, the old city of the 19th and 20th centuries is as much a thing of the past as the feudal domain was in the 12th century. The city is coming apart at the seams; no one knows what is coming next.

DEAN MORTON The world we live in is an analogue of the medieval world that built the cathedrals. The responsibility of the Cathedral is, just as it was in medieval times, to serve this various and strange world of new cultural meanings.

SUB-DEAN PAT MALLOY Good things happen at the Cathedral—but I hope that we again become a place where things happen that are revolutionary, imaginative, and worthy of emulation. The Archbishop of Canterbury is establishing an intentional residential community at his house in London for people ages 21 to 35. They would live together in an intentional monastic community for about ten months. It isn’t a permanent commitment. We would like to bring a similar program here. It could be a real witness to the people of New York, a sign of hope.

MARILYN NELSON It feels unfinished, but I can’t say that I feel it as a wound. I think that may be positive because our work is unfinished. I have visited a lot of European cathedrals. In my experience of them they seemed to stand as cultural relics rather than living containers for faith. St. John the Divine is living, it’s alive, it’s growing, it’s struggling, it’s trying to connect with the living city. It’s not a relic from the past. It’s moving forward with the same kind of brokenness that the society has, that we have as individuals too.

RABBI WOLFE KELMAN I pray that the Cathedral will continue to experiment fearlessly by affirming that in religion we not only worship the Holy in words but in deeds of compassion and a spirit of unity.

This Won't Happen Again

THE REV. TOM PIKE What modern cities need most are forums from which all forms of expression can radiate. Many people are lost about the past, they’re frightened about the future, and the present isn’t very nice. In this great complex world, there is anxiety. The Cathedral represents a bridge into the past that may enable people to be more effective in the present and in the future.

THE REV. STEVEN LEE What has not become meaningless is the language of space and beauty. When you walk into the Cathedral, it communicates something that translates to now. This crazy building dedicated to the worship of God stands as an argument that we believe that there is something greater, and that it’s worth all the sweat and blood and tears.

BRUCE MACLEOD There is a history layered throughout this 125-year-old Cathedral. This building will never be re-created. This won’t happen again.

BISHOP GLASSPOOL The Cathedral has always, always, always been good at creativity, innovation, and openness to being multicultural and interfaith. This is a place that can bring hope to the whole world that needs a lot of hope right now. I am hoping that the Cathedral, as the Cathedral “of and for” the Diocese of New York, continues to grow. I am hopeful, period.

“Take hope, be strong, be brave, be free, be open, be loving, and hold up the vision of the Heavenly City. Remove the scales from your eyes so that you can see the City so clearly that you will never cease until you have built Jerusalem in our land.” BISHOP MOORE

DEAN MORTON The Bible ends with the Revelation of St. John the Divine and Saint John’s word for us is that the garden is the city. “The Heavenly Jerusalem” is as urban as you can get. Our job is to become urban gardeners. At the Cathedral, we do the best we can on our 11 acres inhabited by peacocks, artists, theologians, scientists, and givers of care—patient, responsive, willing, and practical—capable of preparing God's people and God's earth for real communion.

WAYNE KEMPTON The Cathedral was designed to reflect the New Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation. The mission of “Saving Heaven on Earth” is designed and built into the Cathedral. That is the universe all these architectural intentions are happening within.

PAUL GORMAN The worst scenario for our city and our Cathedral is that we will have seen we had choices to make and missed them through lack of courage, support, or wisdom. The best scenario is that God’s grace has good in store for us that we don't know about yet. While things here are built in stone, they are not set in stone.

THE REV. JESSE JACKSON The world is becoming a tougher place, day by day. There is an evergreater gulf between rich and poor. More than ever, the Cathedral is needed as a bridge to change ignorance and understanding. You will have to have the guts to hold your course in the coming years as the popularity of issues wane and the true cost of dealing with them becomes apparent. The words of a prophet are important, but what matters more are his patience, perseverance, and unfailing presence. If we have the faith, He has the power. Let's together keep the faith, hope, and love alive.

Top “I love going into the

Cathedral when it’s virtually empty. At times, there may be only two or three other people in that huge place and to go there and pray alone is supremely powerful sensing that this is where hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people, have prayed and tried to reach God there over its lifetime is uplifting.”

bill baker

Bottom The Archangel Gabriel, “The Messenger of God," on the roof of the Cathedral. THE REV. SANDYE WILSON Going into the future, the Cathedral has a chance to think about how it will powerfully serve its community to form bridges of care over what sometimes feels like chasms of indifference. The Cathedral has an opportunity to be a seed sower of goodness, to be a fire starter, for the passion of what can be and what it means to stand up for justice and mercy and peace and love. And always, always, to be a peddler of hope in what can feel like a sea of hopelessness.

BISHOP DIETSCHE I believe that it is especially a privilege to be the church in uncertain times. It is the greatest gift to face challenges that surpass our ability and understanding, for it is only then that we learn what it really means to trust God. We are in a season in which so much of our common life, the life and health of so many churches, and the resources on which our ministries and our mission have depended can no longer be taken for granted. The challenges we will contend with in this next chapter of our life will test us. But I am certain that, God being our helper, we will prevail over fear and doubt and—by the witness of a courageous faith, give glory to God.

THE DALAI LAMA Since the founding of the Cathedral, our world has grown smaller yet we have become increasingly aware of the great and rich diversity that characterizes humanity. When we remember that each of us is just a human being like everyone else, that we all desire happiness and seek to avoid suffering, and have an equal right to pursue these goals, we can learn a great deal from the differences between us… I offer my greetings and prayers that you may long continue to be a beacon of inspiration, helping the weak to find courage and reminding the powerful that there is strength in peace and brotherhood.

DEAN DANIEL As ever, this great Cathedral will continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the inclusion of all people, for reconciliation and the peace of the world, and for the celebration of the Sacraments of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ as we move confidently into and beyond the 126th year of the Cathedral’s life and witness.

DEAN KOWALSKI For the record, architecturally, it’s only two-thirds done and still this is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world.

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The Cathedral Community

“Within our buildings and on our 11 acres of grounds and garden in the midst of New York City, there are innumerable hidden gems to discover...”

BISHOP DIETSCHE

Congregation of St. Saviour 201 Cathedral Community Cares (CCC) 203 Advancing the Community of Tomorrow (ACT) 207 Nightwatch Crossroads 208 The Textile Conservation Laboratory 211 The Cathedral School 212