Category: 2018

 

Following an earthquake in 2011, the Washington National Cathedral is slowly recovering, while continuing to function as a work of gothic architecture and American history.

The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul or the Washington National Cathedral is an Episcopal church. It is the 6th largest cathedral in the world and the 2nd largest in the US. Plans for the cathedral go as far back as the presidency of George Washington. He realized the new nation needed a national church for national celebrations and national memorials.

Nonetheless, construction on the cathedral did not begin until  September 29, 1907, because of the constitutional policy of ‘separation of church and state’. This prevented government funds to be used in funding the church. Construction of the church began when the Episcopal church decided to take over and finally the cathedral was built in 1990.

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the historic church on August 23, 2011. The earthquake is the most notable natural disaster to befall the church. It caused $34 million in damages to the cathedral. The rehabilitation of the cathedral has been slow, but ongoing since 2011. According to Tony Dominico, a volunteer tour guide, it took $10 million for the cathedral to be usable again. It will take another $22 million to fully fix the cathedral. Funding for the repairs came from donations and funding campaigns.

Piers, arches, and buttresses are chiefly responsible for supporting the walls of the cathedral and ensuring that they did not collapse due to the weight of the stones or major stress applied to the walls, such as an earthquake. “Those three elements make this God,” said Tony Dominico. In Gothic architecture, the three supporting structures were meant to represent God’s strength.

Despite the “three elements” the church was made of limestone, which proved too soft to withstand all the force of the earthquake. Thus, not all the damage could be mitigated by design alone.

The cathedral is shaped like a cross with a long axis serving as the main hall where the many church benches for the devout are located. The short axis located at the far end of the church house St. Mary’s Chapel on one side and the Children’s Chapel on the other.

The church is separated by a large wooden screen. Behind the screen, “Everything sacred happened there and everything ordinary happened” in front of the screen, said Dominico.

The Canterbury Pulpit depicts the Magna Carta, a charter in which the British nobility told the “King you do not have absolute power, we have power.”  From that, the US drew their declaration of independence: “We the people have all the power.”

In a way, the Magna Carta helped give way for not just a constitutional monarchy, but also the decreasing importance and power of religion in government.

The secular and religious identity of the Washington National Cathedral makes it unique in a country with church and state traditionally and fundamentally separated from each other.

Being a church for a secular state, the functions the cathedral held included sanctuary during bad weather, a sanctuary for immigrants or even function as a marketplace. The church did not just symbolize religion, it also represented America’s national identity. The church is not just a church. It is a national museum, a national celebration of the independence of the United States.

Three state funerals for U.S. presidents have taken place here. President Dwight D. Eisenhower is the first president to have a state funeral in the cathedral. This was followed by President Ronald Reagan in 2004 and President Gerald Ford in 2007. President Woodrow Wilson is the only president to be buried in the National Cathedral and within the boundaries of the District of Columbia.

Presidents have also used the cathedral as the venue for the prayer services on the day of their inauguration. This included the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. Other notable memorial services included a service for American casualties of the Vietnam War in 1982 and a memorial service for victims of the 9/11 attacks.

The fusion of church and state in the cathedral does not represent cooperation or the control of one institution over the other. Rather, they represent the shared importance of religion and secular government in U.S. history.

 

By: Libby Lye, Nicole England, and Lucia

WASHINGTON — Against the backdrop of the Washington National Cathedral, a sea of white, blue and tan overwhelm the typically bare gothic steps. Servicemen from all branches of the U.S. Military march in unison for bi-annual state funeral training. Eyes rest on the flag-wrapped casket which could someday hold a head of state.

 

“You know how President Carter and then President Bush are getting up there in age?  In case one of them passes this is the training for that so the funeral can go smoothly” said Sargent Zach Bartlett.

 

The planning for this event takes months due to the high level of coordination needed between the different branches. The constant rotation of chain-of-command in the U.S. Armed Forces makes continuity indispensable.  

 

“This [practice is] in June, so we started planning for this in April,” said Captain Teresa Ovalle, a public affairs specialist. “We start really pulling our key leaders together and start getting the specifics down for this training endeavor.”

 

Andrews Air Force Base serves as the starting point for the presidential funeral procession to Washington, D.C., often by horse-drawn carriage. The body then lies in-state for public viewing and is later escorted to the National Cathedral for the funeral service where world leaders gather in reverence. The motorcade then departs the cathedral for Andrews where the president is transported for a private burial service.  

 

These elaborate ceremonies work to honor the leaders who have represented the nation, and therefore many traditions need to be followed precisely and flawlessly.

 

“This is like a mini inauguration,” said John Lease, the lead law enforcement coordinator.  “When we do a procession, it’s putting the casket on, the case on and moving it down Constitution Avenue with a parade with all the folks lined up.”

 

The gravity of the ceremony requires collaboration and precision among the 150 service members present at the

training.  

 

“We definitely all work together. Different services will have a different role,” said Captain Teresa Ovalle, a public affairs officer for the Joint Force Headquarters.

“For instance, the Army is the senior service, so they’re going to be the expert for all the ceremonial pieces.

 

“For another example, the Marines are all the drivers for the motorcade you would see for a real state funeral, so the services divide up into different tasks, but it’s really a joint effort,” Ovalle continued.

 

Specialization within the tasks is needed to allow the funeral to run smoothly, but with essential roles like the team who bears the casket, “all branches are represented,” Ovalle said.

 

The importance of this situation leads to solidarity between the branches and causes them to prioritize the mission.

 

“The difference about this level of funeral is that it’s a joint mission, which means it’s not one priority of the services, it’s a priority for each of the services to come together and to work together,” Ovalle said.

 

In this spirit of unity, the men and women of the United States Armed Forces display honor and humility.

 

“It’s a humbling experience,” Seaman Powell of the U.S. Navy said, “I’m honored, actually, to be able to be here and not a lot of people get the opportunity.”

 

The Mending of the Fallen Angels

by Dylan Dease

 

 

 

On August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake originating from central Virginia shook the foundation of the National Cathedral located in Washington D.C.

 

Where as West Coast earthquakes are more frequent but less harmful, this earthquake had much more of an impact because it was able to travel across the land much easier.

 

Damages to the building itself were minimal and small, but complex carvings such as finials and angels were the main parts of the cathedral’s structure that fell off during the quake. Seven years later, many of the damages inflicted by the 2011 earthquake are still not fully repaired.

 

Finials, like the one pictured above, are extremely complex to make and quite heavy. One finial weighs about 500 pounds.

In addition to heavy finials that need to be fixed, cathedral carver Mason Foreman Alonso estimated that re carving one angel would take about 50 hours.

The image above depicts a fragment of an angel statue that fell during the earthquake.

 

The cathedral also faces other problems with reconstruction such as dealing with expensive repairs, the preliminary expenses alone estimated at 15 million dollars.

 

Despite what seems like a slow and futile reconstruction process, John Shenefield, a cathedral supporter and once a chairmen of the board of directors, remains upbeat about the cathedral’s rebuilding.

“I’m optimistic, so I’d say 2020,” Shenefield said.

According to Shenefield, who has been active in the National Cathedral community since he served as a choir boy, almost all the architecture and structure of the building has been maintained since it was first started in 1907. Since then Shenefield said that no major renovations or remodeling has occurred. He remembered exactly where he was August 23, 2011, the day of the Virginia earthquake.

 

“I was in an office building across the street,” Shenefield said. He also remembers feeling and seeing buildings shaking.

 

The National Cathedral began construction in 1907, out of Indiana limestone,  also known as Salem limestone. According to the Indiana Geological and Water Survey (IGS) at Indiana University, Salem limestone is a freestone, allowing it to be molded or carved in almost any way imaginable. This made the material perfect for the construction of the 300-foot, gothic style cathedral that is located in the nation’s capital today.

The Construction of the National Cathedral was complete in 1960, and since then the building has been kept in quality condition, with the exception of the damages caused by the earthquake.

While it is uncertain when the repairs and renovations needed to restore the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. to all of its former glory will be complete, the building is still a testament to pristine architecture and the beauty it can possess.