A Wish Fulfilled

I have long wished to celebrate the Christmas season by attending an Advent worship service at the Washington National Cathedral.  This year my wish was granted.

Tim and I wanted to share the cathedral, first envisioned by Major Pierre L'Enfant as "a great church for national purposes," with our children while they were visiting us over the holidays. 

The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

We scheduled our visit for Friday, December 23rd, with plans to take the public tour at 1:30 p.m., leave the grounds for a late lunch/early supper and return in time to join the "Carols by Candlelight" worship service at 6:00 p.m.

Jillian walks down the nave

Sixth largest cathedral in the world and the second-largest cathedral in the United States following the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York, the Washington National Cathedral reigns over the city of Washington, D.C. from its lofty height upon Mount St. Albans, the highest hill in the area. 

The National Cathedral seen from Memorial Bridge

Although George Washington commissioned L'Enfant to design the city of Washington on January 24, 1791, L'Enfant's wish to build a church for national purposes was long deferred.  In fact, L'Enfant's original site for the church was 8th and F Streets where the National Portrait Gallery is located today. 

It wasn't until January 6, 1893, that Congress granted a charter to the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia, allowing its incorporation.  The Right Reverend Henry Yates Satterlee, its first bishop, selected the Mount St. Albans site.  Fourteen years later, the cathedral's foundation stone was laid on September 29, 1907 as President Theodore Roosevelt and the Bishop of London made speeches to a crowd of ten thousand people, marking the beginning of the longest construction project in Washington, D.C.'s history.  Eighty-three years later in spite of funding problems and two world wars, the cathedral's final west towers were completed in 1990 during the presidency of George H. W. Bush.

The cathedral has seen some historic moments.  President Woodrow Wilson attended an official thanksgiving service for the end of World War at the cathedral in 1918.  Later in 1956, Wilson's tomb in the Cathedral was dedicated.

National Cathedral's Canterbury Pulpit

 Martin Luther King, Jr. stood in the cathedral's Canterbury pulpit on March 31, 1968 to preach his last Sunday sermon only a few days before his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968.  His memorial service was held here later that same week.  Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance was observed here on September 14, 2001.  State funerals for presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford were held in 1969, 2004 and 2007 respectively.

Creation Rose

The National Cathedral has three rose windows.  My favorite is the West Rose Window designed by Rowann LeCompte.  LeCompte was inspired by the words from Genesis, "darkness was upon the face of the deep and God said, "Let there be light."  Nicknamed the Creation Rose, this window tells the story of God's creation of the world in 10,500 pieces of glass.

Space Window

Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins, a alumnus of the cathedral's St. Albans School, donated a moon rock to the cathedral which was set within a white circle to become the focal point of its Space Window, honoring man's landing on the moon.

The Cathedral's Flying Buttresses as seen from the Pilgrim Observation Gallery

Angels and gargoyles adorn its exterior, including one of Darth Vader on its northwest tower.  Christopher Rader of Kearney, Nebraska, submitted his third-place winning drawing of Darth Vader to the cathedral's decorative sculpture contest for children, held in conjunction with National Geographic World magazine in the 1980s.  The Darth Vader gargoyle is difficult to see, so if a visit to the cathedral is in your future, bring binoculars.  Better yet, visit the National Cathedral's site to see their photo of Darth Vader gargoyle.

The earthquake that shook Washington, D.C. on August 23, 2011, also damaged the National Cathedral.  One of the tower pinnacles suffered the worst damage, but plaster, flying buttresses and gargoyles were damaged as well.  An estimated $25 million is needed to make repairs. 

As the acolytes lit the candles in preparation for the worship service, we turned our hearts and minds to worshiping the birth of Christ with other believers who had arrived at this church of national importance.

Along with almost 2,800 other people, we found our seats in the nave, listened to the reading of Isaiah's prophecies and Luke's account of Christ's birth, prayed the Lord's Prayer and sang the familiar carols of "O, Come, All Ye Faithful," "What Child Is This," and "Joy to the World." 

At the culmination of the service as we each lit our candles and sang "Silent Night," I pondered the granting of an even more important wish, the wish God fulfilled when He answered my prayer for forgiveness when I was 9 years old.   

Thank you, God, for sending your Son into our world to walk among us, to show us your love, to pay the cost for my sins with His death on the cross and to leave your Spirit within my heart.