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WILMINGTON, DE: Death of a Cathedral
By David W. Virtue in Delaware
www.virtueonline.org
May 19, 2012
"There is a balm in Gilead," sang the choristers at a solemn service marking the end of 161 years of worshipping life at the Cathedral Church of St. John, in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday, but it was hard to find any balm in a building that has stood here as a neighborhood landmark in America's First State. By all accounts, it still has many good years left in it. Tragically, it no longer has enough parishioners to keep the doors open as its coffers have run dry.
Former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold gave an "appreciation and thanksgiving sermon" dropping the usual "sacred space", "sacred place" and "giving thanks for the sacred presence" (whatever that means) themes familiar to Episcopalians. He recalled the "many emotions" the church brought to peoples' minds, but in fact his sermon was a eulogy, a memorial service for a cathedral that will now join many others that have closed in The Episcopal Church from Kalamazoo in Western Michigan to Providence, Rhode Island and perhaps, in time, the Washington National Cathedral. Most Episcopal cathedrals are on life support. Over the next 20 years they will quietly close and be sold off to developers.
In Delaware, St. John's cathedral had its origins through the largess of the DuPont family. Now its sanctuary, still in excellent condition, will close.
Today, for the first time in years, the cathedral was full with some 300 in attendance. It is the last time it will be full. Mostly grey heads shuffled into the sanctuary -- some with canes, others in wheelchairs, and, what seemed to this writer, a disproportionate number of women priests. I later learned that the diocese has passed the male to female ratio of priests. There are now more women priests in the diocese. There is not one single orthodox parish to be found in the diocese. Its liberal bishop, the Rt. Rev. Wayne Wright, oversees a mere 38 parishes, making it one of the smallest dioceses in The Episcopal Church.
In July, a decommissioning will take place, a sort of ecclesiastical funeral service for family and friends. The cathedral will then be dismantled and its parts, including a magnificent set of stained glass windows over the altar, sold off to the highest bidder.
As these aging, sad looking Episcopalians looked around them for the last time, the lines of one congregational hymn captured the moment, "Mortal pride and earthly glory, sword and crown betray our trust; though with care and toil we build them, tower and temple fall to dust."
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