It’s where the nation’s capital gathers to mourn, to pray and to seek comfort during tragedies. Now the Washington National Cathedral needs help weathering its own financial emergency.
The church has long been a spiritual center for the nation, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors and worshippers each year. It’s the burial site of President Woodrow Wilson and for Helen Keller. It’s hosted funeral services for Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and other presidents. And during ordeals such as the Sept. 11 attacks, it’s been a place for interfaith reflection.
But the Episcopal cathedral is facing one of the worst financial binds of its 105-year-old history. An earthquake in August severely damaged its intricate stone work and architecture, with repair costs estimated at $20 million. Aside from that damage, the structure faces $30 million in preexisting preservation needs.
This constant refrain of “woe is us” and calls to the heart that they are “the nations” place to pray makes me suspect that they are looking for government earmark, grant or assistance. To have $30 million in backlog before the earthquake does not invite sympathy but concern about how the place is being run. With the state of the cathedrals and church’s finances I expect it to sold to an another entity or managed by the Feds in the next 25 years
The headline seems misleading, with only 20 of the $50 million being actual earthquake damage.
Since the National Cathedral has inclusively, pantheistically, and accretively broadened its partiticpative base to include a wide spectrum of non-Christian beliefs in its activities, then it should be able to appeal to that base for money on those broadened terms.
However, if it were to return to its intended role as a site of Christian worship, then it might well be able to ecumenically raise repair monies from the broad Christian community in our country.
Ask Warren Buffet to write a check. He’s always chin wagging about how the super rich need to fork over their money.
Interesting, interesting, interesting.
I haven’t heard of any other large church structures (or small for that matter) in DC being crippled to the extent that Nat Cat was during the August ’11 earthquake. Methinks that when this Church decided to attack God’s first institution (marriage) that a divine hand reached out to shake our institutions in return: seminaries crippled, cathedrals closing (Delaware next), large parishes shuttering, dioceses failing, and the flagship Nat Cat broken – symbolic of them all.
Interesting, isn’t it?
…btw: there are plenty of gay bars in DC. Perhaps the Nat Cat staff could start passing the plate there since inside awaits the new pewsitters in TEC.