Saint John's Cathedral | |
---|---|
Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral | |
Catedral Episcopal San Juan 聖約翰大教堂 세인트 존 성공회 대성당 | |
| |
![]() | |
Location | University Park, Los Angeles |
Address | 514 W. Adams Blvd. Los Angeles, CA |
Language(s) | Primarily English, readings might be performed in Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. |
Denomination | Anglican (The Episcopal Church) |
Associations | PGBM/Union of Black Episcopalians, GLEAM, PGHM EDLA, GAAPI, USC |
Tradition | Central churchmanship |
Churchmanship | Liberal Anglo-Catholicism and Broad church |
Membership | 190-230(est.) |
Website | www.stjohnsla.org |
History | |
Former name(s) | Saint John's Church, St. John's Pro-Cathedral |
Status | Active |
Past bishop(s) | Rt. Rev. Jon Bruno Rt. Rev. Diane Jardine Bruce. |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Cathedral |
Previous cathedrals | St Pauls Cathedral(demolished) |
Administration | |
Province | Province 8 of the Episcopal Church |
Metropolis | Greater Los Angeles |
Diocese | Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles |
Deanery | Deanery 4 – El Centro |
Clergy | |
Bishop(s) | The Rt. Rev. John Harvey Taylor |
Auxiliary Bishop(s) | Franklin Brookhart |
Rector | None |
Dean | The Very Rev. Anne Sawyer (Interim) |
Canon(s) | Can. Earl Mounger Can. Lurelean Gaines Can. Karen Uhler |
Priest in charge | Anne Sawyer |
Priest(s) | Rev. Melvin Soriano |
Assistant priest(s) | Rev. Lyn Crow |
NSM(s) | Rev. Dr. Glenn M. Libby (ret.) Rev. Lee Walker (ret.) |
Chaplain(s) | Melvin Soriano, USC Canterbury Chaplain |
Deacon(s) | Rev. Margaret McCauley |
Laity | |
Organist(s) | Dr. Zach Neufeld |
Treasurer | Jason Malone |
Churchwarden(s) | Can. Lurelean Gaines (Senior) & Arnie Ree (Junior) |
Verger | 3 as Masters of Ceremonies |
Liturgy coordinator | Varies |
Flower guild | Martha Ree |
Music group(s) | Dr. Christopher Gravis, Canon for Music Ministry and Cathedral Arts |
Parish administrator | Kyle Black, Canon for Parish Administration |
Servers' guild | Felicia Gaddis, Heyden Morales & Rob MacPherson |
Sacristan | Heyden Morales & Sobhan Nouri |
St. John's Cathedral | |
| |
Location | 514 W. Adams Blvd Los Angeles, California |
---|---|
Coordinates | 34°1′38″N118°16′29″W / 34.02722°N 118.27472°W |
Built | 1925 |
Architect | Davis, Walter and Pierpont; Hanson, Luis |
Architectural style | Romanesque Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 00000425 [1] |
LAHCM No. | 516 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | May 5, 2000 |
Designated LAHCM | January 22, 1991 [2] |
St. John's Cathedral is an Episcopal church near downtown Los Angeles that serves as both a parish church and the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, an area covering five and a half counties. Though St. John's was formed in 1890, the current Romanesque Revival architectural style church was built in 1925. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
St. John's was founded in 1890. The Los Angeles Times reported on the groundbreaking ceremony in a front-page story:
Quite a large number of interested people assembled on foot and in carriages at the corner of Figueroa and Adams streets, at 4 p.m. yesterday, to witness the laying of the corner-stone of St. John's Episcopal Church. The clergy, in their vestments, preceded by the vestry of the parish, came on the grounds in procession, opening the service as they approached the building site. ... St. John's is to be a tasteful Gothic structure of brick, with stone facings, and wood, capable of seating 150 people. It is placed on the lot as to admit of the erection of a larger structure in the near future. [3]
The original neo-Gothic church was consecrated in June 1894. [4]
In 1913, George Davidson became rector of St. John's, a position he held until 1951. Davidson led the church during a period of growth, as membership rose from 400 to 2,300. [5] He was also a member of the faculty at USC for 14 years, served as president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and was one of the first organizers of the city's Community Chest drives. [6] When Davidson retired in 1951 at age 71, more than 1,000 people attended his final service at St. John's. [5] At the time, he said, "In all humility, I express my gratitude. My prayers are for St. John's and may His blessing be upon all its loyal members who have raised its standard high. ... The joys and sorrows, the achievements and failures, the happiness and loneliness of many people during the years have been so woven into the fabric of my life that it is difficult for me to express adequately the mingling feelings of my heart in this solemn hour." [5] Davidson died in July 1967 in Los Angeles. [7]
![]() The new church opened in 1924, after two years of construction, and was consecrated in 1925. The Los Angeles Times reported that the last service in the old church was "rife with tender memories" and an "added charm and reverence pervaded the occasion." [9] When the new church opened the following week, the Times called it "one of the most beautiful and costly edifices in the country." [10] Another report noted: "Critics declare it the most beautiful in Los Angeles." [11] Built at a cost of $650,000 (approximately $9.17 million in 2023 [12] ), the church was described at the time as a "close copy of an Italian church of the sixth century in built at Toscanella." [10] The church's walls are made of reinforced concrete two and a half feet thick clear to the roof, and the structure is 69 feet from floor to ceiling. [11] The wood-beamed ceiling is a reproduction of a church ceiling from the 11th century at San Miniato, near Florence. [11] The altar is made of Italian marble, and the triptych was carved by Oberammergau workmen. [11] The interior includes a stained glass window featuring Martin Luther King Jr., installed in 1977. Other windows include a Romanesque rose window. Another striking feature of the church is found in the gold mosaics on the chapel walls. One mosaic depicts the Virgin Mary and Christ child modeled after a 13th-century mosaic at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta in Torcello, Italy. There is also a mosaic of Jesus as judge, holding a Bible and giving a blessing, a 12th-century convention. [8] At the time the new church opened in 1924, St. John's had 2,000 communicants on its membership list and was the largest Episcopal church west of Chicago. [11] In 1947, The Seven Angels mosaics were added to the church at a cost of $150,000 (approximately $1.61 million in 2023 [12] ). The figures of the angels, each eight feet high and holding a musical instrument, were made of Italian marble with gold mosaic and stand in arched panels. The mosaics were created in Italy by five artists who spent two years working on them. [13] ![]() |
From 1958 to 1974, the Rev. E. Lawrence Carter was the rector of St. John's. During his tenure, the surrounding area changed from one of white affluence to racially mixed poverty. "Carter led the church in changing with it, moving from an upper-level parish church controlled by businessmen to what he termed a metropolitan church welcoming leaders of many races and economic backgrounds." [14] In 1973, Carter recalled: "There never was a mass exodus, a confrontation, nothing like that. Just a slow ebbing, a dilution socially, economically, racially." [14] He described his concept of a "metropolitan church" as the need for an urban church "to do the social bit". [14] He noted that "Mainline churches cannot be the church unless they pay attention to the community where they are. The church must be involved in all the areas of life." [14] During his time as rector, Carter founded the St. John's Well Child Center and also worked to aid the homeless. [14]
In 1970, Carter drew media attention when he closed the large ceremonial front doors of the church as a protest against the Vietnam War. He noted that the doors were closed "as a sign of our penitence and sorrow, as well as protest. Penitence for our silence and hence our part in the bloodshed. ... Protest that once again our beloved country has chosen guns and bombs instead of other means of reconciliation." [15] The doors remained closed for three years until the war ended. ![]() At the April 1973 ceremony at which the doors were reopened, Carter noted, "This is no moment of triumph. We reopen our doors as an affirmation, to a peace ... which will offer mankind a new life on this planet." [15] The ceremony was interspersed with the sounding of a shofar, the ram's horn traditionally used in Jewish services. Though he considered the peace to be no more than an "armistice" enforced by the "terror of nuclear warheads," Carter said that the church "chose this moment to signify our thanksgiving that our bombers no longer rake the ravaged land, that our prisoners of war are finally home and our fighting forces withdrawn (from) an enterprise which drained the spiritual as well as the material resources of our land." [15] In recent years, the St. John's community actively voiced its opposition to the War in Iraq and other interventions in the Middle East. Each Sunday, the names of each American military person who died in the war were read at the church's services. A banner at the back of the church had a cross marked for each American death in the war. And during the procession of the palms during Palm Sunday services, members of the congregation carried anti-war protest signs along with their palms.[ citation needed ] |
![]() In October 2007, Bishop J. Jon Bruno announced that St. John's had been named the procathedral of the Diocese of Los Angeles, with the cathedral functions to be shared with the Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Echo Park. Larger diocesan liturgical functions are carried out at St. John's while all other diocesan offices and functions are located at St. Paul's. The dedication was held in February 2008. [8] The Very Rev. Canon Mark Kowalewski, former rector of St. John's, noted that the changes were the culmination of years of conversations. [8] He noted that when the current church was first built in the 1920s, its first rector, Fr. Davidson had wanted it to become the diocesan cathedral.[ citation needed ] ![]() ![]() |
The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston is the historic cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Located at 138 Tremont Street near Downtown Crossing, directly across from Boston Common and Park Street Station, the cathedral is adjacent to the diocesan offices. On April 22, 2018, Amy E McCreath was named the ninth dean and first female dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, and was installed as dean on September 29, 2018. The church, designed by Alexander Parris and Solomon Willard and built in 1819, was the first Greek Revival church in New England, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970 for its architectural significance.
The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is a community of 48,874 Episcopalians in 147 congregations, 40 schools, and 18 major institutions, spanning all of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties, and part of Riverside County.
St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, designed by Memphis architect Bayard Snowden Cairns, located near downtown Memphis, Tennessee, is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee and the former cathedral of the old statewide Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee.
The Diocese of West Missouri is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and a member of Province VII. It has jurisdiction over sixty counties in western Missouri running from the cities Fairfax in the north to Branson in the south and from Kansas City in the west to Fayette in the east. Its Cathedral and diocesan offices are located in downtown Kansas City. As of 2020 the diocese was made up of 47 parishes and congregations divided into 3 deaneries.
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon is a progressive Episcopal congregation and the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon of The Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located at 147 NW 19th Avenue in Portland, Oregon, in the Northwest District.
Since 1937, the United States presidential inauguration has included one or more prayers given by members of the clergy. Since 1933 an associated prayer service either public or private attended by the president-elect has often taken place on the morning of the day. At times a major public or broadcast prayer service takes place after the main ceremony most recently on the next day.
Frederick Lehrle Barry was the fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany in the United States from 1950 to 1960, during which he re-built a diocese.
William Dailey Persell is an American bishop, formerly the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago (1999–2008).
Scott Field Bailey was the 6th diocesan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas in the Episcopal Church.
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, formerly known as Grace Cathedral, is the historic cathedral in the Diocese of Iowa. The cathedral is located on the bluff overlooking Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1873, Trinity is one of the oldest cathedrals in the Episcopal Church in the United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 1983 the cathedral was included as a contributing property in the College Square Historic District, which is also listed on the National Register.
Walter Cameron Righter was a bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He served the Diocese of Iowa from 1972 to 1988. He then served as assistant bishop for the Diocese of Newark from 1989 to 1991.
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church is located in Palm Desert, California, United States, on State Route 74 in the Coachella Valley region. Parishioners come from Palm Desert, Indian Wells, and the Coachella Valley area. The parish is currently located in a modern church building completed in 1989. In 1963 St. Margaret's congregation was approved by the Bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles as a mission. The congregation moved became a parish in 1967 with Fr. Brownlee as the first rector. The church facilities are designed as a multi-functional facility with sanctuary, multi-purpose rooms, and administrative offices.
Peter James Lee was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church.
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity is an Episcopal cathedral in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It is the seat of the Diocese of Bethlehem. In 1988 it was listed as a contributing property in the Fountain Hill Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
Diane M. Jardine Bruce is the Bishop Provisional of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri. She previously served as the seventh bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
Claude Charles Vaché was an American prelate of The Episcopal Church, who served as the seventh Bishop of Southern Virginia.
Charles Bowen Persell Jr. was a suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, serving from 1963 to 1977. His son was William Persell, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago from 1999 to 2008. He was an alumnus of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church.
James Pernette deWolfe was the fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.
All Saints Anglican Cathedral is an Anglican church in Long Beach, California. Founded in 1923 as All Saints Episcopal Church, it left the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in 2004 as part of the Anglican realignment and joined the nascent Anglican Church in North America. In 2017, it was designated as the cathedral of the ACNA Diocese of Western Anglicans.