Religious Travel

The People’s Cathedral

by emilienoelle

Situated atop Washington D.C.’s highest hill, the Washington National Cathedral, officially the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, offers to people of all faiths and nations a place of worship, interfaith dialogue and witness to American history. Truly a marvel of Gothic architecture, the church’s massive flying buttresses, gargoyles, and magnificent stained glass windows lend it an air of European grandeur, though the building’s design, craftsmanship, and artwork are all thoroughly and originally American. Its cornerstone laid by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907, the Cathedral took 83 years to complete, its last finial set in place by President George H.W. Bush in 1990.

The official seat of the Bishop of Washington, St. Peter and St. Paul is the sixth largest cathedral in the world, the second largest in the United States after St. John the Divine in New York City.

Since opening for services in 1912, the Cathedral has played part in numerous events central to America’s history. President Woodrow Wilson is entombed there, and in 1968 the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. preached the last Sunday sermon of his short life from its Canterbury Pulpit. It has been the scene of numerous state funerals, beginning with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1969 and most recently, in 2007, that of President Gerald Ford. The Cathedral has been host to innumerable world leaders, and has become the official beginning point for modern U.S. presidential inaugurations, the latest for President Barack Obama in January 2009.
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