If you watched the funeral of President Ronald Reagan last week,
the church in which it was held may have looked familiar.
If you watched the funeral of President Ronald Reagan last week, the church in which it was held may have looked familiar.
It was also the setting of the nation’s memorial service for the victims of the 9-11 tragedy, and it has been used for many other important national religious occasions.
Washington Cathedral (also called “National Cathedral”) is a great “church for national purposes in the capital city” first envisioned by George Washington.
In 1893, Congress granted a charter creating a Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, and in 1907 the cornerstone was laid at a ceremony during which President Theodore Roosevelt spoke.
Its official name is the “Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul,” and it is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
Built in the shape of a cross, its architecture is Gothic. (The edifice requires no structural steel; the flying buttresses balance the outward thrust of its massive Indiana limestone walls.)
The cathedral is situated on a 59-acre plot of land (‘the close”) atop Mt. St. Albans, the highest point in the District of Columbia. The sixth largest cathedral in the world, its central tower, at 676 feet above sea level, is visible from surrounding Virginia and Maryland suburbs.
A South County Episcopal priest very kindly sent me the text of an interview with the Rt. Rev. John Chane, Bishop of Washington, which will appear in next month’s “Episcopal Life,” the newspaper of that church. It gave some insight concerning the work that goes into hosting a state funeral.
According to Chane, planning for such an event is done far in advance of need, and a 1,000-page manual has been developed in cooperation with the Military District of Washington and the Secret Service. All currently-living U.S. presidents will be buried from National Cathedral.
President Reagan’s family, of course, also had a big role to play in planning for this funeral. They specifically requested participation by Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington, and requested a Muslim religious leader.
(The one selected was Imam Mohamed Magid Alin who heads a large mosque in the Dulles area of Virginia).
The family also requested that the celebrant of the Eucharist be former Senator John Danforth of Missouri, an Episcopal priest.
The service used was based on the Order of Burial in the Episcopal “Book of Common Prayer.”
Bishop Chane went on to discuss the tight security measures which were observed, including the installation of a portable chain link fence around the cathedral close, multiple security sweeps of the property, magnetometers and sniffers for radioactive agents past which the 3,800 invited guests passed.
Chane mentioned that part of his job was to turn away uninvited heads of state.
“The most important thing for me to do is what I would do if I were a parish priest or pastor in a congregation … live within the wishes of the family and make sure we, within good order, did what they have asked us to do.”
Chuck Flagg teaches English at Mt. Madonna High School. Write him c/o The Dispatch, P.O. Box 22365, Gilroy, CA 95021.
