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[Back to index of May articles] Construction fosters friendship By Paul Donnelly For more than a century, members of the Washington Committee of the National Cathedral Association have met on Mount Saint Alban. But last July, the Cathedral Foundation began construction of its new underground parking garage, significantly reducing the number of parking spaces currently available. The committee responded to this inconvenience by moving its meetings to parish churches, and may, serendipitously, have transformed its relationship with the people of the diocese in the process. For much of its history, the relationship between the committee and the people of the diocese reflected the relationship between the cathedral and diocesan leadership. "In the past, the diocese and the cathedral have been kind of separate fiefdoms," says Linda Freeman, a member of both the NCA's Washington committee and the diocesan council. While the cathedral is the lead mission church for the diocese, its role is more complex than that of most other cathedrals, because of its responsibilities as a church for national events, its prominence as a center of interfaith worship and its popularity as a tourist attraction. Tending its multiple identities can sometimes make the cathedral and the NCA seem "kind of aloof," from the people of the diocese says Barbara D. Miller, regional co-chair of the NCA. But that perception has begun to change. The committee still supports cathedral functions such as major state occasions, pilgrimages, First Sunday coffee hours, receptions, meetings and special events, but now it meets at St. David's in the District, St. Dunstan's, Bethesda and other parish churches. "We host a number of meetings that the diocese holds because we have parking," says the Rev. Virginia Brown-Nolan, the rector of St. Luke's on 15th Street. As a graduate of the National Cathedral School, she was considerably more aware of the cathedral than of the NCA: "Since I don't know what they normally do," she notes cheerfully, "they've not been on our radar screen any more than we've been on theirs." But because one of St. Luke's parishioners is a new member of the committee, they were happily welcomed to the oldest historically black Episcopal church in the diocese. Founded in 1873, St. Luke's sanctuary walls exhibit the Stations of the Cross by Alan Crite, which some committee members recognized had been an exhibit on loan at the cathedral, even though they had never been inside St. Luke's itself. "All these off-close experiences and many more have proved very popular with our members, some of whom were at first a little skeptical at leaving Mt. St. Alban," says Jane Miller, who co-chairs the committee with Barbara Miller, but is no relation. "Now they tell us over and over how surprised they are that this year, the year of the parking garage, has been a blessing in disguise." One who shares that blessing is the Rev. Robin Dodge of St. David's on Macomb Street, in Northwest D.C. where the Wicker Room has become the committee's home away from home. "We hosted their flower arranging demonstration in October," a huge success with 235 participants, "and we've hosted a number of meetings monthly, the business meetings as well." While Washington Committee members insist that they have gained more than their hosts from getting off the close, Dodge points out: "Historically, St. David's is like a lot of parish churches, it's had kind of an arm's length relationship with the diocese and the cathedral. The word 'parish' is after all where we get the word parochial. There can be a kind of congregational mentality, not to see ourselves as part of a larger entity." Brown-Nolan agrees, with a bit of an edge. She applauds the cathedral's pastoral role in confirmations and the acolyte festival, noting "This is good for our parishes, which on some level see the cathedral as our mother church." But she adds pointedly that "there are very low expectations outside of the flagship churches like St. Albans, St. Columba's or St. John's, Lafayette Square. So it was good for that group (the Washington Committee) to go out and see what we have to offer." Jane Miller heartily agrees: "The remarkable thing is how we wouldn't have made the effort to go outside the Cathedral Close until it became necessary, and yet we've gained so much from doing it." [Back to index of May articles]
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