Episcopal Press and News
LOS ANGELES: St. John's Church dedicated as pro-cathedral
Episcopal News Service. February 5, 2008 [020508-04]
Pat McCaughan, Correspondent for Episcopal Life Media in Province VIII
With hundreds of parishioners and well-wishers in attendance, Bishop Jon Bruno dedicated St. John's Church as the Pro-Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles on February 2, calling it a "cathedral of new horizons and new hope for the city."
About 300 parishioners, friends, and ecumenical and interfaith guests turned to face the landmark church's great west doors where Bruno knocked three times with his pastoral staff to begin the dedication service, which included formally seating him as bishop.
During the joyous celebration, a fusion of ancient ritual and modern liturgy, Bruno lit the paschal candle, and the flame was spread candle to candle among the congregation. The smell of incense filled the air while Bruno sprinkled building and congregation with holy water as the solemn procession moved slowly toward the altar. Traditional hymns, Spanish music, and Missa Luba mingled with the sounds of trumpeters and trombonists, African drums and organ music and St. John's choir.
Bruno characterized the historic Romanesque-style church -- located south of downtown's Staples Center and north of USC's University Park -- as "a wondrous and great building long in our diocese" that had undergone many transformations, including from serving the privileged to the underprivileged.
The Very Rev. Canon Dr. Mark Kowalewski, dean of the Pro-Cathedral, invited participants to think of St. John's as a "house of prayer for all people and particularly (for) our own diocesan family" to think of it as a second church home.
"Our doors are always open," he said. "If you find yourselves downtown for any reason, we hope you would think of St. John's as your church also." He added, "Tomorrow is the anniversary of the dedication of the church in 1925, so this is a very auspicious weekend."
'One Ministry in Two Places'
Bruno challenged the gathering to "invest hearts and minds" in the pro-cathedral and said he is "looking forward to serving in a growing Los Angeles." He said St. John's Pro-Cathedral is part of one ministry in two places, each complementing the other.
"We have two cathedrals in this diocese," Bruno said during his sermon, referring to the Cathedral Center of St. Paul and the Congregation of St. Athanasius, located at the diocesan complex in Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood.
That congregation, he explained, anchors a center for administration, teaching, and community involvement as a place where 200,000 people each year are fed annually -- and which is known for its retreat and hospitality center that hosts guests from around the world.
St. John's, on the other hand, is the pro-cathedral, a parish church with some cathedral functions, which will serve as a liturgical and worship center, a public pulpit with enough capacity to host ecumenical and interfaith gatherings, confirmations, ordinations and the annual Renewal of Vows service for clergy, Bruno said.
Bruno said he first envisioned St. John's as a cathedral while attending the 1986 funeral services for one of his predecessors, Bishop Robert C. Rusack. But that vision had long been espoused, he added.
After the former diocesan cathedral was demolished in 1980 because of earthquake damage, its congregation joined St. Athanasius Church in Echo Park, the site of the present Cathedral Center of St. Paul. The two congregations trace a shared history back to 1864, when St. Athanasius was established as Southern California's first Episcopal parish.
Kowalewski said that St. John's longest-serving rector, the Rev. George Davidson, who oversaw "the building of our present church and before St. Paul's Cathedral was built, had hoped that St. John's might serve as the cathedral for our diocese."
Within the last year, a series of conversations between the bishop and the congregation paved the way for the designation. The congregation will retain autonomy as a parish church with its vestry and clergy, Bruno said.
Junior warden Karen Uhler said she is looking forward to next week, when she begins serving as senior warden and "to ministry, to us truly being a house of prayer for all people.
"I'm very thrilled, excited by what we can do in the middle of the city and the whole diocese. There are wonderful days ahead."
Coming together, praying together
Echoing their understanding of St. John's as a house of prayer for all, representatives from various Christian denominations and other faith communities said they attended Saturday's service to support St. John's. Among those represented were Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, the Armenian Orthodox Church and other faith traditions.
Retired Bishop Charles Jordan of the United Methodist Church called it a "very, very exciting" day of unity, a celebration on behalf of St. John's but also for the entire Christian church and for us, as an interfaith community. "And this is a time when unity is very desirable."
Listed on the national register of historic landmarks, St. John's also has a tradition of social and political activism. First organized as a congregation in 1890, the original church was built the same year, a wood-shingled Gothic revival style building in an orange grove near the edge of the city of Los Angeles, next door to the site of the present church at 514 West Adams Blvd.
A post-World War I growth spurt prompted construction of the present building, designed by brother architects Pierpont and Walter Davis and erected on a pay-as-you-go-basis from 1922 to 1924. The exterior is modeled after the 11th century church of San Pietro in Tuscania, about 75 miles northwest of Rome.
The interior of the church also blends the ancient and the modern: ornate gold and blue nave ceiling art is patterned after the 11th century Basilica of San Miniato in Florence, Italy. Intricate and colorful mosaics and red and blue stained-glass windows are featured along with black and white banners depicting row after row of crosses representing military and civilian Iraqi war deaths.
"Each cross represents a service person killed in the Iraq war," Kowalewski said. The banners also represent the Iraqi people killed whose names we don't know, he said. The congregation hosts a weekly Friday evening anti-war protest, he added.
During the ceremony, Spurgie Hawkins, a St. John's parishioner since 1957, read greetings from former rector, retiring Bishop William Persell of Chicago. Persell sent regrets that he was unable to attend because he was sharing in the consecration of his successor the same day.
The church's first rector was the Rev. H.O. Judd. He was succeeded by B.W.R. Taylor (1891-1903); L.B. Ridgeley (1903-1905); Lewis G. Morris (1905-1912); and George Davidson, who oversaw the congregation's move to the present location and served as rector for nearly two generations.
Davidson was followed by Ray Holder (1951-1955); Robert Q. Kennaugh (1955-1957); E. Lawrence Carter (1958-1973); William D. Persell (1973-1983); Warner B. Traynham (1983-2001), and Lynn Collins.
The service also included the installation of Kowalewski as dean and commissioning of St. John's clergy. A festive reception was held in the parish hall after the service. Offerings for the day were earmarked for a "dedicated fund to assist with restoration of the building," Kowalewski told the gathering.
"This church was built in 1925, we want to spruce it up, to clean years of buildup on the floor" and improve lighting, he said.