Episcopal Press and News
Western North Carolina Inaugurates Its First Cathedral
Episcopal News Service. February 9, 1995 [95023]
Eugene Willard, Editor of the diocesan newspaper, The Highland Episcopalian.
(ENS) In a trio of solemn ceremonies marked by pomp and pageantry, the Cathedral of All Souls, Biltmore, was inaugurated as the seat of mission and ministry in the Diocese of Western North Carolina.
"We ask the blessing of God upon this place and upon all the servant ministries of its clergy and people," Bishop Robert H. Johnson said January 7 as he blessed the church and the overflow crowd that came to witness the birth of a cathedral. All Souls is the first Episcopal cathedral in North Carolina and the first of any denomination in the state, west of Charlotte.
In his homily the bishop expressed his hope that the cathedral will be "an agent of change in this city and region as we witness to God's love in Jesus Christ and what that love can do to bolster hope and to assuage hurt among us."
George W. Vanderbilt, who erected nearby Biltmore House (the largest private home in America), commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design All Souls as an English Gothic chapel. It was consecrated as a church in 1896, and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Among All Souls' early outreach programs, begun in the 1800s, were a parochial school, a kindergarten for black children, operation of a nearby hospital, and a YMCA for black men.
The inauguration also began the diocese's year of Jubilee Celebration to observe 100 years in which the diocese has been set apart as a designated diocesan area of ministry.
At the beginning of the service, Johnson was escorted to the cathedra, the chair that is a symbol of his office, but laughingly confessed later that in his excitement, "I didn't even sit down... and that was the purpose of all this."
Johnson outlined his vision for the cathedral and its ministry within the diocese: "We're called to be a servant ministry cathedral. Our cathedral will serve not only this diocese but will also be a ministry center for signaling to these 28 counties of western North Carolina that the Episcopal Church stands ready to love and to serve all people in the name of Christ."