The Cathedral is an amazing piece of architecture that took many decades to build. Inside are a major sanctuary and lots of little side sanctuaries honoring different ages, occupations, and nations. While we are there, we are the only people touring the downstairs chapels when we stumble across the Cathedral organist practicing Benjamin Britten's "Rejoice In the Lamb." It is, quite amazingly, a damn-near holy experience.
Inside the church is the Canterbury Pulpit, from which Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his last Sunday sermon before his assassination, and everyone from world leaders to the Dalai Lama has spoken from this pulpit.
There are statues and stained glass and incredible arches. President Woodrow Wilson is interred in Washington Cathedral. There's even a lunar moon rock in a stained glass window. There's a walkway around the seventh floor from which post-earthquake repairs can be seen in process. (I cannot even fathom being inside this massive structure during an earthquake,although if one needed prayer, this would certainly be the right venue.)Yes, it seems like the place just cannot get any cooler. Except that it can.
On the outside of the Cathedral, high amongst the tall windows near the peak of its tower, is a special gargoyle, perhaps the most revered of all the gargoyles. Darth Vader is on the Washington Cathedral. We spot Darth while we are hanging outside and doing our cell-phone online check-in for the upcoming flight home. I vaguely recall hearing a story that Vader is a gargoyle, but I never believe we will spot him.
Although it's a few days late, I bring to you greetings from DV in DC. May the Fourth be with you, my friends ... and also with you. (Hey, it IS a Cathedral, after all.)
