RNS
Quake-damaged National Cathedral faces millions in repairs
By LAUREN MARKOE
c. 2011 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS) The iconic Washington National Cathedral, already struggling with financial problems, faces millions of dollars in repair costs from the damage inflicted by Tuesday's (Sept. 23) East Coast earthquake.
And nothing is covered by insurance, according to a church official.
Clergy and a team of architects and engineers spent the day after the magnitude 5.8 quake assessing the cathedral, and found significant damage, including fallen carved angels on the church's roof, cracks in flying buttresses, and missing finials from the pinnacles of the central tower.
"We run a very tight budget here at the cathedral and we have had our financial challenges that we've worked through very well," the Very Rev. Samuel Lloyd, dean of the cathedral, said Wednesday.
"But there is nothing in our budget that would allow us to step up and do this," he said.
Joe Alonso, the cathedral's head stone mason, said it will take years to complete the repairs.
"It's going to be millions, no doubt about it. Millions," he said. "As large as this structure is, it's all hand made."
Hit hard by the recession, the Episcopal cathedral in recent years has weathered several rounds of staff layoffs and been forced to cut programming.
The charge now, Lloyd said, is to go back to those who contributed to the construction of the cathedral, which began in 1907 and was completed in 1990.
"It was built by people from across the country who believe having this space for the nation in the heart of the nation's capital is a hugely important enterprise," said Lloyd. A new feature on the cathedral's website encourages donations.
The cathedral, the second largest in the nation, will be closed through Saturday as engineers continue to assess the damage. Church officials say they hope it will be open for Sunday services.
Officially, the cathedral is the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, but bills itself as a "house of prayer for all people."
The earthquake and the subsequent damage "has not been a jarring thing for our faith," Lloyd said. "What it has done it challenge us to claim our faith, to go to work to make this place be as grand as beautiful and powerful as its always been."
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Wondering, a bit heretical, if it would not be better not to leave the damage as a testimony to the history of the cathedral... after all, the cathedrals in Europe show their wear and tear.
Stabilise what needs support such as the buttresses, of course, but wait to repair the others.
Anyone else agree?
4 comments:
Caminante, you make me think. Because of our beautiful old parish church, my attachment to buildings may be out of proportion, but I can entertain the thought that the cathedral should be stabilized, and the complete restoration could wait. But I think that will happen anyway due to costs and no insurance.
I somewhat agree with Mimi but not totally sure.
Please pray for me and my felines as we are in an area that is supposed to take a heavy hit. making sure there is plenty of kitty litter and cat food!
Prayers for you and your sweet felines, whiteycat.
As I recall, the head mason that helped complete the cathedral first time 'round actually took some initiative and created a 'school' for masons and trained a lot of the inner DC city kids in masonry and had masonry programs one could take --so a lot of the hand-made stuff is truly that --and it did take decades. Imagine being able to volunteer for two weeks, and leave saying --I helped build this! I have not problems with doing something like that --supporting, training and encouraging traditional artisans and making the cathedral a true community endeavor.
Stabilization first --and then the love, and community involvement and participation.
Keeping you in my prayers as NE gets hit with the storm.
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