Washington National Cathedral #2

I promised last week some pictures of Washington National Cathedral. Here is a shot from the crossing looking west.

Grand Canyon Sunrise

Another shot to commemorate my 50-hour trip to Arizona this weekend. This is the Grand Canyon, South Rim taken at sunrise (Sept. 2003). And yes, those small dark specks are people out on the rocks. They were younger folks, a bit rowdy, and I don't think that they had been to sleep yet (if you know what I mean).

Arizona Sunset

In commemoration of my trip to Phoenix tomorrow to witness the dissolution of Jack's 25-year marriage, here's a shot taken in Nov. 2002. The interesting part is that the photo was taken over Scottsdale Rd., the busiest street in town. But with the backlighting, I was able to black all of the cars out. By the way, that's a saguaro cactus, which only grow in the Sonoran Valley.

Here's a cheery thought for the day courtesy of despair.com. 

Washington National Cathedral #1

I promised a picture of Washington National Cathedral, and here is one of @ 150 I took on one day in January 2004. South nave clearstorey.

Salisbury Cathedral

In light of my present study of Scott's work looking at Salisbury Cathedral, here's one of my own taken in Salisbury from the west looking east down the nave (April 2002).

Covenant Community Conflict

The past few days I've been reading Robert A. Scott's The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral. Many who know me are aware of my love and fascination with Gothic Cathedrals. I've visited and photographed a number of the most well-known (and not so well known) cathedrals in Europe and America. Even today, we marvel at these massive structures that took generations to build. For instance, the Washington National Cathedral, the sixth largest cathedral in the world, despite being built in the modern construction era of the 20th Century had its foundation stone laid by Teddy Roosevelt and its last pinnacle set by George H.W. Bush. The main focus of Scott's book, Salisbury Cathedral, was completed in a fantastic 40 years during the 13th Century.

But in the midst of lavishing praise on the vision of Abbot Suger of St. Denis, etc., very rarely is it mentioned that many of these cathdrals were born and built out of conflict. Scott mentions (Chapter 6) that riots regularly broke out at the major pilgrimmage sites in Europe. At Santiago de Compostela (site of the tomb of the Apostle James), townspeople and canons seized power and set fire to the cathedral in an attempt to assassinate the local bishop. The roof of the cathedral roof had to be built with defensive positions that remained in place until the 17th Century. In Troyes and Beauvais, the burghers revolted against the trade monopolies granted to the bishops in order to raise money for the cathedrals. One only need look at the trade windows at Chartres to see the contempt that various groups within the town held each other in.

So why is it that we surprised when conflict appears in the Christian community today? Is conflict so verbotten, so un-Christlike, that any time conflict arises it must be quickly be extinguished? Is peace itself so virtuous that no disagreement can be brooked? What I think the history of these cathedrals teach us is that the Kingdom of God works itself, not in spite of , but in the midst of strife in the Christian community. This is by no means an appeal to open warfare in the church (we are called to preserve both the peace and purity of the church), but I think that conflict and disagreements are too quickly put down in the church today, leaving an artificial and cosmetic peace in many churches that leads to disaffection and alienation. The invisible church still has much to teach us in these astonishing buildings.

By the way, if you haven't seen the BBC series on Cathedrals yet, it is more than worth a look. I downloaded all five on the digitaldistractions torrent (please ignore if you are a copyright attorney). I'll post a couple of my cathedral pictures over the next few days.

Currently listening to: I've Forgotten You, Rhonda Vincent (from Ragin' Live); Ready to Go, Republica
Watched today: The Great Commanders: Horatio Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar (will watch Julius Caesar and the Battle of Alesia tomorrow).

Hello cruel electronic world...

After considerable procrastination, I've decided to forsake spewing my vile vitriol on whatever warmblooded soul from amongst humanity that may happen to be nearby in order to fling my cerebral droppings on the Trafalgar Square of the electronic universe. Honestly, I'm not sure what frightens me more: my thinking that someone might actually want to know what I think or feel, or that there might actually be people out there with just that in mind.

Currently listening to: Poison, Alice Cooper (from Trash)
Reading today: Finishing up Five Faces of Modernity by Matei Calinescu. The last chapter on Postmodernism was perhaps the weakest part of this excellent book.