The National Cathedral opened its doors Saturday for the first time since the August earthquake for the consecration of a new Episcopal bishop. The 5.8 magnitude quake cracked flying buttresses and toppled some of the cathedral’s pinnacles and carvings — doing a total of $15 million worth of damage, according to a church spokesman.
But crews were confident by the weekend that they had pulled down the last of the dangerous stones shifted or cracked in the earthquake, and the cathedral was decked out in bouquets and garlands for the consecration of the new bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde.
“It is sort of a dual celebration,” said volunteer and Bethesda resident Anne Bowen as she arranged flowers around cathedral stonework Friday, saying she was happy the cathedral would reopen in time for the “very, very big event” Saturday.
Episcopal bishops surrounded and laid hands on Budde, the first woman elected bishop of the diocese, as part of her consecration ceremony.
“God is shepherd to us all, and you are shepherd to this diocese,” said Rev. Linda Kaufman in her sermon.
The solemn ceremony, decked in the pageantry and thundering, traditional choral music of the Episcopal church, gave way to laughter at several points, including during Kaufman’s light-hearted address, in which she used the word “kickass” and referenced the movie Brokeback Mountain.
“The fat and strong I will destroy,” she quoted from the book of Ezekiel. “These are not words of comfort to some of us.”
A black diaphanous net hung above the audience during the ceremony, designed to catch any other loose mortar or dust that might fall from the inside, though engineers assured church officials that the cathedral was structurally sound.
Budde said before the ceremony she was “delighted” to see the cathedral open again.
“The most important thing is to thank God that no one was hurt and the building is reparable,” she said. “And we can live with some scaffolding for a while.”
Budde faces the challenge of raising $15 million to repair the cathedral, not to mention funding its $10 million of normal operating costs, at a time when Episcopal congregations, like many across the U.S., are shrinking.
Sunday morning Budde is set to preach her first sermon in the National Cathedral as bishop of Washington, and Monday the cathedral will reopen to tourists, featuring a new exhibit about the earthquake damage.
