THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE, NEW YORK. [To
the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—On the heights of Morningside, overlooking the centre of New York, there is rising gradually one of the largest Cathedrals in the world. Instead of the massive blocks piled on to one another which go to form New York's skyscrapers, the Cathedral has tapering pinnacles and flying buttresses and is built almost entirely in the Gothic style. When it is com- pleted, it will be the fourth largest in the world, being just a little bigger than the new Liverpool Cathedral. But at present, though the work progresses with astonishing rapidity, it is very far from complete. .
I was taken round it by the Precentor, and we picked our way among a veritable network of scaffolding which made, it almost impossible to get any idea of the ultimate proportions of the nave, soon to be consecrated. The most beautiful part of the Cathedral yet built is undoubtedly the baptistry, an almost circular structure of which Bishop Manning said : In our land there is none to compare with it." Behind the high altar, opening off the ambulatory, are the seven Chapels of the Tongues. In New York, the city of every national, where there are more Italians than there are in Rome and more Jews than there are anywhere else in the world, it is fitting that the Cathedral should contain chapels where services can be held continually in many different languages. There have been services in Russian, Chinese, Greek, Armenian, Swedish, Serbian and Welsh, to mention only a few languages—surely a unique feature of any Cathedral.
I lunched with the Bishop, who told me of the gifts which have been received by him from other countries. King George sent a silver offertory bowl • the French Government, a huge Sevres vase ; while Signor lkusSOlini had sent a pair of silver candlesticks. They are standing now in the Bishop's 'house (he does not call it a Palace) waiting for their formal presenta- tion by the Italian Ambassador on • Low Sunday. The Japanese Government have sent two enormous cloisonné vases ; while the most interesting gift of all comes from the Jews. The editor of the New York Times, himself a practising Jew, is giving a sanctuary lamp, such as Is used in all Jewish synagogues. The Bishop, when asked if he would be willing to accept this gift, said that it would stand in the _same relation to the Cathedral as the Old Testament stands to its services. •
Hut the Bishop does not only accept gifts from men of other religions. The Cathedral Canon allows anyone to preach (but not, of course, to conduct a sacramental service). One afternoon, at a meeting in aid of Jewish refugees, a Jew stood up in the Cathedral and gave an address to the congregation. Everyone attending a service is asked to enter his name in the ' Visitors' Book," and the list to-day contains Buddhists, Mohammedans and Atheists among every other sort and kind
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