National Cathedral swaps out Civil War-themed stained glass for civil rights-themed windows



For nearly 65 years, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., had four Civil War-themed stained glass windows featuring Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. They were allegedly installed in hopes of ameliorating postwar tensions between North and South.

On Saturday, the nation's second-largest cathedral unveiled its civil rights-themed replacement windows, featuring faceless black protesters. They were ostensibly installed as a symbolic nod to ameliorating racial tensions.

The National Cathedral, official seat of the Episcopal Church, indicated in a statement that its four new windows "signify a new chapter in the Cathedral's historic legacy of art and architecture."

What's the background?

The neo-Gothic cathedral's original 4'x6' windows were donated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, designed by Boston artist Wilbur H. Burnham, and installed in 1953. They depicted Jackson and Lee as pious Christians at various stages in their military and spiritual lives.

The engraved stone below the Jackson window noted that he "walked humbly before his creator," reported the Washington Post.

The stone below Lee's window stated that the prominent Episcopalian was "a Christian soldier without fear and without reproach."

The windows were reportedly installed to "foster reconciliation between parts of the nation that had been divided by the Civil War," according to the cathedral's former dean, Gary Hall.

NPR indicated that around 2015, the idea of removing Confederate symbols from the building was raised after the massacre of black Christians at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

In 2016, Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, a member of the five-person task force assembled to consider the status of the windows, intimated their historical and provocative nature was not altogether cause for iconoclasm, but a talking point.

"Instead of simply taking the windows down and going on with business as usual, the Cathedral recognizes that, for now, they provide an opportunity for us to begin to write a new narrative on race and racial justice at the Cathedral and perhaps for our nation," said Douglas.

The subsequent death of a counter-protester at the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, expedited the removal of the windows.

At the time of their removal, Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean at the cathedral, said, "Confederate monuments, windows like ours — many of them have become symbols of racism and white supremacy, and they’ve become quite painful for brothers and sisters of this nation," reported the New York Times.

On Saturday, Hollerith said, "Simply put, these windows were offensive, and they were a barrier to the ministry of this cathedral, and they were antithetical to our call to be a House of Prayer for All People. They told a false narrative, extolling two individuals who fought to keep the institution of slavery alive in this country."

New windows

Smithsonian magazine reported that the bright new images, entitled "Now and Forever," were born of a collaboration between Kerry James Marshall and stained-glass fabricator Andrew Goldkuhle.

They depict black protesters holding signs that read "fairness," "not," "no," and "no foul play."

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Kerry James Marshall, a prolific race-focused artist from Birmingham, Alabama, designed the new windows for a symbolic fee of $18.65.

Marshall told the Washington Post in 2021 that this figure is significant because, "of course, 1865 is the end of the Civil War."

The windows will soon be accompanied by a poem by Mellon Foundation president Elizabeth Alexander, whose organization helped fund the windows' replacement. The poem, which will be engraved below the windows in the coming months, notes, "May this portal be where the light comes in."

Bible passages were read, speeches were given, and gospel music was played at the Saturday dedication. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson reportedly also marked the occasion by reading excerpts from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

Marshall indicated that the unveiling highlighted "one instance where a change of symbolism is meant to repair a breach of America’s creation promise of liberty and justice for all, and to reinforce those ideals and aspirations embodied in the Cathedral’s structure and its mission to remind us that we can be better, and do better, than we did yesterday, today."

"I am deeply humbled, incredibly grateful, for the opportunity and hope that the things the windows propose continue to be a catalyst for the kind of transformation that the Cathedral stands for, what this nation stands for … and what I hope we all will embody and stand for and bring forward ourselves," added Marshall.

The Art Newspaper reported that the ultimate fate of the original windows, presently being stored and conserved at the cathedral, has not yet been decided.

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Washington National Cathedral cowers to woke mob, apologizes for letting famed pastor Max Lucado preach. His offense? Holding biblical views on sexuality and marriage.



The Washington National Cathedral took heavy fire for allowing popular evangelical pastor and author Max Lucado to preach at its virtual Sunday service last weekend. Though the church initially defended its decision as part of a move to build bridges, leadership later caved to pressure from left-wing activists and nearly tripped over themselves apologizing for the mistake of allowing Lucado to speak.

Lucado's offense? He holds biblical Christian views on sexuality and marriage.

He didn't preach on those topics Sunday — his sermon was about the Holy Spirit, the Christian Post reported — but the fact that he has a history of standing up for traditional biblical values on social issues was enough to have him silenced, the woke mob said.

What happened?

After the Episcopal Church's Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Paul in the City and the Diocese of Washington invited Lucado to speak at the cathedral in Washington, D.C., LGBT activists were livid.

The reliably liberal denomination known for its left-wing views on marriage and sexuality had betrayed the gay community by inviting a nondenominational evangelical pastor like Lucado who follows traditional Christian teachings on marriage and sexually, and the woke mob couldn't have that.

So they did what mobs do: sought to intimidate their target into compliance and force their opponent to be silenced.

Activists launched a petition days before Lucado's sermon demanding that the church rescind its invitation to Lucado, claiming that his "teaching and preaching inflicts active harm on LGBTQ people."

They accused him of pushing "[f]ear-mongering and dehumanizing messages" and preaching "the kind of dangerous theology that promotes oppression of and violence toward the LGBTQ community."

According to the petition, "Lucado has inflicted serious harm" and should not be given a platform.

On Feb. 6, the cathedral's dean, the Rev. Randy Hollerith, sent a response to the petition. Hollerith said that he and the church have long been supporters of "LGBTQ inclusion" and that they "believe the Gospel calls us to nothing short of full embrace and inclusion." He also added that he understood why the petitioners would be concerned about Lucado's past statements on sexuality and that it "grieves" him when churches "are used as weapons against God's LGBTQ children."

But, he said, there was good reason to invite Lucado: We must find common ground, which comes by peacefully engaging with people we might disagree with.

He wrote:

Let me share why we invited Max to preach. We have to come out of our corners, find common ground where we can, and find ways to live with and see each other as the beloved children of God that we are. We have all grown too accustomed in our silos and echo chambers. In order to start the process of rebuilding, we need to hear from each other.

That does not mean we will always agree. In fact, I don't agree with Max's views on LGBTQ issues. We can still hold our convictions and cling to our values in the midst of disagreement. But the work that we cannot ignore is the vitally important task of what Isaiah called “repairing the breach." That starts, first and foremost, with those with whom we disagree. When we only engage with those with whom we agree on every issue, we find ourselves in a dangerous (and lonely) place. My hope is that all churches and faith communities will find ways to open their doors to perspectives different from their own.

And retired Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, defended the cathedral's invitation in a video Sunday morning after Lucado's sermon, saying the church should be a house of prayer for "all the people of God — all — and sometimes that includes we don't agree with much at all."

Fallout continued

But that wasn't enough for Lucado's critics. They had wanted his sermon canceled, and when it wasn't, they turned up the outrage and increased their criticism of church leaders, according to a report from the Episcopal News Service.

By Wednesday, the church leaders had had enough and scrambled to offer apologies to the mob for the horrible "mistake" of inviting someone with a record allegedly causing so much pain to speak.

Dean Hollerith blamed his "straight privilege" for failing to understand the "pain" Lucado had caused in the past and the "depth of injury his words have had."

"I made a mistake and I am sorry," Hollerith said.

Washington Bishop Mariann Budde echoed the dean's statements and offered her own mea culpa.

"I would like to apologize for the hurt caused in inviting Max Lucado to preach at Washington National Cathedral," she wrote. "I have heard from those who were not only wounded by things Max Lucado has said and taught, but equally wounded by the decision to welcome him into the Cathedral's pulpit."

Hollerith and Budde announced that they are going to hold a "listening session" on Feb. 21 for anyone who wants to share their LGBT experiences within the church.

Outrage Over Max Lucado Shows There Is No Room For Dissent In LGBT Church Politics

Max Lucado's singular message is God’s unending love for everyone, but his invitation to speak at the National Cathedral sent the Episcopal Church reeling.