The Lucky Penny

Right before I left for San Francisco I had another wonderful weekend activity with the amazing kids of  the New York Cares Urban Adventures Program and I am so excited to finally be able to tell you all about it.  Our latest adventure had us trekking over to The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a church and landmark that I was already pretty familiar with, having attended college on the Upper West Side of Manhattan which is where the cathedral is located.  It was a beautiful, clear and sunny day and as we made our way over to the cathedral we excitedly discussed what we thought our medieval crafts workshop would entail.

We arrived to the Cathedral of St John the Divine a little early so we decided to take a stroll on the grounds surrounding the church, known for its beautiful gardens and unique sculptures and statues.  It was only a few minutes that we were walking in the gardens when I heard the familiar sound of squawking that I recalled from my college days, it was the squawking of two resident peacocks that had been roaming the cathedral grounds even when I was in school.  After watching an impromptu display of peacock feather awesomeness, we made our way to Amsterdam Avenue and up the steps into the dark, Gothic cathedral.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Cathedral of St John the Divine, it was originally designed in 1888 to be built in the Byzantine-Romanesque style but was changed in 1909 to a Gothic design.  It is a massive cathedral spanning 121,000 sq feet and is the largest cathedral and Anglican Church (there is a dispute whether in fact the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral should have this title) and is the fourth largest Christian Cathedral in the world.  In December of 2001, there was a large fire that destroyed many of the historic and valuable tapestries the cathedral has been known to display on its walls and closed down for repairs until 2008 although the restoration and reconstruction of the cathedral continues today.

The first hour of our Urban Adventure entailed a tour of the cathedral led by two women who would later lead us in medieval art and crafts as well.  The children were immediately overwhelmed by the cathedral as soon as we walked through the entry, struggling to keep their voices down as we explored the cathedral together.  Although the cathedral walls display some pretty incredible 17^th century tapestries, the students were most intrigued by the Gothic Style tombs in the cathedral containing the bodies of notable Episcopal Bishops of New York including the original founder of the cathedral, The Right Reverend Horatio Potter. The second aspect of the cathedral that really seemed to impress the students was The Great Rose Window located on the face of the cathedral above the main doors which is largest rose window in the United States, constructed of more than 10,000 pieces of stained glass.

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