A Civic Institution
In its present state of incompletion, without Nave and Transepts, the capacity of the Cathedral is taxed to the utmost by its ordinary congregations, and on special occasions thousands are turned away unable to enter. The completion of the Cathedral is therefore imperative; and this is so for more than denominational reasons, for the many notable special services held during and immediately following the late war already foreshadow the position which it is destined to occupy as a great Civic and National Institution. The Board of Trustees recently said: “The city requires a religious edifice where people can gather together in large numbers to express in a corporate way their religious promptings and to find spiritual interpretation of great events.” Such were the gatherings,—to mention but a few instances,—on the occasion of the Kossovo Day service June 16, 1918; the thanksgiving for the withdrawal of Austria from the war November 10, 1918; the thanksgiving for the cessation of hostilities November 17; the thanksgiving of the twelve Liberated Nationalities of middle Europe November 24; the great Thanksgiving Day service for victory November 28;[1] the rendering of Gounod’s “Death and Life” December 1, 1918, and Dvorak’s “Requiem” March 30, 1919, for all who died in the war; the memorial service of the 107th (including the former 7th) regiment April 27, 1919; the Lusitania memorial service May 7; the New York Letter Carriers’ memorial service May 25; etc. People rarely think of the English cathedrals as belonging to the Church of England or of the French cathedrals as belonging to the Roman Catholic church. They are regarded as belonging to everybody. And such, it is believed, is the place which the Cathedral of St. John the Divine will occupy in the minds of the people of the city and nation.