inSPIREd Sunday

Sally hosts inSPIREd Sunday!

August 2011 - Manhattan New York

 St. John the Divine Cathedral.
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint John: The Great Divine in the City and Diocese of New York, is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is located at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, New York City (between West 110th Street, which is also known as "Cathedral Parkway", and 113th Street) in Manhattan's Morningside Heights. 

The cathedral, designed in 1888 and begun in 1892, has, in its history, undergone radical stylistic changes and the interruption of the two World Wars. Originally designed as Byzantine-Romanesque, the plan was changed after 1909 to a Gothic design.  After a large fire on December 18, 2001, it was closed for repairs and reopened in November 2008. It remains unfinished, with construction and restoration a continuing process. As a result, it is often nicknamed St. John the Unfinished.

 I wish I had read their website before we went as they have some very interesting tours that we could perhaps have worked into our schedule such as a Vertical Tour that is described as "On this adventurous, “behind-the-scenes” tour, climb more than 124 feet through spiral staircases to the top of the world's largest cathedral. Learn stories through stained glass windows and sculpture and study the grand architecture of the Cathedral while standing on a buttress. The tour culminates on the roof with a wonderful view of Manhattan.".
While reading about the church for this post I came across some very interesting information on this site linking the church to the occult.

Source

Here are some of our photos. In researching I was thrilled to find a link to the Templars in an article as I am a huge fan of anything Templar.

One of this Cathedral's key features is its west Rose Window above the main entrance facing the light of the afternoon and setting sun. From inside, the rose window is glorious in its design and colorful radiance.
Like all classically designed Rose Windows, it displays a very definite geometric design.

Outside in the garden are some sculptures made by children.

The Peace Fountain - according to the Sinister Sites website (also quoted above)
This sculpture, which basically symbolizes the struggle between Good and Evil, features numerous elements we can find in paganism: Sun worship, mythical creatures and sun versus moon duality. Called “Fountain of Peace”, the sculpture borrows the fantastic, bizarre and distorted art style of the Grotesque. All sorts of animal creatures are emerging from a smiling sun, which represents the basic paradigm of Sun Worship (the Sun as giver of life).  The idol points to the east, an ancient pagan tradition. There is also weird stuff on the sculpture like a DNA symbol (a DNA symbol also appears at the entrance of the Cathedral). We all know how genetic modification is as Christian as it gets. We can also find a quote of John Lennon saying “…one day the world will live as one”.