A wonderful tour of the Washington National Cathedral

After a very pleasant event celebrating my late brother-in-law's life on Friday evening, my sister had arranged with my son Chris to provide a tour of the Cathedral on Saturday for her out-of-town guests with a lunch afterwards.  Chris has been a docent for well over 20 years at the Cathedral and seems to know every detail there is to know although he says no, he's not even close.  The photos in this post are all from the cathedral visit and for one of the first times in all my visits to this cathedral and any and all others that I've visited overseas, I was actually able to catch stained glass that didn't just show up as blinding white in a black space so I was pretty excited and took a bunch.  Chris was kind enough to look at them for me and explain each one's details like he did on our tour.  So, off we go...

The first two are  the West Rose Window which depicts themes of Creation in the abstract overall design.  Creation of light is perhaps most obvious, as all the color explodes out of the center's white glass.  Rowan LeCompte was the artist for this window and I took a close-up of a segment that shows where he signed it.  If you look closely you can see it...There is also a signature from Dieter Goldkuhle who was the fabricator of the window.

The window below is the Roots of Healing and honors the healing plants and herbs from the natural world.

The one below depicts Women of the Bible and features Pharoah's daughter discovering Moses; New Testament Martha and Mary; and includes depictions of the YWCA's mission because it was donated by the National Board of YWCA.

The next one is of the nave clerestory windows which are on the upper level and run all the way from the back of the nave to the front.  They all depict stories from the Old Testament and all of them \were also created by the artist Rowan LeCompte.

This window is a favorite with American visitors - it is the Space Window and honors space exploration, with imagery based on Apollo XI.  The earth, and its distant tiny sun are featured on the right hand bottom as well as the path of the mission to the moon and back (the white, angled line that points from the top of earth and goes up and around the white moon in the center of the ruby colored circle near the top. The little black dot in the center of the white moon is a piece of moon rock embedded in the window - a gift of NASA.  Chris explained that in the distant future, if people are still around, this window will tell a story of what we had accomplished by the time the window was created.

Below is Wings of Courage created in memory of a former Chief of Staff of the USAF.  The USAF Academy chapel is depicted in the top rondel.

The last two stained glass photos are 1) Moses window and 2) the Daniel window...

 Above is as much of the nave "ceiling" as I could get with my camera.  It is so beautiful when the sun shines through the windows - sort of like a symphony of color.

Below is a gargoyle of which there are many!  I like this guy sticking his tongue out.  Every gargoyle is different.

When we were up this high in the cathedral, we saw a number of signs of the earthquake that occurred in 2011.  I thought I had a picture that showed one of these pinnacles askew on its base but apparently not.  They have been working on repairs ever since but the work is arduous to say the least and also, it is being funded by donations.

 I liked the busyness of the scene above.  And the photo below, shows the entire nave from the back where you enter, to the altar.  It is a stunning building and Chris pointed out to us that it is a load-bearing building, just as they were in medieval times; without the use of any structural steel in the walls.

And below is the altar with the stunning carved backdrop called a reredos (thank heavens I have Chris to tell me all this!)

I took this picture because the Cathedral always has beautiful and unusual floral decorations.  This one I'm pretty sure has branches of forsythia in leaf and then the various lichen (am I right about that?) pieces.  This was quite lovely.

After our lunch at a Mexican restaurant within walking distance of the cathedral those of us who wanted to (me! me!) came back to the Cathedral to buy Lego bricks and get to help build the scale model that is the Cathedral's latest fundraiser (and certainly the most fun!)  I'm glad I come over here fairly regularly because I will want to buy some bricks and help get it finished.  It will be 13 feet long! and will be as much like the cathedral as you can get with Legos.  I did a post a few years ago about Sophia's and my visit to the Columbus, OH art museum and how stunned we were to walk into a room that had a huge Lego installation which was based on familiar buildings in Columbus.
So, here am I, after completing a pillar.  They said that as the builder,, I should be watching them closely to make sure it was placed correctly so that's why I look like I'm scratching my chin.  After that is a pic of Chris working on his - he buys bricks every chance he gets.

And just to show it can be done, the next pic is a stained glass window!

I know you're all wishing you could do some of the building, right?  Well, if you're in DC, all the more reason to visit the Cathedral.  And, if you're not, just go HERE and buy bricks for $2 each which volunteers at the Cathedral will place for you.  And, even if you're not buying bricks you'll  see the layout of the model.