the coming of God's Kingdom on earth. And in bringing forward this divine consummation every cathedral must perform its part; for every great cathedral is the expression of man's aspiration to pay meet sacrifice to God. Every great cathedral is a spiritual home of all God's people. Whether it soar beside the Tiber, the Seine, the Loire, the Thames, the Hudson or the Potomac; whether it belong by deed or grant to Roman Church, English Church, or American Church, in the large sense and the true sense, it belongs to the Universal Church, whose multitude no man may number."

During five weeks, through late September and October, 17,000 persons visited the Curator's office at Washington Cathedral where a model of the Cathedral occupies the center of the room. From there they entered "The Way of Peace" to Bethlehem Chapel. Many of them climbed

W

HEN the Trustees of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1907 invited Dr. Ralph Adams Cram to prepare designs for the completion of the Cathedral, they imposed upon that distinguished American exponent of ecclesiastical Gothic the most difficult and complex problem that any architect could be called upon to face.

The Choir should first be considered. It is complete except for certain details of carving, but wholly out of harmony not only with the new architect's ideals of style and treatment, but also with the varied loveliness of the chapels that surround it. The Committee on Fabric realized the infelicity of the vaulting and upper part of the Apse, and the architect was thus at the outset of his studies confronted with the necessity of redesigning the upper part of the East End, in order to make it conform to the French Gothic style of the proposed Nave, Crossing and Transepts, which were aiready taking shape on his drawing

boards.

achievement. The mere enumeration of these great problems is impressive: the remodeling of the Choir; the interior treatment of the Crossing; the Lantern or Spire crowning the exterior; the plan and structure of the Nave and Transepts; the great West Front; the facades of the Transepts.

The design of the Nave and the remodeling of the Choir have been brought to a final solution. The illustrations show remarkable improvement in the appearance of the Choir, both within and without, resulting from the proposed changes. The Choir of Coutances supplies an obvious and happy precedent for the alteration. While this will require the reconstruction of the Choir vault and of the whole upper part of the Apse, fortunately it involves no disturbance of the massive fundamental framework of the edifice.

The proposed Nave, even more admirable, because more strikingly original, shows a length of 225 feet, and a width, including aisles, of 132 feet, which puts it into the same class, as to size, with the colossal nave of the Duomo at Florence. But its five aisles (made necessary by the piers of the Crossing already in place) and its nine bays-four double bays and one western bayproduce an effect of scale and richness immensely superior to the Italian example. It will be observed that three aisles are included between the clerestory the clerestory walls, which

The scale of the Cathedral is so colossal that each one of these parts would be in itself a sufficient problem to occupy the whole of an architect's time for years. Considering his large general practice, the progress already made by Dr. Cram toward the solution of his six-fold problem in the relatively short period of sixteen years is an extraordinary

are

carried by the piers separating the inner and outer side-aisles on either side of the Nave. This arrangement, although it recalls certain "hall churches" in Germany and France, is here carried out on so grand a scale and with such richness of membering that it will unquestionably surpass all European precedents in majesty and beauty. The six-part vault of the Nave, borne by alternately larger and smaller piers, has no analogue in America. It is a bold and successful effort to improve on its French prototypes. It would require more space than is now at command to do justice to the technical brilliancy and originality of this design, by which the greater part of the abutment of the colossal 56-foot vault is provided within the edifice, thus eliminating the necessity for the huge flying arches required in most Gothic designs of the French type, as, for example, in the Cathedrals of Paris and Bourges. Quite apart from any question of beauty or grace, it may be seriously questioned whether in our climate such arches might not become in time a source of danger rather than of security.

Nothing comparable to this superb design has ever been executed or conceived in America, and the

ceive further study and perhaps undergo more or less revision, inevitable in the progress of so colossal an enterprise. It is, however, quite certain that their final design will conform in principle to the present conceptions, which, as shown, possess majesty and beauty appropriate to the rest of the edifice.

The Crossing presents the most difficult problem of all because its vast dimensions, bounded by a square of 126 feet, are quite unexampled in western Gothic architecture. The treatment of the long and short sides of the octagon demanded by the twelve piers; the problem of the design, construction and detail of the enormous vault over it, and the form of the lantern or spire that should crown it; all these are elements which the plans deal with in a tentative way, but which have not yet been brought to a final solution. When it is remembered that the area of this Crossing is nearly 16,000 feet, as against about 5,000 or less for the majestic octagon of Ely Cathedral, and that its diameter of 126 feet exceeds by 18 feet that of the rotunda of St. Paul's, at London, we can gain some conception of the difficulty of the problem. And, while bestowing wellearned admiration on the progress

challenged to surpass or even to equal it.

The West Front of the Nave and the fronts of the two Transepts, admirable compositions all three, should nevertheless be considered as tentative though advanced studies, rather than as definitely completed designs. Many years must elapse before their execution, during which they will re

rest assured that the skill and ingenuity, the daring originality and the artistic mastery displayed in the rest of this stupendous design, will in the end achieve an equally happy solution of this most difficult but fascinating problem.

The final impression produced by these designs is one of profound admiration for the power and originality they display. nality they display. Dr. Cram's

thorough scholarship in all that relates to the Gothic styles has not betrayed him into copying or archeological imitation of medieval exemplars. Every part of the design exhibits original thought combined with a powerful imagination. The adoption of a French, rather than of any English, type of Gothic-and the architect is a master equally in both

-was a wise, almost an obvious, decision, in view of the vast dimensions of the edifice, which will be the largest in the English-speaking world. Except in their great length, none

of the English cathedrals approaches St. John the Divine in dimensions. They fall far below it in width, height and scale of parts. And the French Gothic as here used is handled with such originality and boldness of invention as to form in reality a new and distinctly American chapter in its development.

If this great work be carried out upon the lines of these designs, it will be a stupendous and inspiring monument of our faith and a triumphant vindication equally of American religion and American art.

C

NATHEDRAL organization has its origin in the earliest days of Christian History. There is not an ancient See on the continent of Europe, to the knowledge of Archbishop Benson, which did not begin with a bishop surrounded by his body of presbyters. Cathedral statutes are apparently older than the English common law or than the national laws of any European state. A cathedral organization is the primitive form of church organization. In the evangelization of nonChristian countries, a bishop and his staff of clergy marked the beginning of organized Christianity and of the establishment of Christian civilization.

The first work of such a body of men was evangelization, the preaching of the Gospel to those who had

never heard the Gospel before. With the making of a certain number of disciples there began the work of caring for the poor, the needy and the sick in fulfillment of our Lord's commandment to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. As the Christian community became more organized, systematic effort was made to teach the children and, as soon as it was possible, churches were built and the worship of Almighty God was established in as beautiful and dignified a manner as the circumstances would permit.

The extension of Christianity brought about, at an early date, the establishment of mission churches subordinate to the cathedral church, such mission churches required the exclusive services of one or more clergy. These men were detached

by the bishop from the cathedral staff and assigned to such mission churches. Then, we have the beginning of that parochial system, which afterwards was more fully systematized in England during the Archbishopric of Theodore.

In the United States of America, owing to the short-sightedness of the English bishops in colonial times, the church was begun on parochial lines, and was without bishops until after the Revolution. To this day, the organization of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America is based largely upon parochial lines.

The parochial system has produced a remarkable development of spiritual homes in our parish parish churches. The genius of our church has created probably the best legislative system of any Christian body

in the world.

We, however, fail conspicuously on the executive side. We have no effective departmental system and while we recognize the diocese and not the parish as the unit, we leave the bishop to do the general work of the church alone and dependent upon such voluntary services as he can obtain from his parochial clergy.

It is worthy of note that the Constitution of the Church in the United States was planned and discussed tentatively and accepted by a convention of our Church, subject to ratification at the next Convention, before the formation of the Constitution of the United States. When, therefore, we see similarities, and they are many, between the Constitution of the United States and that of the Church, it is well to remember that the Constitution of the Church came first. (Thirty-nine members of

the Constitutional Convention were Episcopalians, some of whom had been active in drafting the Church Constitution.) We cannot fail to note one conspicuous difference between the two. In the Constitution of the United States "all executive power" is vested in the President. There is no similar power granted to the Bishop in the Church Constitution, and herein lies our weakness. A cathedral organization can do much to remedy this defect.

A restoration of the cathedral system to the church in this country should proceed on primitive lines. The Charter of Washington Cathedral provides for the creation of the Protestant Episcopal Foundation of the District of Columbia empowered to establish and maintain within the District of Columbia a cathedral and institutions of learning for the promotion of religion, education and charity. The Constitution of Washington Cathedral provided for the development of this work by the creation primarily of Chapter, the Constitution provides, the Chapter of the Cathedral. This is to consist of fifteen, of which the Bishop is to be president ex officio, the other fourteen being composed of seven clergymen and seven lay

men.

The introduction of laymen into the Chapter of the Cathedral at Washington is a recognition of the principle of lay representation, so fully recognized by the American Church and is an innovation on the ancient system. On the other hand, the seven clerical members of the Chapter are formed by the constitution into the presbytery, reverting, in this case, to the most ancient