Quote:
Originally Posted by Kathleen
St. John the Divine is a special sort of place. Kermit the Frog sang there when Jim Henson died for example. It's the only cathedral in the US of it's size that has been completely hand built stone by stone. It's incomplete because work was stopped on it in the 60's. They found themselves in a part of town where people were starving and they felt guilty trying to finish the building with all the hunger around them. By the 80's they were training the people in the neighborhood to have stonecutting skills and they paid them to help finish the building. They were close to finishing about 5 years ago when a fire took out an entire wing.
More to the point - they hold all sorts of events there - even non-religious events to raise money and awareness of their building and the neighborhood. THEY wouldn't consider a rock concert out of place at all.
One of the best things that happened to that neighborhood was Bill Clinton. After leaving the Presidency he located his office in Harlem (which is where this cathedral is). The entire neighborhood has come a long way since then - including the real estate values.
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I'll take your word for it, Kathleen, but after 13 years of parochial school, the idea of Hoochie Coochie Man in church just doesn't compute! LOL
On the other hand, more power to the congregation for finding a way to be relevant in the community. For many congregations, those beautiful buildings became burdens that they couldn't support and lead to their demise. I attended two beautiful old churches in St. Louis when I was a kid, and the last time I looked one had literally crumbled (both building and congregation), and the other was holding on by a thread.