Today saw the installation of the new Dean of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Winnie Varghese. The twelfth dean, the Very Reverend Varghese is the first woman, the first woman of color, the first Indian American, the first queer woman in this position, but when asked about being the first woman in the position in a TV interview replied with deflationary charm: "isn't it amazing that in 2025 we're still seeing such firsts?" I've admired this no-nonsense visionary for years.
The service (which I watched on livestream*) was multifaith, as events at the Cathedral often are, including readings from the Quran (about Mary and her son) and the 15th century Bhakti mystic Kabir. The sermon, by Right Reverend Vicentia Kgabe, Bishop of Lesotho, was mostly on Isaiah 58's reminder that religious ritual without care for the least of these is incomplete, that feeding the hungry and caring for the widow, the orphan and the stranger is itself "sacramental" work. Musical selections were woven in, one of which floored me. It's the 2022 "Plowshare Prayer" by queer singer Spencer LaJoye and sung by Rachel Kurtz.
Dear blessed creator, dear mother, dear savior
Dear father, dear brother, dear holy other
Dear sibling, dear baby, dear patiently waiting
Dear sad and confused, dear stuck and abused
Dear end-of-your-rope, dear worn out and broke,
Dear go-it-alone, dear running from home
Dear righteously angry, forsaken by family
Dear jaded and quiet, dear tough and defiant
I pray that I’m heard
And I pray that this works
I pray if a prayer has been used as a sword
against you and your heart, against you and your word
I pray that this prayer is a plowshare, of sorts
that it might break you open, it might help you grow
I pray that your body gets all that it needs
and if you don’t want healing, I just pray for peace
I pray that your burden gets lighter each day
I pray the mean voice in your head goes away
I pray that you honor the grief as it comes
I pray you can feel all the life in your lungs
I pray that if you go all day being brave
that you can go home, go to bed feeling safe
I pray you’re forgiven, I pray you forgive
I pray you set boundaries and openly live
I pray that you feel you are worth never leaving
I pray that you know I will always believe you
I pray that you’re heard
and I pray that this works
Amen on behalf of the last and the least
On behalf of the anxious, depressed, and unseen
Amen for the workers, the hungry, the houseless
Amen for the lonely and recently spouseless
Amen for the queers and their closeted peers
Amen for the bullied who hold in their tears
Amen for the mothers of little Black sons
Amen for the kids who grow up scared of guns
Amen for the addicts, the ashamed and hungover
Amen for the calloused, the wisened, the sober
Amen for the ones who want life to be over
Amen for the leaders who lose their composure
Amen for the parents who just lost their baby
Amen for the chronically ill and disabled
Amen for the children down at the border
Amen for the victims of our law and order
I pray that you’re heard
and I pray that this works
I pray if a prayer has been used as a sword
against you and your heart, against you and your word
I pray that this prayer is a plowshare, of sorts
All this in "the biggest gothic cathedral in the world," not far from the UN where our monstrous president just tried to turn plowshares back into swords. Dean Varghese shared her vision for her work as part of "The Church as an imagination shaping force."
I believe the most important thing we do in the church is to share the good news of Jesus, who connects heaven to earth, and reinscribes the sacredness of all life by his life. As his church, it is our work to bear witness to the God-With-Us in our time.
The church can be an imagination shaping force, which is critical work today.
It is the responsibility and gift of the church to introduce wisdom into the conversation, a gospel urgency, the great arc of history, a global, inclusive, and compassionate view, and an earnest search for justice and beauty to generate Christian imaginations for this time.
At our best we are among the institutions that equip the people of the community who make healing and justice real.
We can do that through the arts, our liturgy, and strategic use of the great buildings that are our heritage. I am eager to explore how the Cathedral could engage the great questions of the day in its vast forum.
Feeling very proud to be Episcopalian right now - but I can hear Dean Varghese gently but firmly nudging with a smile: get to work.
* Part way through the service, the livestream seemed to encounter technical difficulties. I learned later that Winnie's father had collapsed, perhaps from the heat in the cathedral, and the family had to take him swiftly to hospital. (Thankfully he's recovered.) As a result Nadia Boltz-Weber's lovely "Prayers of the People" and Winnie's own closing remarks weren't delivered, and while the service concluded with the planned hymn and procession, the surprise appearance of the Queer Big Apple Marching Band planned for the very end will have to come some other time.
