Ever since I first noticed it I’ve been enchanted with the fact the Episcopal church in the US observes a festival in honor of two architects, Ralph Adams Cram and Richard Upjohn and an artist, John La Farge.
For me the delight that artistic endeavor is considered saintly is doubled by the fact one of the architects named in the festival, Mr Cram, also built a church that I served, the First Unitarian Society of Newton, MA, between 2000 & 2008.
The prayer included for this occasion, in its traditional formulation, begins, “Gracious God, we offer thanks for the vision of Ralph Adams Cram, John LaFarge and Richard Upjohn, whose harmonious revival of the Gothic enriched our churches with a sacramental understanding of reality in the face of secular materialism; and we pray that we may honor thy gifts of the beauty of holiness given through them…” It concludes with a traditional trinitarian formula unnecessary for my purposes…
Then as frosting on the cake when I looked on Youtube for a clip of music at FUSN I found the children’s choir singing for a Christmas Eve service back when I was serving there. If you look behind the kids and squint you can see me sitting in the minister’s throne and enjoying the kids and the evening…
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