 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Tuesday, January 4, 2022 Anticipating the seating of the Rt Rev Diane Bruce at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral on Epiphany, January 6, 2022 |
 The welcome and seating of the Rt Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce If you can drive to Kansas City on Thursday, and if you either have a place there to spend the night, or are ready to drive home afterwards, you are invited to participate in the service at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral (415 W/ 13th St., Kansas City, MO) at 6 pmYou must be fully vaccinated to attend, and agree to wear a mask properly for the duration of the service. However, you can watch it live on YouTube or on Facebook. If you don’t go, and I will not be making that trek at night either, I do urge you to watch it if you can. It will be beautiful and it’s an important event in our Diocese.  Why is it the Diocese of West Missouri? Because of the Missouri River, which flows through our state, travel across from one part of the state to another made travel difficult from the time the Diocese of Missouri was created in 1841.Bishop Tuttle, the third bishop of Missouri, along with the Diocesan Convention, decided to split the Diocese in 1889. It was formally established in 1890.  What is a cathedral? A “cathedra” is the raised seat used by a bishop in early Christian churches to give instruction, so that everyone could hear. It was a mark of honor for the teaching authority of the leader. Eventually “cathedral” came to mean the “seat” or the principal church of a diocese. The bishop is nominally head of this congregation, but in contemporary times another priest, the “Dean” of the Cathedral is its pastor. So to “seat” a bishop is to recognize her or him as the appointed leader and principal teacher of the faith in a diocese, and the pastor to the other clergy. St Albans actually has a “cathedra” – which our first priest, Father John West retrieved from Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral after their renovation, where it was no longer being used. It originally had a much higher back, which John had cut down to match the other chairs that he also brought from there. Before St Alban’s was even created John kept them in one of his several storage units!  Why is it named, Grace and Holy Trinity? The new Diocese of West Missouri had no cathedral until 1935. Two Kansas City churches, Trinity Church, established in 1883, and Grace Church, established in 1873, were united in 1917 under the leadership of Rev. Robert Nelson Spencer, who was later elected bishop of West Missouri. They chose the name, Grace and Holy Trinity Church to honor both of their parishes. Our present cathedral was built in 1898 on the site of the earlier Grace Church building. It served as the home of the united Grace and Holy Trinity Church, but it didn’t actually become the cathedral until 1935. |
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