On my favorite place in NYC

New York is an extraordinary city, with more marvelous buildings, parks, museums, and restaurants than I could ever hope to explore in my lifetime. It is therefore ridiculous to say that I have a favorite place in the city (especially after having been here for only a month), but ridiculous or not, I've found my haven in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. 

I know a church can't be defined only by impressive statistics, but indulge me for just a minute and let me give you a sense for the palatial grandeur of this place: even in its 2/3 completed state, the Cathedral is the largest religious edifice in the US, and the third largest in the world (after St. Peter's and some church in Nigeria). It is so tall that the Statue of Liberty could comfortably fit inside the nave. The gothic interior is breathtakingly beautiful, with stained glass windows, a stupendous organ, and, as if the main nave weren't enough, 7 fully equipped side chapels. 

I first set foot there on my very first day in NY, and have been unabashedly in love ever since. My housemates roll their eyes at my Cathedral obsession, and know that I can't go anywhere near Morningside Heights without making a detour to catch a glimpse of glory. I've even made a practice of stopping by for half an hour or so on my way home from work (now you know my other reason for switching to the C train...), just to maximize the amount of time I spend there. 

Without any doubt the best thing about the Cathedral is the music. I, who have been unhealthily obsessed with sacred music since age 12, have finally found a church whose choir meets my (unreasonably) high standards. Evensong on Sunday evenings is the kind of worship experience I've always yearned for, but never thought actually existed in the real world. The liturgy is carried out with impeccable high church pageantry. The congregation sits in the choir stalls, where the acoustics are at their best. The program changes completely from week to week, cycling through an impressive array of compositional styles.  Needless to say, I look forward to it with manic enthusiasm. But what really gets me is that the beauty of this service literally draws people from off the street - the congregation starts out sparse, but quadruples in size by the end, as tourists and passersby hear the magical singing and can't draw themselves away. 

This morning, I was finally able to make it to a Sunday morning service, and wasn't disappointed. I have never in my life seen such liturgical majesty in an Episcopal Church: not only were there 7 assisting clergy, a full choir, and a whole troop of acolytes, but there were also at least 25 UN diplomats present! The homily was given by a Muslim ambassador from Libya - a beautiful expression of the church's commitment to crossing cultural, political, and religious boundaries. I know it shouldn't take an enormous (and enormously wealthy...) cathedral to inspire this sentiment, but St. John the Divine, with its commitment to liturgy, the arts, and socio-political involvement, makes me proud to be an Episcopalian. 

And, if I needed another reason to love the Cathedral (and I think we can all agree that I didn't), I found it today as I walked out after the morning service: it has BELLS! Not a bell, not a cheap carillon, but a whole set of big, glorious, resounding bells that peal just like their European counterparts. I was so surprised and delighted by this discovery that I spilled an entire cup of coffee all over myself and stopped dead in my tracks, coffee-drenched, in the pouring rain, grinning madly until the music finally stopped. 

I have found heaven on earth.