Weaving Our Gifts

For a long time I’ve noted that Washington National Cathedral’s layout is that of the plan of salvation. The west end has art about creation (carvings of swirling planets and emerging human beings on the outside and the creation rose—which has sections for the ‘days’ of creation, (best seen from the inside). Then, as you walk down the main nave you see the unfolding of the gifts of creation: stone, wood, glass, fiber, as well as the stories in glass and carvings of human beings cooperating with God’s plan. At the crossing you mark redemption: crossing itself, cross inlaid in the floor, crucifixion above on the rood screen (and below, on the crypt level the Joseph of Arimathea Chapel). Then continuing west to east, you climb to the high altar, above which is the carving of Christ in light, victorious, surrounded by the saints.