Welcome
Cathedral ministry to the Diocese and the City
The word cathedral comes from the Latin word cathedra, which roughly translates as “bishop’s seat.” Traditionally, a cathedral is the official seat and spiritual home of the bishop.
Cathedrals are called to mission that they share with the rest of the Church. It is in our Cathedral where significant events of diocesan life are celebrated: bishops are elected and consecrated, deacons are ordained, Christians are baptized and confirmed at the Great Vigil of Easter, diocesan conventions are held, and clergy come to renew their ordination vows each Holy Week. This place is a visible symbol of the unity of the church so dear to many of us.
Christ Church Cathedral ministers to the city of Hartford and the surrounding area by opening our doors for a soup kitchen, providing a place to address issues impacting our city and region, hosting artistic and cultural events such as the First Night Hartford events and the Hartford Chorale. The Cathedral also offers rehearsal and workshop space for the Hartford Stage Company, enabling hundreds of school-age children a hands-on theatrical experience.
The Congregation: Who we are
Christ Church Cathedral is a parish church as well as the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. We are a community of faith called to worship God and become Christ’s hands and heart in the world. We strive to respect each other’s differences as we celebrate our diversity. This is a place for families and singles, old and young, male and female, gay and straight, black and white, Latino and Asian, rich and poor. All who seek God are welcome here.
Christ Church Cathedral is a regional parish that attracts members from many towns in the Greater Hartford area. Our immediate neighborhood is the central business district of downtown Hartford, which has undergone significant growth and investment as hundreds of new apartments and condominiums are being built.
History
Christ Church Cathedral has not always been a cathedral. From the building of its first worship space in 1792, to the construction of the current church in 1827, up to 1919, Christ Church was one of many parish churches of the Diocese of Connecticut. Bishop Chauncey Brewster, the fifth Bishop of Connecticut, chose Christ Church Parish in downtown Hartford in 1912 to serve as a cathedral for the Diocese. He hoped a cathedral would draw the parishes into a closer unity.
One of the oldest Gothic-style churches in the United States, Christ Church Cathedral is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Building began in 1827, and the church was consecrated in December, 1829. It was designed by Ithiel Town of New Haven who used sketches done by the church’s rector while on a trip to England. These sketches included architectural details from many churches, among them Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral.
The Cathedral’s outer walls are made from native Portland brownstone and are 3 feet thick. The bell tower rises 150 feet above street level and is 22.5 feet square. The open parapet at its top is an exact replica of those at York Minster.
Inside, the Cathedral space is dominated by nine stained-glass windows. Made in England, they were installed during the 19th Century.
About the Diocese of Connecticut
The basic unit of The Episcopal Church is the diocese, a geographic area. It is headed by a bishop. The Diocese of Connecticut includes the entire state. There are currently 175 parishes in the diocese, plus several other worshipping congregations. Our diocesan bishop is the Rt. Rev. Andrew D. Smith, who is assisted by bishops suffragan, the Rt. Rev. James E. Curry and the Rt. Rev. Laura Ahrens. Following Bishop Smith's retirement, Bishop-elect Ian Douglas will be consecrated in April 2010.
There are about 68,500 baptized members in the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. The Diocese is one of 100 domestic dioceses in the Episcopal Church USA (which also includes some overseas dioceses). The Episcopal Church is one of 38 Episcopal or Anglican churches around the world that comprise the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Episcopal Church
To know where we are going, it helps to know where we’ve been, so we begin at the beginning.The Episcopal Church began because Henry VIII wanted a divorce, right? Not really. There was more going on in the 16th century than Henry’s marital problems, some of it political and some of it theological. Through prior centuries of war and turmoil the church in Rome worked to preserve European civilization. It enforced rules of conduct, appointed rulers, and controlled the economy. A monk named Martin Luther and others protested what they saw as the church’s excesses and interference with people’s faith. Henry didn’t like Luther’s reform movement but he wanted more control of the church in England. He, like many political leaders of his time, wanted his people’s undivided loyalty, and he had other uses for the English money that supported the church in Rome. Henry broke from Rome, and England suffered as Roman Catholics and Protestants battled for control of the church and the government. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, devised religious and political arrangements, including the third version of The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) in 1559, that left the English church with both Roman Catholic and Protestant characteristics. Walking this middle way between the traditions makes us a sacramental church that promotes thoughtful debate about what God is calling us to do and be as followers of Christ. While the words of the BCP were first heard in what is now the United States on San Francisco Bay in 1579 (when explorer Sir Francis Drake prayed after putting ashore), what is now the Episcopal Church grew up in colonial settlements on the East Coast. After the Revolution, its members forged a church with no formal loyalties to England.
The Episcopal Church today is made up of more than 2.2 million worshipers in about 7,679 congregations across the United States and elsewhere, including Europe, South America and the Caribbean. We organize ourselves in geographic groupings of congregations called dioceses. Haiti is the largest of our 110 dioceses. We Episcopalians also call ourselves Anglicans to describe our roots in the Church of England. Our congregations range from thousands gathering to worship in venerable cathedrals to small groups worshipping in storefronts. We pray with and for each other. We welcome all who come looking for God and a community of love. We work together to make our congregations strong for those who will come after us. The church’s complete name, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America, describes our work together. We make Christ’s mission our own by working in and sponsoring such ministries as food pantries, homeless shelters, mission trips, rummage sales, parish nursing programs, vacation bible schools, church camps, retreat centers, and after-school mentoring programs. Our ways of worshipping are as varied as our ways of doing mission. Some of us always use incense, others never do. Most of us have Holy Eucharist every Sunday while some have Eucharist less often. The Book of Common Prayer grounds us all. It explains Christianity, describes the main beliefs of the Episcopal Church, outlines the requirements for the sacraments, gives the patterns of our worship together and serves as the main guideline of the Episcopal life. Just as we hold these prayers and rites in common, we also hold some common beliefs. We look back to the beginnings of the Christian church for statements of those beliefs and we find the Apostles’ Creed (formed in the very early years of the church) and the Nicene Creed (written during fourth-century gatherings of church leaders). Both creeds describe the God whom we experience in three ways: as the one who creates us, the one who redeems us and the one who continually guides us towards holiness. We sometimes interpret the Bible differently, yet we find common ground in our belief that Holy Scripture is the Word of God. Using the text of the Bible itself and the tradition of what Christians have taught us about it through the ages, Episcopalians believe we must come to an understanding of it as it relates to our own lives. To do this work we use our “reason,” that is our God-given intelligence and our experiences. Some people refer to our three-legged stool of Scripture, tradition and reason.
The Anglican Communion
The Episcopal Church traces its roots to the Church of England, and we are not the only Christian community in the world to do so. There are more than 70 million people in 163 countries who call themselves Anglican because they belong to congregations with roots similar to ours. Those roots were put down by missionaries and by settlers who journeyed to new lands and brought with them The Book of Common Prayer and Anglican clergy. The churches which grew up from those seeds resembled each other in basic ways, yet also reflected their individual cultures. Your experience of worshipping with Anglicans in Alaska, for instance, may well be very different than if you were worshipping with Anglicans in South Africa or Italy but all Anglicans use a version of The Book of Common Prayer. Even the way Anglicans govern their churches differs throughout the world. For instance, in some churches, bishops are appointed by the government or by archbishops. In other Anglican churches, clergy and lay people elect their bishops. Few member churches gather both its clergy and lay people as the Episcopal Church does to vote on the direction of the church’s mission. Our common history and common prayer make us members of what we call the Anglican Communion. At the center of the Communion is the leader of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The current archbishop, the 104th man in that position, is the Most Reverend Rowan Williams. He is the spiritual head of the Communion, but has no direct authority over any Anglican church outside of England.
Each member church is connected or “in communion,” as Anglicans say, with the Archbishop of Canterbury and, through him, to every other church. The member churches of the Anglican Communion are joined together by choice in love, and have no authority over one another. This arrangement may seem complicated, and it has led to some tension. For at least the last 30 years, the leaders of some of the 38 member churches of the Communion have said they are “out of communion” with the Episcopal Church because of our decisions, first, about ordaining women and then, more recently, consecrating an openly gay man as the bishop of New Hampshire and the blessing of same-gender relationships. Yet, the Anglican Communion has been called a mystery which we are always trying to understand. Many say living in this sometimes-imperfect web of relationships is a gift from God. Indeed, we are called by God to be an example of how a group of very different people might be held together by our love of God, our belief that Jesus invited everyone to the table and our desire to spread that love in this world that is often divided and broken.
Christ Church Cathedral is part of a much larger community. “Episcopal” means “bishop” in Greek, and the Episcopal Church is governed in part by its bishops. The clergy and elected lay people work with bishops to run their local faith communities and larger church organizations. Each congregation elects some of its members to manage its finances and property. Those members choose a priest to lead them in worship, teach them about the Christian life, help them minister in Christ’s name to the world and counsel them in times of need. A geographic cluster of congregations forms a diocese and gives money to run that structure. The people and clergy elect a priest to lead their diocese as bishop. The bishop is the diocese’s head pastor but he or she is also an administrator, evangelist and teacher. The bishop, in consultation with the people and clergy, chooses people to serve as priests and deacons. Dioceses gather regionally in provinces because some ministry is better done with combined resources. No bishop has authority in another diocese unless invited to minister
there by that bishop. Every nine years, we elect a presiding bishop to be our chief pastor, to lead us in developing church policy and strategies, and representing our church to the world. Each diocese meets annually to vote on mission and ministry policies and priorities, and to elect deputies to the General Convention which convenes every three years to make broad decisions about policy and worship.
General Convention deputies do not represent a constituency. They agree to have an open heart so that they can prayerfully listen to others and be led by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The layers of our structure, and the jargon that comes with it, may seem complicated and cumbersome but it has its benefits. Together we agree on rules, called canons, that set broad boundaries and hold us accountable. The money given by congregations to dioceses, and by dioceses to the larger church, pays for ministry that individual congregations could not afford. Within our boundaries the smallest groups of people and clergy can form communities that serve their needs and the needs of the world outside their doors. This means that Episcopal congregations have different looks and feels, and yet hold things in common with people all over the world.
How we are organized
The Cathedral Chapter is the legally constituted Board of Trustees of the Cathedral. Three members of the congregation and four members of the Diocese are elected each year to serve a three-year term, and the Bishop of the Diocese is the Chairperson. The Chapter meets three times a year, and the following are committees of the Chapter:
- The Finance Committee advises the Chapter and the Dean on all financial matters and plans the Annual Budget, presenting it to the Chapter for approval.
- The Personnel Committee advises the Dean and the Chapter on all personnel matters and policies related to Cathedral employees.
- The Building and Properties Committee advises the Dean and the Chapter on all matters pertaining to the restoration and maintenance of all Cathedral properties.
- The Executive Committee is chaired by the Dean to serve as the Cathedral’s legal governing body between Chapter meetings.
- The Stewardship Committee advises the Dean, helps direct all stewardship programs and reports to the Finance Committee of the Chapter.
The Parish Committee represents the interests of the congregation, advises the clergy and provides leadership to the congregation. Elected for three-year terms, Parish Committee members are nine in number and include a Chair and a Vice Chair. They meet as a body monthly (on those months the Chapter does not meet). Each member focuses on a particular ministry of the Cathedral and works with the respective clergy or staff person in coordination with that ministry. Each member of the Parish Committee is also a member of the Cathedral Chapter.
The Nominating Committee is established by the Parish Committee and the Dean to determine the leadership needs of the Cathedral congregation, solicit names and recruit possible candidates, determine whether any current committee members or other representatives should be re-nominated, nominate a single slate of candidates for all positions to be elected at the Annual Parish Meeting in January, and coordinate the election process at the Annual Parish Meeting. The Nominating Committee shall also make recommendations to the appropriate appointing authority regarding the filling of any vacancies that may occur between the time of the Annual Parish Meeting and the appointment of the successor Nominating Committee.
How to become a member of the Cathedral
The easiest way to be considered a member of the Cathedral is to worship on a regular basis and to make a financial pledge or donation to the work of God through our ministries. To be a member of the Cathedral it is necessary that one is baptized, either in the Episcopal or another Christian denomination.
If you are a baptized member of another Episcopal Church in this country, you should contact that church office and request a transfer of membership to be sent to the Cathedral.
If you were a member of another Christian denomination, you may contact them about sending the Cathedral a letter of membership. Or if they are unwilling to do so, you might ask them to take you off their rolls so that you are not counted twice.
If you are not baptized, simply contact one of the clergy and he or she will connect you with others in a process leading to baptism. Those interested in joining the Cathedral are encouraged to attend the Essentials of Faith course offered twice a year. We also encourage you to consider becoming a confirmed member of the Episcopal Church during the Easter Vigil service each year when the Bishop visits.
Parking and Accessibility
Parking is available for everyone in the alley at the 8:00 a.m. service. For the 10:00 a.m. service the alley is reserved for persons with disabilities. Free parking is available on the streets Sunday morning and at the Talcott Street parking lot. Free parking is also available in the Hartford Stage Garage beginning at 8:00 a.m. each Sunday. Hartford Stage Garage tickets will be validated at the coffee hour following the worship services.
Our Cathedral is accessible to all persons with disabilities. The Cathedral’s Main Street entrance has a ramp, and there is an elevator lift providing access to a unisex rest room. The lift is located in the hallway just beyond the baptismal font of the Cathedral.
The Cathedral House is equipped with an elevator, servicing all floor levels for Cathedral activities. Entrance is in the alley way between the Cathedral and the Cathedral House. There are rest rooms, accessible to all, on the basement level and on the second floor level where our Reception Room is located.
Contacting the clergy for Pastoral Emergencies outside of regular office hours
Pastoral emergencies are covered by Dean Pendleton. His cell phone number is (860) 490-8544.
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