Peripatetic me — it took me almost five years to take my seat.
An episcopal seat is called a cathedra. Ours in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, used by every bishop since Joseph Horsfall Johnson, is a century old. Its elaborate carvings, the artistry of a Los Angeles actor and woodworker, depict the acts of Christ and the apostles. There’s even an inlaid thousand-year-old piece of wood from London’s Winchester Cathedral.
When its first home, St. Paul’s Cathedral, was demolished in 1980, the diocese moved the cathedra to its downtown offices and then the brand new Cathedral Center of St. Paul. Deciding that one cathedral was better than two, in 2019 we changed our HQ’s name to St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park and asked the vestry of St. John’s Cathedral, on W. Adams near USC, to seat up. They bade welcome to both the bishops’ and bishops suffragan chairs and placed them in logical spots near the high altar. But they’ve been lonely. Most cathedral liturgies have take place at a moveable altar in the transept, closer to the congregation, so the chairs became glorious ornaments.
Enter the St. John’s interim dean, the Very Rev. Anne Sawyer. A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I’d never actually sat in the bishop’s chair during a service. It was just an observation. I had grown used to being Miss Muffet without her tuffet. But in an incredibly gracious gesture, working with our diocesan ministers of ceremonies, Dean Anne designed our ordination service this morning as a movable feast. As presider, I used an altar right next to the chair. To facilitate the Holy Spirit’s ordination of four wonderful new deacons, my chaplain, the Rev. Dominique Nicolette Piper, and I processed to the transept, close to the ordinands and the congregation. Canon John Charles Thies snapped the photo of me beaming ex cathedra at last.
