Religious, Spiritual sights in Washington, DC
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Washington National Cathedral
Open to all faiths and creeds, this house of worship, while run by the Episcopal diocese, has conducted services for Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Baha’is. Presidents attend multifaith services following their inauguration, state funerals are hosted inside and this was where Martin Luther King Jr gave his last Sunday sermon. Technically, it took 82 years to build this edifice – Teddy Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1908, and construction didn’t technically stop until 1990. The National Cathedral has become such an iconic feature of the city skyline it is hard to imagine a time when its construction was a controversial issue, but there was some str…
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Franciscan Monastery
This honey-colored compound leaps out like an unexpected religious slap from the surrounding parkland and residential row houses. Also known as Mt St Sepulchre, the building is pretty but not particularly unique; more interesting are the carefully maintained grounds, threaded with walkways that lead past 44 acres of tulips, dogwoods, cherry trees and roses – and some unintentionally tacky re-creations of the Middle East. See, the Order of St Francis is charged with the guardianship of the Holy Land’s sacred sites, and it has interpreted that task in a unique way here, constructing replicas for the faithful on its grounds. There are life-size fake-granite reproductions of …
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C
St Augustine Catholic Church
Let the spirit move you at DC’s oldest black Catholic congregation. Clad in Kenti cloth and sporting soloists just waiting to bust their lungs, the 165 members of the St Augustine gospel choir rock the house every Sunday at 12:30pm. The mass is long, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun and spiritually nourishing to boot. For calmer but equally beautiful music, come for 10am mass, when the church chorale sings traditional Catholic hymns. Founded in 1858, St Augustine’s congregation moved to the Gothic-revival building at 15th and V Sts NW in 1961. It was a bold move, and marked a merger with an all-white congregation; the joined churches became known as Sts Paul & Augustine. T…
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D
Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle
The sturdy redbrick exterior doesn’t hint at the marvelous mosaics and gilding within this 1889 Catholic cathedral, where JFK was laid in state and his funeral mass was held. Its vast central dome, altars and chapels depict biblical saints and eminent New World personages – from Simón Bolívar to Elizabeth Ann Seton – in stained glass, murals and scintillating Italianate mosaics; almost no surface is left undecorated. Evening’s the best time to visit, when flickering candles illuminate the sanctuary, but you can attend mass on Sunday morning or slip in almost any time to look around.
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Metropolitan AME Church
Built and paid for in 1886 by former slaves (quite a feat considering its impressive size), the Metropolitan AME Church occupies an imposing redbrick Gothic structure and is one of the city’s most handsome, yet striking, churches. Statesman and orator Frederick Douglass often preached here, and his state funeral was held here in February 1895. On the day of his burial, black schools closed, crowds packed the exterior to pay respect and flags flew at half-mast.
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Islamic Center
Topped with a 160ft minaret, this pale limestone structure is the national mosque for American Muslims. It is delicately inscribed with Quranic verse, so it appears to float above Massachusetts Ave. Inside, the mosque glows with bright floral tiling, thick Persian rugs and gilt-trimmed ceilings detailed with more Quranic verse. You can enter to look around; remove your shoes, and women must bring scarves to cover their hair.
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St John’s Church
A small building, St John’s isn’t DC’s most imposing church, but it is arguably its most important. That’s because it’s the ‘Church of the Presidents’ – every president since Madison has attended services here at least once, and pew 54 is reserved for the Big Guy (er, the president; not God).
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St Mary’s Episcopal Church
Built in 1887, St Mary’s was home to the first black Episcopal congregation in DC. James Renwick, designer of theSmithsonian Castle, created the beautiful redbrick building especially for the congregation. Above the altar are French-made painted-glass windows that depict, among others, the African bishop and martyr St Cyprian.
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Christ Church
Since 1773, this redbrick Georgian-style church has welcomed worshipers from George Washington to Robert E Lee. The cemetery contains the mass grave of Confederate soldiers.
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