Washington National Cathedral

We took a long weekend and went with our church youth group to the 34th Annual Acolyte Festival in Washington D.C. It was in the Washington National Cathedral, which I'd never seen before and was just spectacular! Ninety-eight churches from around the country sent groups of acolytes, and there were 648 or 649 acolytes in the procession, all in their robes, with banners, crosses, thurifers, etc. The service was lovely, and the cathedral was amazing!

I wanted to embed the video from the cathedral, but the best I can do is a link to the site with the video. If you are a grandparent, be sure to watch the bit with your grandchildren! Click HERE. Our group is coming up the aisle at 23:30, but the chorus starts in soon after, and they were Very good, so you might want to keep it going for a little longer. Don't they process nicely?

And now... pictures!

Here they are, robing up.

 Standing in front of the cathedral.

Wow!

The stained glass windows were fantastic!

By the time everyone was seated, the place was packed!

These aren't our acolytes, but they were so cute, and I loved their butterfly!

And here is our group!

 You can see Travis below, and the edge of Katie's hair! Picture taking wasn't actually allowed, technically speaking, and my camera looks like a camera, not a telephone, so I tried to take pictures quickly and discreetly, which wasn't the way to get good pictures, but better than nothing!

And I got distracted and wandered off, looking at stained glass windows, when our group got to pose in front of the altar, so I had to settle for this "make up" shot with another group. Still, there they are!

We took pictures from the top of the cathedral, looking down, but, of course, it was sort of a dismal day.

But the gargoyles and grotesques were in fine form!

And the bishop's garden was lovely!

Of course, all the things we'd really have liked to have seen -- the Smithsonian museums -- were closed, so we visited the National Geographic. They take nice pictures, those National Geographic people!

And our priest drove us all over and showed us all the important buildings! We saw the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, etc., etc. All from a fair distance, and all under heavy police guard. For a man of the cloth, he was surprisingly willing to risk arrest, stopping the car in places where he wasn't supposed to, so we could leap out and get as close a look as the armed guards would allow.

There had been yellow tape and barricades in front of this section, by the reflecting pool, but the powers that be had apparently given them up. The tape was still there, but it was down. They evidently decided to draw the line for real at the base of the stairs leading up to Lincoln. So we admired him from afar.

 I like the lone chair there, supporting the tape, in front of Lincoln in his big chair.

We did other stuff too, but that will have to wait for another day!