Newly dedicated Christ Cathedral opened its doors in welcome to thousands of visitors in the weekend following its dedication, eliciting praise and prompting hundreds of photographs inside and outside the building.
“The opening weekend for Christ Cathedral was a powerful and inspiring experience,” says the Very Reverend Christopher Smith, rector and episcopal vicar. “The cathedral was completely full for eight out of our 10 Masses, and very full for the others. It was so wonderful to see the people’s participation, feel their excitement and hear their many comments about the beauty of cathedral and how grateful they are to be able to celebrate Mass at this holy place.”
Weekend worship kicked off with a tri-lingual Mass in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese held at 4:45 p.m. Saturday, where Fr. Smith led six other concelebrants of the Mass in welcoming worshippers to “our new house.”
“More than the physical characteristics have been changed,” he explains. “In a unique way we serve not only each other but also become the seat of the Church, serving all the other parishes in Orange County.”
Gifts and flowers, including leis for each of the celebrants, were presented at the altar by members of the cathedral’s Samoan community. The procession featured Tonya Parker-Talavou, 19, of Huntington Beach, who wore a new taupou, a ceremonial costume reserved for special occasions, with an elaborate tuiga headdress of feathers and seashells.
The cathedral’s Chinese community presented a traditional lion dance following the Mass.
Davin Alcordo, who recently graduated from high school in the Philippines, joined his father Dexter and grandmother Maria Theresa for the Mass and was struck by the openness of the cathedral campus. “It’s a very beautiful and very different place,” Maria Theresa says.
Full story at OC Catholic.
Some possibly will object to the ethnic aspects of parts of the opening ritual. I view that as part of many different people worshiping Almighty God, who fully accepts these differences.
We plan to visit the Cathedral in late September after the opening kinks are mostly ironed out.
Make a phone call before you go as I understand the cathedral will be closed to visitors whilst the organ is tuned. The dedication of the Hazel Wright organ will occur in May 2020 I believe.
I object to ethnicity being raised to undue importance
So what. Galaxy’s Edge has been packed at nearby Disneyland too every day for the past two months since it opened, and people are paying $150 a pop to see it and they’re dropping hundreds of dollars on Star Wars merchandise while there. People are also decked out in costumes in the Star Wars land, like this article says about people in costumes at the cathedral. Know what? In a year people won’t care much about the new cathedral but they will still be shelling out many hundreds of dollars for Disney and Star Wars land.
One good earthquake and there might be redemption for Kevin Vann, bishop of Orange County.
He went out of his way to defend Muslims in New Zealand but not one word regarding a defense of unborn babies who will be killed as New Zealand approves of abortion.
Kevin Vann is Bishop of Orange. Why should he be sticking his nose into what’s going on in New Zealand? As far as Southern California is concerned, Bishop Vann has a very strong pro-life record. Before he arrived here he had already compiled solid pro-life credentials. In the 2008 election for U.S. president, Bishop Vann and Bishop Kevin Farrell issued a joint statement in which they said, in part, “We cannot make more clear the seriousness of the overriding issue of abortion — while not the only issue — it is the defining moral issue, not only today, but of the last 35 years … As Catholics we are morally obligated to pray, to act, and to vote to abolish the evil of abortion in America.” Why you would criticize him is beyond me.
Don’t look to the bishops for leadership in Catholic faith
A person, even a Bishop, can be against the evils fo abortion without stating that in every sentence that we utter. ” Good morning, stop abortion, it’s really nice out, stop abortion, too bad about the rain over the weekend that spoiled the parish bazaar, stop abortion.” Really. It is asking too much, I think, to condemn someone because they don’t speak about abortion all the time. It is evil, yes, but so are other things happening in the world.
Another convention center……
So glad to read the Cathedral was full for most of the Masses. Praise God!