San Francisco's Grace Cathedral Self-Led Exploration

Wow. Very big and beautiful church. Wonderful stained glass. Impressive place to visit.

The description on the opening page is right on for Grace Cathedral. The few paragraphs to describe it aren't enough. A saying on old buildings goes, "Old buildings have great stories to be told." Grace Cathedral is working on volumes of stories to be told. The Cathedral stands out for many reasons. It is the 3rd largest Episcopalian Cathedral in the country. There is an app to download on your phone and a self guided tour you can follow for information you see on the tour. It is very worth the money and time to stroll through the cathedral and learn about its many intricacies. The cathedral seemed so immense when I walked in. It felt bigger on the inside than it does from the outside. As you walk to the center nave, you will see the Aids Chapel to the right and the Labyrinth in front of you. The Aids Chapel has an alter piece created by Keith Haring, a NY pop artist who died from Aids. It is called, "The Life of Christ". Looking down to the altar you will see arches to the right and left and on the ceiling. Behind the arches on the sides are murals and beautiful stained glass windows all around the church. The Stained Glass windows by noted artists depict over 1100 figures ranging from Adam and Eve to Albert Einstein. The murals display stories of religious events and San Francisco history. As you approach the altar the two large stain glass windows on the right and the left are dedications to the new and old testament. On the right and left of the altar are Chapel of Grace and the Chapel of the Nativity. So much to see and learn about. I wasn't there at a good time to take the tour. I read the tour takes you up one one of the Bell towers. If anyone has read my other reviews, you will know, I like to include a little history in the review. Before this Cathedral was built there was a wooden cathedral built in the 1850s during the gold rush era. I enjoyed reading that one of the offering was small bags of gold dust. That church was burnt down by Earthquake that wiped out much of the city in 1906. The first coner stone for the Cathedral was laid in 1910. It took until 1964 to complete. A landmark event to celebrate the opening of the Cathedral was a sermon delivered by Dr Martin Luther King. It was the largest gathering at the cathedral until a memorial service on September 11th, 2001 took place.

+10

This modern cathedral is faithful to the design of the gothic medieval past. The stained glass is wonderful. The vaulting terrific. The self guide information really interesting.

Visitors to the city, we'd never heard of this cathedral but were walking past and decided to pop inside. Well, what a wholly unexpected treat. We have visited most of the UK Cathedrals and many in major locations around the world but never one like Grace. The art work just blew us away. Very many bright and wonderful stained glass windows from different artists, various fascinating murals which gave full accounts of events in S.F. history . And most unexpected of all, even the prayer kneelers in the choir stalls had been lovingly embroidered with detailed pictures of animals, birds, fish etc. Such talent to produce such beautiful items. Also a fun labyrinth to negotiate. Yet amongst all this, it still maintains the feeling of being the House of God. This Cathedral celebrates diversity in a way not usually seen in a Cathedral, including an Inter Faith AIDS chapel and Pride painted stairway. Also during our visit, a very interesting and well balanced exhibition about abortion, which struck me as being a brave subject to feature here yet because of its sensitive presentation, it fitted its surroundings perfectly. Also thanks to the man at the reception desk who was a joy to talk to. He showed great interest in all we had to say and gave us so much information about the Cathedral and a recommendation to visit Coit Tower and a restaurant he liked. He was so engaging and a great credit to his city and to the Cathedral. For us, this unexpected gem was the highlight of our visit to S.F. It may be smaller than many Cathedrals world wide but for us, it certainly ranks amongst the best.