Bishop is Seated at Cathedral

In a beautiful service of Choral Evensong on the Feast of All Saints, the Rt. Rev. Ruth Woodlliff-Stanley was formally seated at Grace Church Cathedral on Sunday, November 7. At the start of the service, the cathedral doors were closed and, following tradition in the Episcopal Church, she used the diocesan crozier to knock several times at the door, requesting entry from the Dean of the Cathedral and the people of the diocese.

The service for Welcoming and Seating a Bishop, found in the Book of Occasional Services, is a special service that takes place at the Cathedral. In the early years of the Church a bishop would sit to give instruction and teaching. That chair for teaching came to be called the bishop’s “cathedra” and the worship structure that housed it is called a “cathedral.” During the service, the new bishop takes her place in the cathedra, or bishop’s chair, a symbol of the bishop’s office.

The service was livestreamed at can be watched on the Grace Church Cathedral YouTube page at this link.