The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, located at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street in Harlem, NY.
The event honors NYC and the worldwide LGBTQ+ community throughout the summer with a series of events for Iconic Pride.
The Cathedral has long celebrated and supported LGBTQ+ people, with a legacy of Pride events stretching back several decades. For 2023, over a month of events, programs, and gatherings are planned, beginning on May 31, 2023 and extending through the beginning of July.
On May 31, the Cathedral kicks off Pride Month through Pride Eve, an evening featuring the opening of a season-long art installation by Gabriel Garcia Roman. The artist’s Queer Icons depict contemporary people from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, using the symbolism of religious iconography to emphasize the dignity and divinity inherent in each individual. Throughout the evening, attendees will be invited to create their own icons, drawing upon their own experiences and identities. The celebratory evening will conclude with the rainbow illumination of the Cathedral’s magnificent columns, lighting up the night in the colors of the LGBTQ+ flag.
- 6 PM – 8 PM: Pride Eve
The celebration continues on Saturday, June 3 with the Cathedral’s Pride Family Day. Kids and people of all ages are invited to enjoy a festive day on the Cathedral’s verdant grounds, taking part in an ice cream social and engaging in art activities inspired by the Queer Icons on view in the Cathedral. Music will be provided by the Queer Big Apple Corps, an LGBTQ+ marching band, leading a joyous and inclusive procession into the Cathedral.
- 12 PM – 4 PM: Pride Family Day
On Monday, June 5, the Cathedral convenes a panel of faith leaders to discuss the intersections of religion and LGBTQ+ life in a Pride Panel Discussion. The ecumenical panel includes The Rev. Dr. Charlie Bell, The Rev. James Martin, SJ, The Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng, and The Rev. Dr. Mary Barber. The Very Rev. Patrick Malloy, Dean of the Cathedral, will lead and moderate the discussion, centering the spiritual lives of LGBTQ+ communities within The Episcopal Church and other Christian denominations.
- 6 PM – 7:30 PM: Pride Panel Discussion
Music is at the heart of life at the Cathedral, including during Pride season. On Sunday, June 18, a community choir, made up of singers from around New York, will join the Cathedral Choir for a 4 pm Pride Evensong Service. Members of the community and allies are all welcome to be part of this joyous choral gathering. The Evensong service will feature music of Ethel Smyth, Daniel Ficarri, Craig Phillips, David Hurd and Kristina Rizzotto, in addition to hymns from “Songs for the Holy Other,” a collection by The Hymn Society of hymns affirming the LGBTQ+ community. The Queer Horn Collective, a newly-formed group of LGBTQ+ NYC instrumentalists, will perform a prelude at the beginning of the service.
- 4 PM – 5 PM: Pride Evensong Service
The Cathedral’s Pride celebration concludes on Saturday, July 1 with the Feast Day of St. Pauli Murray. Pauli Murray, who blazed a bright path as a proudly gender nonconforming lesbian and an activist for the rights of African Americans, women, LGBTQ+ people, and all oppressed people, was the first Black woman ordained a priest in The Episcopal Church, and is now regarded as a saint, with her feast day falling on July 1. The Cathedral will screen “My Name is Pauli Murray,” a documentary about the saint’s life and legacy, as the closing gathering for Pride 2023.
- 6 PM – 8 PM: Feast Day of St. Pauli Murray
Throughout the season, all, whether members of the LGBTQ+ community or allies, are warmly welcomed to take part in services and events within the Cathedral’s sacred embrace. The Cathedral’s Pride events are generously supported in part by the Friends of the Cathedral, formerly known as the Laymen’s Club.
For more info on all of the Iconic Pride gatherings, visit stjohndivine.org/iconic-pride.
The Cathedral
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York in Harlem. It is chartered as a house of prayer for all people and a unifying center of intellectual light and leadership.
People from many faiths and communities worship together in daily services held online and in person; the soup kitchen serves roughly 50,000 meals annually; social service outreach has an increasingly varied roster of programs to safely provide resources and aid to the hardest-hit New Yorkers; the distinguished Cathedral School prepares young students to be future leaders; Advancing the Community of Tomorrow, the renowned preschool, afterschool and summer program, offers diverse educational and nurturing experiences; the outstanding Textile Conservation Lab preserves world treasures; concerts, exhibitions, performances and civic gatherings allow conversation, celebration, reflection and remembrance—such is the joyfully busy life of this beloved and venerated Cathedral.
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