Cathedral Review: Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

After my amazing experiences in Canterbury and Westminster, I determined to visit noteworthy Cathedrals when I traveled. My first such visit was Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. And, hoo boy, that wasn’t great.

The Cathedral passes for a cool building from street level. When you get close you realize the outside appears to be poured concrete? Disappointing, but it’s what’s on the inside that counts, right?

The inside is also poured concrete. The entire building is a steel frame with concrete poured over it. The “gothic” architecture is a crude facsimile that serves no structural purpose. This would likely be fine if a facade was put up that looked like carved stone, to at least recreate the aesthetic. But there is nothing, it’s just bare concrete. It is so blatantly ugly that one imagines it was made repulsive on purpose. To what end??

From the start the unfinished-basement aesthetic, combined with a low-polygon imitation of gothic, lent an air of mockery to the cathedral. It felt less like a place that people come to feel awe and wonder, and more like a place that sneers at people who would want that sort of thing. It’s weird, cuz I don’t believe in spooks or any sort of religious hokum, but it actually provoked strong vibes of corruption. This is what a cathedral corrupted by someone who despises cathedrals would feel like.

There did not appear to be any remains buried beneath the floor, or entombed within the Cathedral. Perhaps they couldn’t get the bodies to stay at rest in those surroundings. :/ There wasn’t much veneration of past people who’d done great things for the church or community at all. I realize this isn’t a church with centuries of legacy, but the emptiness really reinforced the basement feel. The few items that were displayed (a bust, a carved podium, etc) had plaques by them that identified the donor and artist, as if this was an art museum or gallery. These artifacts are meant to glorify valued forerunners, not to showcase the artist. It, again, felt like a corruption of the spirit of the place.

It gets worse. The murals in the main hall (the only place were the concrete wasn’t left naked), had originally been painted to showcase some of the people that made this branch of the church, and this specific cathedral, a reality. They aren’t great, but whatever, at least it was an attempt. Except a plaque hangs among the murals now, disclaiming them for not being sensitive and diverse, and normalizing cis white men. At this point why even bother having a cathedral at all, aside from spite?

There were two medieval tapestries that were very impressive, and obviously took hundreds of hours of painstaking labor. They were the only true-feeling parts of the cathedral. Also the stained glass windows were nice. I guess it’s hard to screw up stained glass. Thank goodness for that, at least.

This was very disappointing, because Grace is queer and liberal and basically all the things I could get behind if I were to join a church, and they have the worst vibes I’ve ever seen. Even Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Halls weren’t this bad. Those are sterile and stifling, but at least they aren’t seeping with creepiness. I did not stick around for a sermon or mass or whatever. 0/5 stars, would not visit.