The Very Rev'd Vincent Ashworth
Dean of the Cathedral
Priest of thirty years' ordination, sometime scholar of the Cappadocian Fathers. Dean since MMXVIII.
The Cathedral was founded on the Feast of St. Andrew, thirtieth of November MDCCCLXXXVIII, by twelve families who had been meeting for Vespers in the back room of a dry goods store on Main Street. The first Mass was celebrated the following Christmas Eve on a rough pine altar, with a borrowed chalice. The building you see today went up in stages over the following forty years, and has been added to, repaired, and restored in every generation since.
We are a parish of the Anglican tradition — in communion with the See of Canterbury, in fellowship with the wider Church catholic. We hold to the historic creeds, celebrate the seven sacraments, keep the calendar of saints and seasons, and seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ in our small corner of the world.
I. A Short History
Stones laid, walls raised, faith kept.
1888
Founding on St. Andrew's Day
Twelve families gather for Vespers in the back of Hawkins & Sons Dry Goods. The Rev'd James Arlington Thorne is called as the first rector.
1894
Cornerstone Laid
The present nave cornerstone is laid by Bishop William Chauncey. Construction takes four years in the local granite.
1912
The Kempster Organ
The west-wall Kempster pipe organ is installed, funded by a memorial gift from the estate of Margaret Worthington. It remains the principal instrument of the Cathedral today.
1939
Elevated to Cathedral
St. Jude's Parish is elevated to the Cathedral of the newly-formed Diocese. The Dean's stall is installed in the chancel the following Pentecost.
1974
The Great Restoration
After decades of soot damage, the entire Cathedral is cleaned, the Lady Chapel added, the ambulatory extended, and the roof re-leaded. The work is dedicated by Archbishop Runcie.
2019
The Centennial of the Choir
The Cathedral Choir celebrates one hundred years of continuous singing at the Sunday Mass, a lineage traced through seven precentors and thousands of choristers.
Today
Still the Same Song
Daily Mass. Weekly Evensong. Funerals, weddings, baptisms. The Cathedral continues its work, as it has from the beginning — in prayer.
II. The Clergy
Those who serve at the altar.
M
The Rev'd Canon Margaret Hull
Canon Theologian
Sometime chaplain to the Cathedral School. Lecturer in Pastoral Theology at the Diocesan Seminary.
T
The Rev'd Thomas Okafor
Canon Precentor
Director of Cathedral Music. Trained at King's College, Cambridge. With us since MMXXII.
III. What we believe
The faith, once delivered, in three creeds.
The Cathedral holds to the catholic faith as taught in the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed; as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer; and as received in the broad stream of the Anglican tradition.
"I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made..." — from the Nicene Creed
Ours is the faith of the Book of Common Prayer: the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist as the chief signs of the new covenant; the authority of Holy Scripture as "containing all things necessary to salvation"; the historic episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate as the ordained orders of the Church's ministry.
We welcome seekers, doubters, new believers, the long-faithful, and those returning after time away. The Cathedral has room for all. Come and see.