THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL WILL HOLD A FUNERAL SERVICE FOR FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY ON THURSDAY.

 

CHENEY JOINS A PROMINENT LIST OF AMERICAN LEADERS TO RECEIVE A FUNERAL AT THE HISTORIC PROTESTANT EPISCOPALIAN CHURCH IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL.

 

STATE FUNERALS WERE HELD AT THE CATHEDRAL FOR PRESIDENTS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, RONALD REAGAN, GERALD FORD, GEORGE H. W. BUSH AND JIMMY CARTER.

 

SOUNDBITE (English) Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, Provost of Washington National Cathedral:

“From history and tradition, we seem to be at the intersection of the civic and the sacred.”

 

OTHER NOTABLE CITIZENS WHO HAVE RECEIVED FUNERALS AT THE CATHEDRAL ARE THE FIRST BLACK SUPREME COURT JUSTICE THURGOOD MARSHALL, THE MOONWALKING ASTRONAUT NEIL ARMSTRONG, FORMER WASHINGTON POST NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER KATHARINE GRAHAM AND MOST RECENTLY THE SCIENTIST JANE GOODALL, AMONG OTHERS.

 

BUT THERE IS AN EVEN MORE SELECTIVE LIST OF AMERICANS WHO ARE INTERRED WITHIN THE CATHEDRAL COMPOUND.

 

PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON IS THE ONLY PRESIDENT WHO IS BURIED THERE.

 

THE AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST HELLEN KELLER AND HER TEACHER, ANNE SULLIVAN LIE WITHIN THE CATHEDRAL CRYPT.

 

AND HE ASHES OF MATHEW SHEPARD, THE GAY AMERICAN STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING WHO WAS BEATEN, TORTURED AND LEFT TO DIE NEAR LARAMIE, WYOMING ON OCTOBER 6, 1998, ARE ALSO INTERRED AT THE CATHEDRAL.

 

SOUNDBITE (English) Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, Provost of Washington National Cathedral:

“There's rarely a Sunday that goes by that someone doesn't come up to me and ask, Can you tell me where Matthew Shephard is buried? It's a pilgrimage. And it lives into our hope and desire to be a house of prayer for all people, no exceptions.”

 

WITH THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNITED STATES APPROACHING, WHAT’S TRANSPIRED WITHIN CATHEDRAL WALLS TELLS AN AMERICAN STORY ALL ITS OWN. 

 

SOUNDBITE (English) Rev. Canon Jan Naylor Cope, Provost of Washington National Cathedral:

“President Lincoln talked about our better angels, and I would hope that a place like this, designed to inspire and to bring awe, as Gothic architecture does and Gothic cathedrals do, would continue to inspire the next generation in the next generation, in the next generation. To live a life of meaning that matters and makes a difference.”