Confederate Flag Images Removed From National Cathedral

[struggle4progress]

By Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service 09-29-2016

Washington National Cathedral .. quietly replaced .. controversial panes of stained glass bearing the Confederate flag.

The two panes bearing the image of the flag were replaced last month with red and blue panes to match surrounding glass ... Adjoining panes honoring Confederate generals remain in place but “their long-term future is really very much up in the air” ...

Eckstrom said on Sept. 28 that he learned of the change in the windows the day it occurred — Aug. 26 — when an architect met with members of a cathedral committee who quickly decided on the specific replacement glass ...

... Eckstrom acknowledged that cathedral officials chose not to make a public announcement after the replacement occurred ...

https://sojo.net/articles/confederate-flag-images-quietly-removed-national-cathedral

[struggle4progress]

1. National Cathedral Removed Confederate Flag Images With Little Fanfare

BY RACHEL KURZIUS
SEP 29, 2016 11:40 AM

... now-retired Reverend Gary Hall ... released a statement shortly after nine African American worshippers were murdered at a historic black church in Charleston in June 2015 ...

While Hall wanted the institution to "commission new windows that would not whitewash our history but represent it in all its moral complexity," he didn't have the authority to make it so. The cathedral's board, called the Chapter, established a five-person task force to study the issue and make recommendations.

This June, the task force returned with a report, which agreed that the flag should be removed, but called for the memorial to the Confederate leaders to stay in place, at least for now.

"They're going to be the foundation of our conversation," Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, the cathedral's canon theologian and a professor at Goucher, told DCist in June. "Without true truthtelling, there is no reconciliation. It's just cheap grace" ...

http://dcist.com/2016/09/with_little_fanfare_national_cathed.php