NEW YORK (RNS) — Nearly 700 people packed the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Saturday (Sept. 27) to witness the installation of the Rev. Winnie Varghese, the first queer woman of color named dean of the world’s largest Episcopal Gothic cathedral.
The ceremony, planned for an hour and a half, made clear Varghese’s ambition: to promote Christian unity, to emphasize interfaith relationships and to commit to the numerous reconstruction projects the cathedral demands. The service blended tradition and interfaith witness, with readings from the Torah, Quran, a Hindu saint and the Book of Revelation. Music ranged from a Sufi melody to a traditional spiritual, alongside a three-piece Indian band — a nod to Varghese’s Indian heritage and a tribute to her family in the front row.
Around noon, however, Varghese’s father fainted. Varghese said she stepped down from her seat at the altar as people began to swarm around him, seeing tears in her brother’s eyes and panic in her mother’s.
“I didn’ …