by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
It would be remiss to talk about downtown revitalization without talking about the church that started it.
From its altar on Billy Goat Hill (the corner of Church and Duval streets, the highest point of land in the city) the St. John’s Cathedral, the Gothic Revival monument that serves as the seat of the Episcopalian Diocese of Jacksonville, is as much a catalyst for residential development downtown as the Better Jacksonville Plan or Berkman Plaza, and a lot older.
Built in 1851, rebuilt 20 years later after it was burned in the Civil War and then rebuilt again in 1903 after being destroyed in the Great Fire of 1901, the Cathedral has been a progressive force in the stability, functionality and growth of Jacksonville’s core for over a century.
“Out of a personal experience of rising from the fire’s ashes, we hope to be a part of lifting the city out of its urban ashes,” said the Very Reverend Edward Harrison, the dean of the Cathedral and an advocate for downtown development.
The most vivid example of the Cathedral’s role in the current revitalization efforts is the Parks at the Cathedral townhouses being built directly behind the church. The Cathedral sold the land for about $300,000 and is staying active in the construction process, with the understanding that it makes sense to fuse the land use of the townhouses with the church.
The project, which eventually will include over 60 units, will have a central courtyard with a swimming pool and lawn and garages for each townhouse. According to Harrison, this is the culmination of a 40-year vision designed to improve downtown.
The modern history of the Cathedral’s role as a leader in downtown development started in 1962 when the then-dean, Bob Parks, was faced with a choice. Because downtown was deteriorating, drugs and crime were rampant and the Episcopal diocese had just purchased a beautiful piece of land on the St. Johns River where Episcopal High School currently sits, there was a push to move the Cathedral out of downtown.
“So Parks put it to a vote of the congregation,” said Harrison. “And the people said let’s stay put.”
That set into motion a series of building projects near the Cathedral, which included three high-rises for seniors, totaling about 800 occupants, and a gerontology skilled nursing center for the physically handicapped. The buildings are HUD funded. The plan is for the Parks at the Cathedral to attract a younger, more active crowd.
But when the Cathedral’s congregation voted to stay downtown, it wasn’t just a vote for geography. To them, staying downtown meant embracing the diversity that comes with an urban church. Today, the 1,300 person congregation, under the leadership of Harrison, is a continuation of that movement.
Harrison recalled, “Just the other day one of my more yuppie congregants confessed to me that while five days a week she was a big shot making lots of money and talking to important people, she really loved coming to church and sitting next to someone who lives on the street. ‘It reminds me that we’re all brothers in Christ,’ she told me. You just don’t get that at a neighborhood church.”
Harrison said the Cathedral reflects the community where it resides. That means congregants are black, white, Latino, gay, straight, rich, poor. And it’s famous for its music — High Episcopalian — with a smattering of gospel. Edward Waters College’s choir sang recently. Sometimes they host other, diverse musicians.
But Harrison makes it clear that through diversity comes unity, that embracing different kinds of people is critical to comprehending the reach of the church as a whole and the world in general. The Cathedral has a female priest, Anne Bridgers, who has been there since July.
Harrison has been at the Cathedral for about a year. He moved from Pensacola when the last dean, Gus Weltzek, retired. The reason the Cathedral is a Cathedral (there’s only one per diocese) is because that’s where the bishop works. Bishop Stephen Jecko, though, is usually on the road at confirmations and different church events.
That leaves the liberal-minded Harrison to oversee the day-to-day operations. The son and grandson of Episcopalian priests, Harrison was born in Jacksonville Beach, but went to high school in Ft. Walton Beach. He graduated from Sewanee in 1975 but not before dropping out for a few years to join the Army’s Special Operations force (Green Berets) as a medic at Ft. Bragg. He received a master’s degree from Yale Divinity School.
Harrison worked in Mobile, Ala. and Concord, Mass. and spent time at St. Paul’s By-The-Sea in Jacksonville Beach before moving to Pensacola and then back to Jacksonville.
“I want St. John’s to be recognized as a center of spiritual intellectualism as well as spirituality in general,” said Harrison, whose other interests include social justice and outreach. “A lot of people are petrified of scholarship.”
Encouraged by programs that promote a more academic edge to the church founded on bucking convention, Harrison wants to invite speakers to the Cathedral like Karen Armstrong, who wrote the “History of God” and is an expert on Islam, and Marcus Borg, a leader in revolutionizing theology relative to the historical Jesus.
Harrison is vice chair of the Cathedral Foundation, an organization he said is the largest nonprofit in North Florida in terms of the hands-on delivery of services to those in need. The Cathedral is responsible for starting Episcopal High School, Meals-on-Wheels for the elderly and the Cathedral Arts Project, which brings art, dance and music into the lives of impoverished children.
“Virtually all of the people who come to this church pass other churches on their way,” said Harrison, who also noted that it’s a regional church, meaning people drive here from as far away as St. Augustine and St. Mary’s, Ga.
“We’re really excited about the growth of downtown,” he said. “And we want to be right here along the way as a progressive, Christian voice in Jacksonville, both theologically as well as
socially.”