Some of you may have seen, read, or heard about the Cathedral lighting up its outside walls in pink in honor and thanksgiving for the life of Dolly Parton, a true embodiment of grace, wisdom, generosity, and humor. Plus, that woman could sing! Dolly died on August 25th and her death touched unknown numbers of people around the world.
The story of how the lighting of the Cathedral came to be, actually tells a lot about how your Cathedral staff come together as team to try and provide a witness to the values we hold dear as a faith community. It started last week when Kathleen Burgess, our Director of Administrative Operations, texted Canon Brooks Mason and me regarding a request she had received from someone she knew. The person asked if it would be possible for the Cathedral to light up its walls in pink in honor of Dolly and how much it would mean to the community.
Brooks and I looked at each other and said “sure!” I then walked down the hall to find Jen Jow, our Facilities Manager (among many other things) and asked her what it would take to make it happen. She called the person who has helped us light up the Cathedral for Light Up the Cathedral for Pride, and he quoted her an extremely reasonable price and then suggested as long as he was coming out the next day, perhaps we would want him to program for other special days as well. An idea was born!
Jen, Susan Jester, our PR guru, and I put our heads together and came up with some additional days we can acknowledge such as the anniversary of 9/11, Veteran’s Day, Indigenous People’s Day, and others.
The next day the lights were programmed to run pink for a week. That night Brooks took all the pictures that were later shown on television, Facebook and other media, thanks in large part to the press release Susan put out once she got Brooks’ pictures.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive and shows us there are many ways we can let the community know about this wonderful faith community. And how it can be responsive to the greater community. It also shows how ideas, when initiated in the context of community, in this case our staff, become so much greater than what was initially thought of.
As we continue in our time of transition and exploration as a community of faith, these words from 2 Timothy 1:7, seem more true than ever:
God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.
(from The Message version of the Bible)
Light Schedule (as of 9/3/2026)
- September 7, Labor Day – red, white and blue
- September 11 – sky blue
- October 1 – 31, Breast Cancer Awareness Month – pink
- October 12, Indigenous People’s Day – red
- November 10, Veterans Day – red, white and blue
