This article is part of a Women and Leadership special report highlighting women who have forged new paths.
The Rev. Winnie Varghese was appointed the 12th dean of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in Upper Manhattan in April, making her the first woman to hold this position at the Gothic cathedral, one of the world’s largest.
She now leads the cathedral’s operations in a role comparable to that of a company’s chief executive.
Before joining St. John the Divine, the Rev. Varghese — the daughter of Indian immigrants who was born in Dallas and spent part of her early childhood in India — was rector of St. Luke’s in Atlanta, Ga.; served at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York, as chaplain at Columbia University and University of California, Los Angeles; and as rector of St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village. She is also on the board of trustees of Union Theological Seminary, her alma mater.
This interview, conducted by email, has been edited and condensed.
What gifts do you as a woman bring to the ministry?
I think women in ministry are very diverse and help us to see what the fullness of “the image of God” in humanity means. In the part of the church I grew up in, women were very active members of congregations but not allowed to serve in leadership, and were at times talked about in problematic ways. I bring the perspective of someone who was not raised to think someone like me could serve the church, or to think that my empowerment was something the church valued.
How will you use your bullhorn?
We have a very big pulpit! I want us to grow that ministry in terms of who is in it, how we share what happens here. I want us to be a place for the vital conversations of the day, and I want the conversations to be more visionary and more humane because they happened here.
One of our former presiding bishops used to say, “If it isn’t about love, it’s not about God.” I believe that one of our tasks is to fill the imagination with even more beauty, justice and love.
In this moment, lack of access to food is in front of us. Our cathedral feeds, and we will convene, organize and advocate for food security and access to good food for our neighbors.
What challenges are you facing in your new role?
This time in our nation is cruel and desperate. Preaching a gospel of love and helping where we can is our work. Working for significant social change in support of the most vulnerable is also part of our mission, and it is generational work. Like this cathedral, our work is unfinished, but we will do our part.
And we have to plan for a financially sustainable future. Part of my work is to draw resources to the cathedral and keep building so that we will be here in 100 years.
How will you cope with the current political climate in your new role?
It’s not the first time that speaking the truth is risky, but it is the most intense of my lifetime. It’s even more important for a place like St. John the Divine to be bold. Faith communities develop our imagination for what can be, both for ourselves and our lives, but also for our society and what kind of society we want to live in. We start with the people sitting next to us at church and work outwards to reweave the fabric of our communities. We preach and practice love in a political climate built on fear.
In what ways are you a trailblazer, professionally and personally?
I’m the daughter of immigrants from Kerala in South India. I’m a queer Episcopal priest. I am the first woman and person of color to serve as dean of St. John the Divine. I find it very touching that sometimes people come just to look at me — at a person like them who is a priest. It says something about what kind of bodies we are told are holy, or can be near holy things, who is a leader with authority. It is quite something to carry the authority of the church in this body.
What excites you about the cathedral’s existence and future?
St. John the Divine is the work of many hands for many generations. It is a 400-year project, a medieval cathedral in Manhattan.
We carve in stone our hopes and dreams here — what a thrilling icon of the city of New York.
There are seven chapels around the high altar of the cathedral, each large enough to be a church. They are dedicated to some of the early settlers of New York. There in stone is marked that we are diverse, many of us are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, we speak many languages. It tells a truth about us.
The cathedral is an awe-inspiring building. Awe is a Christian virtue we pray for at baptism. We have it right here, accessible in our worship, in our arts programming, at times on an awesome scale made possible by the cathedral building.
The cathedral is a monument to hope. I hope generations to come will come to it in time of need and opportunity to imagine their futures.
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