I may have been at St. John the Divine for this event. We were there for one St. Frances Feast back in the early 90's. The circus-like atmosphere (plus an infant and a toddler) made it hard to make out all that was said, but as I recall, music was performed by the Paul Winter Consort, there were taped recordings of Whales and Wolves, and many live animals (including at least one elephant) paraded down the central aisle. As I also recall, at the time, they were planning on converting the roof of the cathedral into some sort of greenhouse/bio-preserve.
I didn't feel compelled to return any time soon.
Wacka-doo!
I was not attending any church at the time, hadn't for decades---I was in the neighborhood visiting a friend who had just moved into a new apartment two blocks away from the cathedral, and we decided to walk over and see the flower gardens. After a while we had a whim to walk inside.
There seemed to be an inordinate number of "other gods" on display. I remember a Buddha, some sort of female fertility figure, a large prayer wheel/dreamcatcher-type construction, and a big rainbow banner that looked like it had been put together by children. There were a lot more objects that I can't remember now. The point is, it all made me very uncomfortable, even back then in my very-irreligious state.
I recall thinking "Well, maybe they're hosting an art exhibit or something" but it just didn't seem like the right place for it. I had been to Catholic churches on occasion, for weddings and funerals, and knew that where they kept their statues of saints was where St. John was displaying...other things...
The circus-like atmosphere (plus an infant and a toddler) made it hard to make out all that was said
But I bet you would have remembered hearing an Episcopal priest invoke Ra and Yemanja and Obatala! LOL
By the way, one of the words used by ret. bishop Grein in reference to the movie was "unnuanced".
Kerry had already used that word to excess, so being the political junkie that I am, that's when I threw down the penalty flag on Grein's entire sermon.