Madeleine L'Engle Remembered at New York Cathedral
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Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 12/11/2007 2:00:00 PM
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine was the site where one of the most beloved authors in contemporary American literature, Madeleine L’Engle, was recently laid to rest. On November 28, more than 400 family, friends, and fans gathered on the eve of what would have been the author’s 89th birthday for a high Episcopal choral evensong and Eucharist service steeped in the same spirituality that L’Engle brought to her fiction, essays, and poetry. L’Engle, who lived in Goshen, CT, and New York City, died on September 6.
After an opening reading from L’Engle’s Walking on Water, a book of reflections on faith and art, she was eulogized by the Reverend James Kowalski, dean of the Cathedral Church. He commented that L’Engle’s best known book, A Wrinkle in Time (Farrar, 1962), was not a book to be assigned reading because of its overtly Christian themes. Nevertheless, it was sought out by children, who, in turn, were introduced not only to the book’s spiritual elements but to “goodly amounts of Shakespeare and Einstein’s theory of relativity.”
He went on to explain that L’Engle, a longtime writer-in-residence at St. John the Divine, felt that only through participating in the arts, such as painting, singing, or writing, can one find spiritual truth. L’Engle’s spirituality was even more evident with the presence of a film crew from the PBS series Religion & Ethics, which will feature the service in an upcoming segment.
“Madeleine L'Engle's writings are all about making improbable connections, finding patterns in life's seeming randomness,” said children's literature historian Leonard Marcus, who attended, along with Margaret Tice, head of children’s services for New York Public Library. Tice said she first met L’Engle while attending the Columbia School of Library Service and interning at the St. Hilda’s/St. Hugh’s School in New York. “All of the different parts of the service can be found in Madeleine L'Engle's books,” said Tice. “I realized that Madeleine L'Engle and her books were a place where different aspects of my life came together. Professionally, as a children's librarian, I read her books, ordered them, and put them into the hands of children. Personally, as a Christian and an Episcopalian, I read her books for my own inspiration.”
Following the service, a reception was held in the parish hall where the guest book indicated that attendees came from both of L'Engle's communities in New York City and Connecticut, but also from across the country and Canada. At the reception, Elaine Rachlin, a close family friend who sang at L’Engle’s 70th birthday party, reflected that “Madeleine would have loved the service because she always enjoyed being surrounded by family and friends. And these are exactly the people who are here.”
After the service, Madeleine L’Engle’s ashes were interred in the cathedral’s columbarium.
