Nakashima Foundation for Peace

For the past three years, George Nakashima, master woodworker of international renown, has devoted his skills to the working of a massive altar for peace from a 300-year-old English walnut tree found on Long Island:

"There has appeared an extraordinary natural phenomenon, something that occurs only once in a lifetime or perhaps only once in the history of a nation or in all time. It is a great walnut tree. It is a tree that should be a symbiosis of nature and man in the deepest spiritual sense. It is now on hand. . . . The only full destiny of this noble tree, favored to grow as none of its peers were able to do) is to use it in its full length and width. But what to do with it? . . . A pilgrim shrine . . . A shrine for all peoples . . . There should be some place in the world, a shrine . . . dedicated to the Divine and Peace."

Friends offered support: Steven C. Rockefeller, George Wald, Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Krosnick. Scott Wineland, master sawyer, came from California with his special Alaska Mill chain saw to section the tree. James Radclifle, master craftsman, became largely responsible for putting the altar together. As Mr. Nakashima began the task of cutting the tree, air- and kiln-drying it, his supporters set about the search for funds and an appropriately meditative site.

Mr. Nakashima considered many locations, including the United Nations. But it was his visit to the Cathedral two years ago that firmed his intent that that great tree, remembered in the slabs of this massive altar, continue its spiritual journey, here, as a well spring to those who come to meditate, pray, "perhaps to sing and chant for peace, a peace that is central to our very existence on earth."

On the afternoon of December 30, the altar, weighing three-fourths of a ton, swathed in bubblewrap and moored to the bed of a forty-foot flatbed truck, arrived at the steps of the Cathedral. It took two teams to move the altar into the Cathedral—one to lift the altar from its bed, another to carry it up the steps, through the bronze doors, and place it in the nave.

The pier of the altar now rises from the deep of the slate floor as if prow, keel and rudder had lifted a crust of earth from the surface of the planet. Twelve feet wide and three inches deep, the matched slabs jetty above its pier. Mr. Nakashima has worked this wood in partnership with the girth, shape and vein of that stately tree. The perimeter surprisingly resembles the shape of a lotus leaf. Below its almost liquid surface, grains slide and turn as they describe the flow of centuries of growth. Delicate blond veins form a cathedral arch that embraces a slight parting of the central seam—a channel that yields a glimpse into its depth. Five butterfly inlays of rosewood join the seam. As Mr. Nakashima said at the altar's dedication, a ceremonial prelude to the fourth annual New Year's Eve Peace Concert:

"It is the result of a dream, now come to fruition, whose genesis was perhaps a thousand years ago in Japan, the time when the great forests and huge trees existed and the spirit of union of man and nature was deep and real, a dream emanating from a wood culture and a wood spirit and continued through my blood and that of others."

"0 most High God of Peace Unsurpassed, . . .
0 Thou, Whose Spirit is revealed in Nature. . .
We thank you for the eyes, which beheld its beauty,
And for the hands—humble, skillful hands—
Which have fashioned from Thy Own Creation
This invitation to Thy Peace. "

Incense filled the air. In a gesture of devotion, Mr. Rockefeller placed three white roses on the altar and, as Mr. Nakashima lit the candle he had placed on its surface, those gathered in quiet throughout the Cathedral spread that flame wick to wick, as if in response to Mr. Nakashima's deepest wish that the spirit of healing and union of man and nature emanating from that altar reach throughout the universe.

Jane Churchman, Managing Editor of this publication, is a member of the Cathedral congregation.

Copyright © 2000 The Nakashima Foundation For Peace
www.nakashimafoundation.org
a 501C3 non-profit organization
1847 Aquetong Road
New Hope, PA 18938
E-Mail The Nakashima Foundation
Contact the webmaster