Transforming Lives Through the Love of God in Christ
The Cathedral´s history began with a private chapel in the home of Colonel William Crawford Gorgas (October 3, 1854 – July 3, 1920), for his moments of prayer. Subsequently, a room for a chapel was provided in what was the Ancon Hospital, then called Gorgas Hospital, now Instituto Oncológico Nacional (the National Cancer Institute).
In 1908, a small wooden chapel was built. It would become St Luke´s Episcopal Church of Ancon, Canal Zone, named in honor of St Luke, the Physician, evangelist and author of the Acts of the Apostles. A leader of the congregation of St. Luke was Colonel Gorgas whose name will always be associated with the victory over malaria.
It was the Right Reverend James Craik Morris, first Bishop of the Panama Canal Zone, and a group of followers who had the vision of replacing the small wooden chapel with a larger, more permanent structure. The cornerstone was laid on 23 April 1922 and construction was completed on August 12, 1923. The Cathedral was consecrated on March 23, 1924, the Third Sunday of Lent.
The Cathedral of St. Luke is a magnificent building. The commissioned architect was a New Yorker named Hobart Upjohn (1876-1949), the grandson of Richard Upjohn who was famous for his Gothic Revival churches. The Cathedral combines Early Christian, Romanesque, Spanish Colonial Revival and Neoclassical elements.
It is built on a solid base of reinforced concrete and hollow concrete blocks. The interior is inspired by the early Christian basilicas. It has a nave and two lateral aisles, and wooden roofs with exposed trusses. The pillars and arches, however, are Neo-Romanesque, while the high doors with small balconies and shutters provide a tropical touch to the interior and allow for wonderful breezes to flow through the Cathedral. The windows bring the outside in allowing for views of our beautiful garden.
The Corinthian portico is reminiscent of the colonnade that the architect Alessandro Galilei added in 1750 to the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls in Rome; it may also be a reference to a similar portico that Igno Jones added to Old St Paul’s Cathedral in London in the 1600s. The tower was inspired by the early 20th-century Spanish Colonial Revival architecture.
All Souls Chapel, on the ground floor facing the front garden, provides an intimate setting for prayer. Its magnificent stained glass windows are dedicated to those who died in the construction of the Panama Canal. The Columbarium, located adjacent to the chapel, provides a peaceful final resting place for many.
In the beginning, the church came to serve those who had come to Panama for a variety of reasons — the California Gold Rush of 1849, the building of the Panama Railroad, and the construction of the Panama Canal brought persons from all over the world to the Isthmus. The Episcopal Church of the United States and the Church of England began work in Panama ministering to the English speaking community, formed in great part by Canal construction workers who came from the West Indies and the United States.
In an article in Cathedral Age in 1948, the Very Reverend Raymond T. Ferris, the Dean of St. Luke’s, wrote: “In the whole world there are only a few places where east and west, north and south, meet as they do on the steps of the Cathedral of St. Luke. A British bishop en route from Australia to England by ship could meet a vestryman from St. Bartholomew’s in New York en route to Chile by plane.”
Services were initially held in English; since the 1980´s, however, they have also been held in Spanish. Today the Cathedral´s congregation is made up of many diverse nationalities, united in our faith In God. For close to 100 years, the Cathedral of St. Luke has been a place for worship, prayer and for the observance of such sacraments as baptism, confirmation, marriage, and funerals. St. Luke’s has also provided for the religious education of many children and has always been a place for consolation and celebration where, with other brothers and sisters from many nations, we can come together united in our love of God.