The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is perhaps best described by my former boss, Michael Bierut in his book How To, as he talks about the development of the St. John’s brand:

“The Cathedral of Church of St. John the Divine does remarkable things. It is the fourth largest Christian church building in the world, begun in 1892 and never finished, with a 124-foot-high nave that is a mandatory destination for tourists visiting New York. But more than a beautiful Gothic structure, St. John’s hosts concerts, art exhibits, and idiosyncratic events. Its soup kitchen serves 25,000 meals a year. And people from a wide range of faiths worship together in 30 services a week. What is the best way to signal that a stone monument over 120 years old is a vibrant, indispensable part of 21st-century life?

We started with a frankly contemporary, even humorous, tone of voice […] and set it in a new version of an old typeface: Divine, a redrawn, digitized version of a 1928 blackletter by Frederic Goudy, who in turn had based his designs on the type in Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible.”

The use of Divine has always been a vital part of the St. John’s brand and as such, a prominent feature in A Cathedral for the 21st Century. The oral history complies over 175 voices from new interviews and archived material. These stories celebrate the Cathedral and are brought to life with photos of the historic people and events that took place within its monumental walls.