Cathedral docents give more than tours, but insight into the cathedral as ‘more than just a building’

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

Every week, people come to the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption from around the globe for a multitude of reasons. Parishioners visit to celebrate Mass, locals stop on the street to marvel at the architecture and tourists step inside to take in the artwork and peace the historic Gothic cathedral brings.

Every stained-glass window, mosaic and painting is there with a purpose, and inquisitive minds often come to the cathedral seeking to learn more. This education is the role of cathedral docents — volunteers eager to share the beauty of the cathedral with anyone who visits for a tour.

John Peavler, a parishioner of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, is one of these docents. “My role is to provide enlightenment and information to people who come into the cathedral,” Mr. Peavler said about his ministry, “and to help them to realize it’s so much more than just a building — that it is a place for inspiration and enlightenment and meditation and growth.”

Mr. Peavler enjoys telling people about all the “little details” in the cathedral. “It’s so much more than just construction and wood and stone and glass. There’s a story, everything in there.”

Having officially joined the parish in 1991, Mr. Peavler was initially exposed to the cathedral while a student at Thomas More University. Although not a member of the Catholic Church at the time, Mr. Peavler sung with TMU’s chorus, who did a combined concert at the cathedral with the Bishop’s Choir in 1977. Through meeting his wife in the chorus, and over time, Mr. Peavler eventually went through OCIA (then RCIA) and became both a member of the Catholic Church and a parishioner. It’s from there that he took interest in becoming a docent.

“I learned from the other tour guides,” he said, “the past generation.” At first, the docents were an “unorganized group,” according to Mr. Peavler, with the volunteers taking it upon themselves to learn all they could about the cathedral — some of them even well into their 80s and having experienced “much of their life” in the church.

That’s when Steve Enzweiler, the cathedral’s historian, came onto the scene, said Mr. Peavler, and helped organize the docents.

“We had classes for a while,” he said, “talking about a lot of interesting things that we never knew, and that just gave us more direction as to how we handled the tours.”

When guiding tour groups, Mr. Peavler says that, regardless of his audience — from school children to the elderly — “I want them to walk away from there feeling they learned something that they’ll remember,” he said. “I want them to come back and visit again, and I want to make it a very welcoming event that’s enjoyable.”

To learn more about touring the cathedral, or to schedule a guided tour with a docent, visit https://covcathedral.com/visiting-tours/.