Cathedral of St. John Divine, New York City, Photo Tour NYC Pages: Night Lights | Scenes of NYC | Bike Manhattan | Columbia University Area | Central Park | Architecture | Feast of Gennaro | Empire & Rockefeller | Cathedral of St. John All images by Mark File. Please do not copy without permission. The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine is the largest Cathedral and Anglican church and fourth largest Christian church in the world. Construction on the cathedral begun on December 27, 1892, St. John's Day. The Cathedral opened end to end for the first time on November 30, 1941, a week before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Subsequently construction on the cathedral was halted, because the then-bishop felt that the church's funds would better be spent on works of charity, and because America's subsequent involvement with the Second World War greatly limited available manpower. It is still only 2/3 complete.