Symbols of the Confederacy are found in unexpected places, even a church sanctuary.

Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati has two such memorials within its worship area. During a recent sermon, Dean Gail Greenwell called for their removal.

Near the church's altar, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is memorialized in a pane of stained-glass. In the vestibule is a plaque memorializing Leonidas Polk, an Episcopal bishop and Confederate general.

The church's vestry, a parish council, will take up Greenwell's request.

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"My challenge to them is to think about what do we want. Do we remove them? Do we keep them in place with explanatory and historically accurate explanations of who these people were? Do we add to our collection of stained glass or plaques to include some of the real heroes of racial justice?” Greenwell asked.

As the vestry considers the removal of Lee and Polk, consideration should also be given to who is missing from the church, she said.

“We don’t have a single stained-glass window that acknowledges an abolitionist or a civil rights worker," Greenwell said. "We haven’t honored great heroes of the civil rights movement like Martin Luther King Jr., or Sojourner Truth, or Desmond Tutu who is Anglican.”

Rev. Mark Bomar is the president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater Cincinnati and Vicinity. Its 150 member ministers represent tens of thousands of African-American congregants. He applauds Greenwell for her effort.

“It’s sad that people even think along these lines of hatred, and racism, and things of that nature,” Bomar said. “It’s sad. It’s extremely sad. And if there was anything at all we could do to bring more God into our beings, it would be to remove the foolishness. And that sounds like what she’s doing. And I’m very glad that she’s not afraid to stand up and speak for righteousness rather than foolishness."

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Efforts to remove the likeness of Robert E. Lee and the plaque to Polk are “a step in the right direction toward healing our country,” Bomar said.

The topic has been hotly debated following the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia and the removal of Confederate statues and monuments around the country.

Founded in 1817, Christ Church Cathedral is celebrating its bicentennial.

“We're both looking forward as well as looking back, so it’s an appropriate time (to look at this),” Greenwell said. “We’re about to put up a timeline that stretches 200 years in our north corridor downstairs. It doesn’t whitewash the history."

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Over its 200 years, the church has had several buildings. The stained-glass window depicting Lee was a gift from one of his descendants, pretty typical of similar monuments from the era, Greenwell said. Leonidas Polk was consecrated bishop in the cathedral in 1838 which is why there’s a plaque to him. He was consecrated 25 years before the Civil War.

Greenwell said she expects the vestry to take several months considering its options unless someone comes into the meeting with a direct proposal.

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