Along with scaffolding and some new faces in the pews, the installation of an icon, titled "The Crowning of Christ," is evidence that the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, N.Y., is in the midst of spectacular renewal.

In 1991, the cathedral abruptly closed two residential schools and shortly thereafter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The suddenness of the twin blows shocked many, but the problems leading up to that breaking point had been building for almost 50 years.

When the cathedral was completed in 1885, it occupied nearly 8 percent of the total village acreage. Garden City by then had matured into a prosperous largely Anglo-Saxon community of merchants and small businessmen and many looked to the cathedral campus as the center of community life.

After World War II, the demographics began a gradual shift in favor of Roman Catholics, particularly Italians and Irish. By the 1980s the endowment was gone, the membership was dwindling, and maintenance on the aging cathedral campus buildings had become prohibitive. The painful decision to return to core values was begun under the previous dean, the Very Rev. Robert V. Wilshire.

Upon his death, Dean Wilshire made a bequest to the cathedral for the creation and installation of an icon. The resulting 18-foot-by-13 foot piece is constructed of fabric and will hang 65 feet above the nave. It is in 24-karat gold leaf and variegated blues. The design follows the strict canons governing icons that were developed by the Greeks 1,500 years ago. Guillermo Esparza, an artist from Manhattan, adapted the work from a medieval palette.

The icon, however, is merely the most visible example of a larger renewal effort. With the arrival of the new dean, the Very Rev. James J. Cardone, the cathedral has embarked on a massive capital campaign and restoration project that will take many years to complete.

Central to the success of that campaign is an understanding that if it is to be successful in its fundraising, the cathedral must reach out to and meet the needs of four changing groups: the pastoral and spiritual needs of its own congregation, the resource and common life needs of the wider diocese, the social needs of Garden City residents, and the spiritual, cultural and social renewal needs of Long Island.