A Buddhist-influenced artwork incorporating the baptistry of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was removed on Saturday after the director of the cathedral's visual arts program ordered the work's artist to revise it or remove it. The removal prompted two other artists to pull their works from a group exhibition at the cathedral focusing on spirituality. Last week the director, the Rev. Jay Wegman, said that the creator of the Buddhist-influenced work, Arlene Shechet, must change or remove it in time for the baptism of the grandson of Bishop Mark S. Sisk on Sunday at St. John the Divine, the Episcopal cathedral in Morningside Heights. Ms. Shechet refused to amend her installation, made of dark blue tape and vinyl lettering, or to remove it herself.

Mr. Wegman said yesterday that the cathedral had removed the artwork.
He said he decided to issue the order because Ms. Shechet violated an oral agreement with the cathedral by building a larger installation than agreed to. Ms. Shechet denied that she made any such agreement and said that she had been forthright about the extent to which her work would incorporate the baptistry.

Ms. Shechet said she visited the cathedral on Saturday to find the gates to the baptistry locked and the lights turned off. Mr. Wegman said the locking of the baptistry and various chapels in the cathedral was a standard weekend security measure.

Kiki Smith and Lesley Dill, two artists in this group exhibition ''A Threshold of Spirit,'' which runs through Aug. 26, said they would support Ms. Shechet and remove their works from the exhibition today; Ms. Shechet is also to withdraw four other artworks.

John Milton Lundquist, chief librarian of the Oriental division in the New York Public Library and a photographer and writer who has works in the show, said he intended to enclose a note alongside his photographs expressing his solidarity with Ms. Shechet and his sorrow that her workhad been removed.

The director of the widely admired visual arts program at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine ordered yesterday that a Buddhist-influenced artwork either be revised or be removed from the cathedral's baptistry, prompting two well-known artists to say they would pull their works from a group exhibition focusing on spirituality around the world. The director, the Rev. Jay Wegman of the Episcopal cathedral, said that Arlene Shechet must either alter or remove her work by tomorrow, in time for the baptism of the grandson of Bishop Mark S. Sisk, who is to be installed today as the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

When told of Mr. Wegman's order, Ms. Shechet said that she would not amend her floor-based installation, made of dark blue tape and vinyl lettering and that she would not remove it herself.

The serene work is based on a floor plan of a Buddhist stupa, a temple used for meditation, and is made of a broken-line circle on the marble floor around the baptismal font, with approximately eight-inch lines radiating from it at various intervals, capped by shorter lines. Three Buddhist verses are featured prominently in the work.

Mr. Wegman said he decided to issue the order because Ms. Shechet violated an oral agreement with the cathedral and built a larger installation than agreed to. The installation, he said, was supposed to be virtually invisible to one approaching the baptistry from its south side. ''The cathedral is not a museum, it is not a gallery, it is a Christian house of worship,'' Mr. Wegman said. ''Arlene's work will be down by Sunday, because we have a baptism in there. The baptistry is a place for the primary Christian sacrament, and we need to honor our use of the space.''

Ms. Shechet said that she had not made any such agreement. ''There is no doubt that I was completely forthright about what I was going to do, and that I also did it with the utmost reverence and respect for St. John the Divine,'' she said. ''In the end, I'm actually shocked that a few pieces of blue tape have pushed this thing over the edge.''

Two well-known artists, Kiki Smith and Lesley Dill, said they would support Ms. Shechet and remove their works from the exhibition by Sunday.
''I don't understand it at all,'' said Ms. Smith, whose work in the exhibition is a bronze-and-steel nude statue of Mary Magdalene with a shackle and chain around her ankle. ''They've got Shinto shrines in there. They've got everybody's everything in that place all the time.''

The cathedral's visual arts program has long been praised for its ecumenical, cutting-edge approach to art within a private religious space. Exhibitors have included the artist and designer Donald Moffett, in a 30th-anniversary gay liberation movement exhibition in 1999, and this year Andres Serrano, perhaps best known for his photograph of a crucifix in urine, with two sets of photographic portraits of religious figures and corpses.

The exhibition, ''A Threshold of Spirit,'' which opened on Sunday and runs through Aug. 26, includes works by 11 artists.

The exhibition's curator, Peter Nagy, said he was the middleman between Mr. Wegman and the artists over the two years it took to plan the show.
''The baptistry, we were told from the beginning, is an extremely sensitive site,'' he said. ''But we were not told it was off-limits. I think it's ironic that what an artist perceived as a thoughtful and sensitive piece should become controversial. We never intended disrespect to the cathedral.''

Like many of the artists who exhibit at the cathedral, Ms. Shechet signed no contract and received no payment for her work and no insurance or reimbursement for transportation and installation. She contributed four other artworks, which she is now withdrawing.

Bishop Sisk's grandson is to be baptized at the font, creating a cutoff date for the removal of Ms. Shechet's installation. It is the first baptism to be performed at the site since the artwork was installed.

In a written statement issued yesterday, Bishop Sisk pointed to the cathedral's long tradition of having wide-ranging art exhibitions. ''The only issue the cathedral has with Arlene Shechet,'' the statement said, ''is that she abide by the agreement she made with the cathedral.''

Mr. Wegman said: ''This is going to be so damaging to us in terms of our art program and fund-raising because we are going to be seen as the big bad people. If Arlene would have just held to our agreement this wouldn't have happened.''

Ms. Shechet said, ''I believe it is a very good piece, and I'm proud of it, even if it lasted for only a little while.''