Here’s Why You Hate Round (Catholic) Churches

Standing on my head ^ | December 5, 2014 | Fr. Dwight Longenecker

[NYer]

Have you noticed that nobody loves modern churches? Nobody. I mean NOBODY.

Seriously. Have you ever met anyone who sees a church like this and and heard them whisper, “I just love that church! It is so inspiring!”.

No. Never.

Have you ever gone into a “worship space” like this and heard someone say how awed they were to be in the presence of God? I doubt it.  

That’s because these buildings were not designed to inspire awe or to remind you about the presence of God. They are people centered, not God centered. They are auditoria not temples.

There is a gut level negative respond to these buildings. Even those who have got used to them make comments like, “Well, it’s our church and we’re doing the best we can.” Worse still, they have grown up with these monstrosities and they do not know of anything else.

I have spent the last week in central Missouri worshipping in a beautifully restored country church built at the end of the 1800′s. My heart opened in worship simply because the space was sacred, simple and beautiful.

The gut level rejection of the modern, brutal, utilitarian barns is not merely a hankering after “ole time traditions”. It is not simply a nostalgia for the past or a question of personal preference.

We react negatively to round churches because we want to be oriented towards God in worship, not towards one another.

Furthermore, everyone knew this down the ages. That’s why there was a certain pattern to Christian churches, and did you know the pattern was actually established by God?

In the Old Testament God revealed to Moses how to build the tabernacle–the traveling tent/temple they used in the wilderness. The tabernacle was rectangular with a large outer meeting place of the people. Then there was the “Holy Place” for the priests and this was surmounted by the “Holy of Holies” where the Ark of the Covenant was lodged. The Ark of the Covenant was the Throne of God himself.

This was the prescribed plan for a building to worship God, and the Temple in Jerusalem was a larger, permanent version of the tabernacle.

Now nobody is suggesting that Christian churches should be traveling tents (although the preachers in the American south used to do pretty well in their tent meeting revival services) Neither am I suggesting that we should build churches that are replicas of Solomon’s temple.

But there was a basic pattern here that was followed in all Christian churches from the earliest days. The pattern was of a three fold, hierarchical space. A large meeting space for the people, a next step into the holy place for the priests and then the dwelling place of God which is the Holy of Holies.

Catholic churches, (with a few very rare exceptions) maintained this pattern. There was the nave where the people met, the chancel for the priests and at the far east end was the “Holy of Holies” the tabernacle–where Christ our God resides. Between the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place there was hung a heavy curtain as a divider. This is why inside the tabernacle of a Catholic Church today we hang a small curtain or veil.

This three fold pattern was the basic template for all churches. It worked. It was understood. There was also another significance. The direction of the traditional church is linear. There is a beginning and and end–an Alpha and Omega point. You entered the West doors and your eye moved forward to the summit where Christ was in the tabernacle. This reflected life’s journey. This is why the font was at the back of the church. You entered by the font and moved forward in life to your final home in heaven. The chancel and tabernacle therefore represented the destination of your journey.

A round church undermines that. There is no beginning and end a round church says. Paganism is circular with its never ending cycle of life. Christianity is linear. There is a beginning and end of our lives and of all things.

So that’s why you hate the round churches. There’s plenty more to hate as well–the cheap materials, the shoddy workmanship, the tacky, low cost furniture, the candles that are really electric lights that you pay a nickel to light up, the mass felt banners and the artificially cheerful atmosphere–but the real reason the round churches are so despised are the deeper reasons I’ve outlined.

They are despised because Catholics sense that something is wrong with this architecture. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t inspire prayer. It doesn’t lift the heart. It doesn’t draw you to God, and it doesn’t do all those things because it runs counter to the very plan for a temple that God himself ordained.

I make it a point of asking our priests if they received any training at all when they were in seminary on the principles and history of sacred architecture. Did they receive any training during their liturgy classes on what makes a church Christian, what works in worship and why? I have not found one priest who has been trained in these matters. And yet they are supposed to go out and renovate churches, build churches and redevelop churches? What kind of training are they getting? Why are they not being trained in the sacred tradition so they know what to do?

Interior new Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, SC

[Biggirl]

.....Or Evangelical Churches.

[Biggirl]

Yet out in southern CA, believe it or not, there is a conversion process going on to convert the famous Crystal Cathedral into the new Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King or Christ Church, do not know the offical title. That truly gives new life to a famous church.

[Biggirl]

Yet in Hebrews we are told to keep the fellowship with other believers as well.

[Eccl 10:2]

Please elaborate.

[Petrosius]

Reason less and focus on scripture more. God does not care about externals - it is what is in our hearts that matters.

It is not God that needs externals, it is us. That is why Scripture itself tells us that He commanded that the Tabernacle and its worship be something beautiful.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

It is not religious bigotry to dislike a political message, delivered in the inescapable form of a religious homily.

The issue here was a poster misinterpreting the title of the thread to spout off about how he hates the Catholic Church. Regardless of the pathetic political or social issues he then tried to use to justify his religious hatred, this is definitional bigotry.

[BobL]

“BobL is probably quite ok with someone giving their views the cafe, or a public meeting. But a church? Most inappropriate.”

Then tell the Catholic Church to SHUT THE HELL UP when it comes to politics (or at least consider the concerns of their members), and I will have NO PROBLEMS with them. They STARTED IT, not me.

[BobL]

Sorry, I think I misread your post. I’ve been working hard on my car all day and don’t appreciate being called a bigot by someone that seems to be PERFECTLY HAPPY with ignoring people that are aiding the destruction of my country. After all, I have kids.

Perhaps if more Catholics SPOKE UP about this crap, the church would moderate itself a bit.

[annalex]

That's hardly possible. Are you sure this is not a traditional cross layout with rounded apses?

These are not round churches:

[Verginius Rufus]

My guess would be that the Syriac word bema is a loanword from Greek (where it can mean tribunal or speaker's platform).

There are some very old round churches in Europe, including San Vitale in Ravenna (6th century), Charlemagne's chapel in Aachen (c. 796), and St. Donatus Church in Zadar, Croatia (8th/9th century).

The Pantheon in Rome was converted into a church after the triumph of Christianity, but of course was originally built in honor of the pagan gods (the present structure dates from the time of the emperor Hadrian).

[Verginius Rufus]

My guess would be that the Syriac word bema is a loanword from Greek (where it can mean tribunal or speaker's platform).

There are some very old round churches in Europe, including San Vitale in Ravenna (6th century), Charlemagne's chapel in Aachen (c. 796), and St. Donatus Church in Zadar, Croatia (8th/9th century).

The Pantheon in Rome was converted into a church after the triumph of Christianity, but of course was originally built in honor of the pagan gods (the present structure dates from the time of the emperor Hadrian).

[SunkenCiv]

• QUIZ: Modernist Church or Communist Building?
• Church Construction in U.S. Hits Record Low

[AnAmericanMother]

The Templars built round churches, true, but the altar wasn't in the middle - it was at the east end as is traditional. E.g. the Church of St. Mary the Virgin a/k/a "The Temple Church", in the City of London in the middle of the Law Courts (hence "Middle Temple" and "Inner Temple"). The main portal enters "the Round" from the west, and before the conventional nave (about 75 yrs later) was built, the high altar was in the east end of the Round, probably in an alcove, but it's hard to say because construction of the nave altered that end considerably.

Not at all like modern "round" churches, which put the altar in the middle, often at the bottom of a well. They are, in fact, anti-reverence by their very nature.

[do the dhue]

And when Christ died on a cross the curtain was torn by an earthquake and now the temple is man’s heart. He that is in us can do much more than who is in the earth and those who are in the buildings. Praise His name!

[bboop]

I hate them because ‘there is no there there’ and they are built with that in mind. When I walk into a round church, I immediately assume: there are leftie nuns in street clothes; there are no confessionals; the priest is a Social Justice guy; they’ll do bubble-gum jingles instead of liturgy. I am always right. Oh, and there won’t be a crucifix anywhere to be seen - maybe up in the choir loft, left in dust. There might be a Gumby-Jesus floating in mosaics above the altar. No adoration mentioned in the bulletin. etc.