Sure looks like the object of worship is Mary.shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua
Sure looks like the object of worship is Mary.shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua
And yet Mary is not the object of worship.
This was probably a Pre-vatican II CHurch. (Lovely, too IMHO) On either side of the "reredos" (that confection on the "East" wall) there are angels bearing candle stands. within the niches are statchoos of who knows what angles or saints, prolly. At the visial center (until the lighting guy came in and messed it all up) is a crucifix and I'd bet serious money (up to, well, as much as $5.00!) that under the crucifix was (and may still be (though I doubt it - no lit candle that I can see to draw one's attention to it) the "Tabernacle" -- the repository for the consecrated bread.
So in THOSE days when there would have been an altar right slap against (or minimally separated from)the reredos (Pronounced REAR dos - which means "That back thing at the back there") the focus would have been on the Tabernacle when the Mass was not being celebrated and on the priest's back when it was. The priest (and I have presided in Episcopal churches with essentially this layout) is going to focus either on the "Gifts" or on the book he's reading from or on the crucifix. He won't be lifting up his head much higher than that, unless he's already made an appointment with his chiropractor.
Then along comes Vatican II with its purported (not not actual) mandate of ugliness. In response to it, some pastor decided that, Word and Sacrament being equal conveyors of grace, they way to "say" that is to put he lectern/pulpit/ambo thingie (from which the Bible is read, intercessory prayers are led, and the sermon is preached) "downstage left" and the altar downstage right. That way the ambo has a very powerful place in terms of stage craft, while the altar has a place of honor, from the POV of the people, to the right of the pulipt, but no longer the exclusive focus.
It ends up looking weird because when the church was designed the focus was supposed to be on the tabernacle and altar.
But the weirdness itself is a kind of testimony to the pastor's intent to honor the Word.
This is by way of explanation, not persuasion.
Certainly the lighting is dramatic, but I think it's inappropriate because it draws the eye away from the focus. Of course, that could have been the photographer who was, as is understandable, taken with the way the light plays.
The statue of Mary is designed to be the main and likely the only focus in that setting...
You show that picture to a child and ask him/her what stands out more than anything in this picture...I think we all know the answer we will get...
