Posted on 08/04/2010 2:31:29 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
The sanctuary walls are, as a rule, made of flat wood, concrete and glass wrapped in metals with an industrial look -- often matching the furnishings on the stark altar.
The windows are frosted or tinted in muted tones of sky blue, lavender, amber or pink. If there are stained-glass images, they are ultramodern in style, to match any art objects that make sense in this kind of space. The floors are covered with carpet, which explains why there are speakers hanging in the rafters.
The final product resembles a sunny gymnasium that just happens to contain an abstract crucifix, the Stations of the Cross and one or two images of the Virgin Mary.
"The whole look was both modern and very bland," said Matthew Alderman, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame's classical-design program who works as a consultant on sacred art and architecture.
"It was a kind of beige Catholicism that was ugly, but not aggressively ugly ... and these churches looked like they were in a chain that had franchises everywhere. It was that whole Our Lady of Pizza Hut look that started in the1950s and then took over in the '60s and '70s."
The problem is that many Catholics believe that this look that represented an urgent response to contemporary culture -- especially after Vatican II -- has now gone painfully out of date.
Few things age less gracefully than modernity. However, few parishes can afford to "take a wrecking ball" to their sanctuaries. This is also highly emotional territory, since any attempt to change how people worship, whether they are modernists or traditionalists, will collide with their most cherished beliefs.
Thus, after years of studying intense debates on these issues, Alderman recently drafted a manifesto offering easy, affordable ways for make these sanctuaries "less ugly and more Catholic." He posted it at "The Shrine of the Holy Whapping," an online forum created by several Notre Dame graduates to host lighthearted discussions of serious Catholic subjects.
While some of his proposals are specific -- such as removing carpeting to improve church acoustics -- the designer said the key is for parish leaders to find a way to "bring a sense of tradition and beauty to their chancels and naves without having to break the bank."
His basic principles included these:
-- Do everything possible to return the visual focus to the main altar and the tabernacle that contains the reserved sacraments, the bread and wine that has been consecrated during the Mass. This can be accomplished with a few contrasting coats of paint, stencil designs in strategic places, the rearranging of altar furniture, a touch of new stonework or even the hanging of colored drapes. In many cases, a platform can be added under the altar to make it more visible or a designer can darken the lights and colors around the pews, while increasing the light focused on the altar and tabernacle.
-- Reject any strategy that tries to hide decades of modernity behind a blitz of statues and flowers in an attempt to create "a traditional Catholic theme park," he said. Too often, the result is "strip-mall classicism" that assumes that anything that looks old is automatically good.
"You don't want something that looks like it's fake and plastic," said Alderman. "The worst-case scenario is that you have bad taste stacked on top of bad taste, with some of the worst excesses of the old layered on top of all those mistakes that were driven by modernity. ... This kind of schizophrenia is not a good thing in a church."
-- It's important to "work with what you have, and don't work against it" while focusing on a few logical changes that actually promote worship and prayer, he said. A chapel dedicated to Mary can appeal to those who are devoted to saying the rosary. Candles and flower arrangements can focus attention on a statue of the parish's patron saint.
In the end, argued Alderman, "You may not be able to turn your 1950s A-frame church into Chartres, but if you try to find art that harmonizes with its perhaps now rather quaint attempts at futurism, while at the same time seeking to reconnect it with tradition, the result may have a pleasing consistency. ...
"While it may lack the grandeur of Rome or Florence, it can still become a beautiful, unified expression of the faith."
Functionality is fine with me. The message is much more important to me than ornamentation. I cannot think Christ would care since I believed many of his teachings were said to be anywhere he gathered people together.
Services outside with no building nearby are my favorite.
I have competing views on church buildings.
The first looks at the old testament’s description of Salomon’s Temple, everything there was to remind you that you are there to worship God.
The second view is the building is just a place to meet together. If a new church met in a old Chinese’s restaurant and became a great fellowship,for other congratulations to paint there buildings red and black would not help their worship.
Then there are beige people that are ugly, but not aggressively ugly. They might like these building.
The idea that God doesn’t care about the building in which we worship is stupid. He does care. He expects our very best in everything, including our liturgy and architecture. Why do you think he gave Moses that long list of instructions on building His tabernacle — a list that covered everything down to the tassels on the curtains? After all, any old tent would have done just as well! The more miminalist, the better! No bronze seas or gigantic golden candelabras — just the Lord an’ Me!
Pathetic. The churches in which we worship should be as glorious as we can make them. Notice that I said glorious — I’m not talking about human-centered crap like “family life centers”, dining halls, basketball courts, swimming pools, 12-piece electrified “praise orchestras”, and the like. I mean they should be entirely focused on glorifying God, places full of exquisite statues, gilt, gold, lamps, stained glass, terazzo, hand-laid parquetry, marble altars, incense, ikons, and sumptuous architectural details. Those steel-building “Church in the Shed” places, with their indoor-outdoor carpeting, folding steel chairs, and audio/video systems are an embarrassment to the Christian faith.
There is a whiff of “service department of the Toyota dealership” that surrounds some of them.
I am a five year convert to Catholicism.
I remember and love much of the music from before I converted. They have a rich and beautiful musical history.
I have a special fondness to Gregorian Chants now.
Thank you for the comments regarding the Church.
I can tell you that the crew that decorates spends long hours getting it together, especially for Easter since we can not decorate until after Mass on Good Friday. Last year I went home around 2 in the morning on Saturday, got about 6 hours of sleep and went back for another 3 hours before we finished.
That way God and Jesus, and even Mary, and the saints, and others may be mentioned in passing or as part of prayers given as our children move on and up into adulthood.
Good show Catholics ~ BTW, your typical Methodist church is designed pretty much the same way but they split the space up too much so you can't have these large meetings.
I don’t see what the big deal is. As long as true, unfiltered Scripture is preached within the walls of the church what difference does it make what the building looks like?
We should strive for what the Russians found at Hagia Sophia “We did not know if we were on heaven or on earth.”
How about the priest turns around to face God instead of the congregation, as well?
In early New England, the main building in town was the meeting house. The people were the church.
He gave Moses — and later Solomon — specific instructions as to building, trappings, and worship because at that time, Jehovah God DID meet with men inside buildings, i.e. the Holy of Holies.
The Law of Moses has been fulfilled, the Ark and the Temple gone. We are under a new law that is written on our hearts, not on tablets of stone. The new covenant between God and man doesn’t require an earthly dwelling for the Lord.
You sound like a faithful Christian. I’m sure you already know those things. Read Hebrews again to refresh your memory as to how Christ changed it all, particularly chapters 8-10, where the early Christian Jews were warned not to return to the Law of Moses and its trappings.
I think you're right. I always complain when they bring out the guitars in our "beige" Catholic church.
If you were meeting a foreign dignitary, a President, or some other VIP for supper, you'd put on your best clothes and comb your hair. Why not do the same when you go to worship? A really nice polo and new pair of jeans look nice, but if you have a shirt and necktie, why not put those on for church on Sunday?
The liturgy and yes, even the building should follow suit. Why play the guitar when you've got a pipe organ gathering dust. Why build an airplane hanger when you can build a beautiful church? Why should we offer "good enough" when we can do better?
“I find it funny that Catholics seem to place so much importance on how esthetically pleasing things should look in their churches”
Liberal Catholics think it’s funny too.
Freegards
When I was a kid, my parents had friends who went to a certain church out in the country. They had a revival meeting in a brush arbor and it was very special. Come to think of it, that was probably a lot cooler than the building was. I also attended church in a tent way back then. These are some of my fondest memories of childhood.
Now, THAT'S funny...
I grew up in a late 50’s early 60’s built church. Yes it was stark except for a really cool and very large mosaic and a crucifix. This is no barrier to prayer and meditation and maybe even adds something. Basically you don’t get to please yourself by looking at great pieces of art work - rather you either a)are fully concetrated on the Mass, or, b) You tend to find yourself in prayer. Either way I find those stark and somewhat unimaginative churches do for me what great Cathedrals may do for others.
Mel
Well they would know...They are Sisters of the one, holy blah, blah, blah...God prefers little boys that sound like girls...
That is at least 54% of them.
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