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that represented an urgent response to contemporary culture -- especially after Vatican II -- has now gone painfully out of date.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."
He puts as much love for Christ in his homilies, and just about every aspect of the parishes community.
Fr. Carmel Prepares the Altar for the offertory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7998-Ttndc
Dedication of baby to the Blessed Mother.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JioaV87T3fE&feature=related
Usually, the official reason Protestant songs are rejected is because they contain problematic theology. Of course, given the meaningless drivel that is used in its place (”Let Us Build City of God” appears to directly contradict St. Augustine, although isn’t heresy only because it’s so meaningless), that’s hard to believe. But FWIW, Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art are in just about every Catholic hymnal I’ve ever seen, although How Great Thou Art is seldom used..
It’s sorta funny. There are three types of “embarrass-the-Catholics” threads: Those that are strongly refuted by Catholics, those that are dismissed as just plain dumb, and those like this one, where Catholics are just as upset as the Protestants that malarkey like this is going on. Because when the abuses are real, not just plain lies or furious spin, the Catholics WANT to clean them up.
Each to his own I suppose....some may call it love...others see it as gaudy and way overdone.
Not to mention in these times constraint of flower expense and that which is not necessary would likely feed some of lesser means. The church should also be an example of frugality when it’s own parishners are trying to make ends meet.
We also have a food pantry that is constantly refreshed by members of the parish. No one ever knocks on the door of the rectory and is turned away without at least two bags of food.
We often think that way about how other people express their love for someone other than ourselves. We frown on public displays of affection unless we're the ones doing it.
in these times constraint of flower expense and that which is not necessary would likely feed some of lesser means
I'm not sure that citing Judas really works here. Altar flowers are generally donated by people in the parish rather than paid for by the parish.
“A Mighty Fortress” was in the Missal when we got married.
Played it at my wedding. Made the priest laugh.
Though you may see this as “citing Judas”, as you stated in your post, and I was not surprised something of that nature would insue...as it always does sooner or later. I do not see a church and it’s membership being frugal with flower donations as you implied... and my point remains the same. In these times better to invest monies where it helps people survive, such as restocking pantries,.. and cut way down on the floral arrangements, especially because the departed are not affected one way or another.
Why? Do you regularly protest against people spending their own money in a manner they deem appropriate? I wouldn't want this to get personal, but it seems to me that you made it that way.
I do not see a church and it’s membership being frugal with flower donations as you implied... and my point remains the same.
I can't imagine caring if your congregation uses flowers or chicken feathers or mounted moose heads, this isn't about Catholics imposing their devotional practices on you, it's about you imposing your sense of propriety and decorum on Catholics. Or does the mere idea that people decorate their churches with flowers make you uncomfortable?
In these times better to invest monies where it helps people survive, such as restocking pantries,.. and cut way down on the floral arrangements, especially because the departed are not affected one way or another.
Wait, you think this is about funerals?! None of those pictures or video links are funerals. Just because you have a perception of what a funeral should look like doesn't mean the rest of the world has to conform to your ideas.
The pictures in post 7 are Easter, Christmas and what looks like it might be Thanksgiving. The video links aren't funerals because the priest is wearing green. The world is a very big place and cultural and religious practices aren't wrong just because they differ from your own.
I've been going to a Maronite parish lately and it's very different from what I'm used to. It's in Arabic for a start and the chants and other music are foreign sounding to my Roman ears. They have icons instead of statues and there are bells on the thurible chains, they administer Holy Communion by intinction. The whole place looks weird to me, it's strange and foreign but it's not wrong, it's just the way they do things. It would be the worst sort of parochialism for me to complain that the Maronites stand when we Romans kneel or that they spend money on something I neither understand nor appreciate.
Coming to a church near you: http://church.alltop.com/
I’m glad you’ve escaped so far.
One quick look at http://church.alltop.com/ makes you cringe. But http://cheezewhizchurch.blogspot.com helps when you think the franchise model worship is taking itself too seriously.
Smooth, plasticky, yellow, oozing, ready-to-consume; spreads easily; sounds like "Jesus" but isn't; appears bright and colorful; doesn't have a lot of serious nutritional substance -- it's gotta be Cheeze Whiz Church
Dude, thank you. I'm going to have to give that a good perusal, in my Abundant Free Time.
I was a Roman Catholic for many years. But after I got saved, one of the things I did, and it was a struggle, was to look up all of these words in the New Testament:
altar
priest
sacrifice
sanctuary
*** I found no carry-over of Old Testament architecture, clergy, vestments, liturgy, etc etc into the New Covenant.
*** It was therefore a test of faith and obedience to God’s word that I left the RCC, but the issue of salvation was foremost. The RCC denies salvation by grace through faith, and if they say they don’t, then they re-define the words so that they carry unbiblical meanings.
Who are those nuts? They would not be allowed within 500’ of my SBC. Where in the Bible does it support gay marriage? They are not true Christians.
Who are those nuts? They would not be allowed within 500’ of my SBC. Where in the Bible does it support gay marriage? They are not true Christians.
That may be, but the megas are draining people from the smaller churches, and while they sometimes sound biblical, the real emphasis is self-help stuff. Jesus wants to help you with your finances, nail fungus and remote control choices. Scripture is purposely de-emphasized, Christian symbolism like crosses removed (so as not to turn off the “unchurched”). After all, it’s not about YOU. These churches are growing and members of smaller churches who like all the glitzy programs, lights and contemporary feel, coffee bars and slick web sites are leaving smaller but scripturally faithful churches to shrink and shrivel. Thing is, these megas are often politically liberal, but the masses attending only slowly catch onto that. The terminology sometimes stays the same while the meaning behind it differs.
That may be, but the megas are draining people from the smaller churches, and while they sometimes sound biblical, the real emphasis is self-help stuff. Jesus wants to help you with your finances, nail fungus and remote control choices. Scripture is purposely de-emphasized, Christian symbolism like crosses removed (so as not to turn off the “unchurched”). After all, it’s not about YOU. These churches are growing and members of smaller churches who like all the glitzy programs, lights and contemporary feel, coffee bars and slick web sites are leaving smaller but scripturally faithful churches to shrink and shrivel. Thing is, these megas are often politically liberal, but the masses attending only slowly catch onto that. The terminology sometimes stays the same while the meaning behind it differs.
*** I found no carry-over of Old Testament architecture, clergy, vestments, liturgy, etc etc into the New Covenant.
Well, we do have one priest.
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