Inside ML

Star Trek used to open with William Shatner’s sonorous voice intoning: “Space. The final frontier.” He could have been talking about church architecture. The elephant in the middle of the sanctuary for the post-Vatican II church is that our worship spaces are designed for a pre-Vatican II liturgy. Richard Giles makes the plea, “Let’s begin with theology” (“Re-pitching the Tent,” page 9). We tend to build houses for God instead of places for the assembly of believers. Giles says, “To ‘build a house’ for God is a laughable concept in New Testament theology.” Royce A. Yeater reminds us to look back beyond our pre-Vatican II roots to the very beginnings of architecture to find a path for the future (“Cycles of Light and Life,” page 16). He says, “Architecture has origins in the stone pilers who sought to honor the cycles of life.” He notes that all architecture is rooted in a time and a place, that it must reflect the culture in which it finds itself. That insight leads us to the frontier of faith. Culture and faith are always evolving. We are shaking off a long sleep during which we have “filled this world with beautiful buildings” (Giles, page 9). Was that misguided? Read this issue of ML closely and come to your own conclusion. Send your thoughts for other readers to learn from to ML, 160 E. Virginia St. #290, San Jose, CA 95112. Or post your reactions online at ML Current Issue Discussion Board.

Musical chairs

With this issue, ML says farewell to long-time music editor John Hajda. John recently finished his PhD program at UCLA and has been snapped up by one of Silicon Valley*s ubiquitous dotcom startups. Besides being music editor for ML, John also served as editor of Simple Gifts and as the liturgical music consultant for Celebrating the Lectionary.

Fortunately, before he left for the fleshpots of stock options and IPOs, he recommended a successor to fill his shoes. ML readers will remember Diana M. Kaulback as a previous regular contributor to the ML Planning Guide. Diana is also currently a key team member in the ML events series. Diana will take over John’s duties while continuing her work on ML events. Farewell, John. Welcome, Diana.

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