Inside ML

While it is certainly true that God’s church is built of living stones, the living Body of Christ needs a home built of more conventional material. This issue of ML offers some perspectives on the ways the house of God can be renewed and restored to reflect evolving patterns of worship. James Hundt, AIA, describes a process of journeying with one parish so that their shared vision of communal worship would be reflected in a tangible way in their worship environment. Using an effective two-team approach to the redesign of a worship space, Gregory Davis, AIA, NCARB, and Mark Humenick explain the theory behind each step of the design process. Delving more deeply into the function of the church building is David Philippart, with a unique perspective on the role of the church structure in the ongoing work of mission and evangelization.

All the construction, design, and renewal serves no purpose if the assembly is unable to respond in faith due to a lack of formation. Helen St. Paul shares some practical methods for enhancing and deepening the understanding of the parish community about liturgical art and environment. Plunging into the depths of the topic of worship environment is Nancy Chinn, with reflections on the profound difference between decorating a space and forming an environment that reaches its full potential as an integral part of the prayer experience. 

As our ritual evolves, so must our ritual environment evolve. This can only happen when our understanding moves from a decoration-of-the-day-or-season mentality to an awareness of divine presence in every moment. Worship space is an identity statement of who we say we are as a community of worship. When we care more about counting up how many Christmas trees we need this year than we do about how welcoming we are as a Christian people, liturgy fails. When we argue longer and harder about whether we should have holy water in church during Lent than we do about the centrality of a baptismal font, a potential moment of communion is denied. Fortunately, we have gifted people among us who continue to work to steer us away from the mundane and toward the divine. As we continue to discover new ways to celebrate authentic liturgy, we will journey not with documents and decrees but with these prophets whose vision and craft offer us a glimpse of the life to come. By their work may we always know joy in the house of God. 

This I seek: To dwell in the Lord’s house all the days of my life, to gaze on the Lord’s beauty, to visit his temple (Ps 27:4). ML

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