OK - time for honesty: which are the best and which is the worst church building? Now, to answer the question, you are gonna have to say WHY. Which means, come up with some criteria as to what makes it the best or the worst. It might be that the people can testify to a building that has really grown on them over time. For example: I went to a mission at West Wollongong Anglican (terrific people). They have a highly unusual building to say the least, much derided by even the congregation. However, it was actually a good building to be in, to preach in and to sing in (in my opinion) and it felt like a warm and yet reflective environment too. Again, i worked in St Andrew's Cathedral, a beautiful building, brilliantly restored but quite awkward for some kinds of meeting. However it did start to grow on you after a while because it was light and yet at the same time serious: and filled with people it can really be a glorious place to worship god in.
The issue behind the issue is - to what degree are aesthethics important? To what degree to pragmatics over-rule everything? hey, it would also be great if we could be able to attach photos to the posts...Ahh. Now we have had some interesting personal testimonies to warm us up (so to speak) - let's have some reflections on what it is we are looking for... do pragmatic and bodily considerations trump all? Do the aesthetics count for anything? Is the 'it's just a rain shelter' philosophy really enough?
The worst 'church building' I had experience of was Unisearch House when Mathias united its congregations for a year or two back in the 90s. It was terrible: it was ugly and the acoustics meant that you couldn't hear the singing of anyone but those around you, and the preacher seemed like he was talking through a loud hailer. It was an unpleasant place to be and mitagated against community. You couldn't find it in the dark, or park within cooee. The standard of the music went down (I was one of the musicians) beacuse it was given a 'why bother' kind of attitude. What if: a new suburb was opening up and you had been zoned space to build a church building: what would you tell the architect? Should the church building look like every other building, or should it look different? What values should it project to the community and to those who use it?
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9 comments:
Mike
forget the 'how would you build in a new suburb' question, Barnies burnt down last night! I've only just heard but Rob Forsyth was on 702 saying it looks like nothing could be salvaged. He used the opportunity really well to not only speak of Christ but also ask Adam SPencer to consider a request to use a Uni Lecture Theatre in the interim (AS is on the Uni Senate)
Michael K
P Knight
yes I was coming on to pass on the same news.
I had a brother who studied architecture, and he designed a church as one of his finals projects. What a hub bub! The client was a real life chruch... it was part of the excercise, and they wanted something that was domestic scaled... something that would seem welcoming and house-like, while working practically for the meeting groups, and I got the impression my brother turned in a reasonable effort in response.
But when the project was presented to the lecturers all hell broke loose. Everyone had strong opinions on what a church should be ... including a strong contingent for spiritual symbolism... it should point to God (forget what the client wants?). The other students awarded him a "coolness under fire" award, so intense was the grilling.
As barnies organist, i regret I will never play that organ again, but the overwhelming feeling is: "next!" Hope they come up with something good in place... they are a bit dumb and disfunctional on big decisions at the moment, which is a worry. No doubt the church will come out stronger.
P Knight
And as for pragmatism vs. aesthetic... its not real, in my view. Aesthetics are unavoidable, and pragmatism is an aesthetic: for example I loved the funky "this space is not us" aesthetic St Matthias church adopted (haven't been there since the '80's) ... leaving grotty rags of old flags up in the rafters... but just using whats there. I like the idea of inhabiting the building with your ideology, but leaving the ideology of the builders as well. Perfect for a uni church: like a funky shared house. It is often better than half hearted "modernisation" of an old building to a particular era, that leaves it an unsatisfactory place... neither fully modern nor appreciative of the spirit which conceived it. I suppose I am an unabashed aesthetic, but I hope not in a cliched way. I feel the pragmatists among us still like to be in attractive spaces... they just don't know why. And I don't agree with "spare no expense" either... the expense is a separate moral question, its a matter of acknowledging that aesthetics are a priority and have a human impact, and should be considered in any budget. We don't get brownie points in heaven for creating ugly, unappealing spaces, if we have the discretion - though it can be the loving thing to put up with them for the sake of relationships.
well I can't believe how unnervingly prophetic this has turned out to be...
some memories:
Rob and kath's wedding, Rob and Bec's wedding, Al and Ruth's, Mark and Anya's, the baptisms of Sacha and Matilda (and my own!), the funeral of Hope O'Brien, the funeral of Kylie Crain (which I missed)... Truth is a Person mission 1989, week in week out GREAT preaching from Katay Powell Forsyth and co, fellowship, the music of Steve Crain and Nicki Chiswell, running around there as a kid with Michael Blanch, chang the homeless guy who slept next to the church for years, Charlie Fulham... being EU vice-president and photocopying all day long... Dorothy Tremlett (the last of the old ladies)... the wooden pews you used to snag your clothes on...
hi michael,
i think we may have met once through justin but i just wanted to let you know that a lot of us have been praying for people OS (like yourself and your family) who are connected to barneys and will be feeling grief and sadness.
your blog/post has turned out to be a little prophetic hasn't it? i was just reading it last night - and to wake up and go to this this morning....
praise the Lord that His people, His message, His salvation will never be confined to a building.
one refrain today was "the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord"
and PS - the pews survived as they were off the grounds as off a month or so ago. the pews and the billboard...:)
Updates will be on www.barneys.org.au
Hey Michael, Paul (love to the fam), etc,
Like Paul, I don't think there are brownie points for ugly. I think God has wired us for creativity and beauty. I don't think anything in the new covenant negates Ex 35:30ff. God created a physical universe, and engaging with it in joy and appreciation doesn't necessarily mean that we are relegating God to some place down the line.
We were so looking forward to hearing the Barney's organ again when we return to Sydney, and our grief at the fire is much broader than that(we think of Hector's fantastic restoration work in the mid-80s). Andrew Haigh's photos on his blog brought on the tears (at
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~ajhaigh/Diary.html).
And being half a generation older than you Michael, for me it's the wedding of Darren and Lulu, Peter and Ruth, Lyn and Nick, Rod and Sal, Annette and me, Rob and Wendy Wish, Cath and Bruce (biggest wedding of all time), the funeral of Graeme, and of Joy Goodwin's infant grandson, three of my children's baptisms, including the memorable moment when Rob F interrupted the proceedings to demand that my 3 and 1 year-olds stop swinging on the hinged gate of the communion rail because they were distracting from the visible word of the sacrament.
Greg Anderson
Michael,
Do you ever say anything postive about Matthias - or are you so insecure about your own manliness that you can't bear to be linked to your father and uncle for fear of not carving out your own bit of turf. You seem to like to be contrary. You must be a sad burden to you family with all your academic snobbery and liberal ideas on what the bible actually says.
The best thing you every did for yourself was marry such a great woman.
Well, at least I am not anonymous! And you got one thing right!
And, I am sorry to say, I have a fair idea who you are.
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