WORDS TO THE WHYS

The truth will make you odd. Flannery O’Connor

If it looks like a church... .

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A local diocesan parish is planning a move, and along with that move a new church building and parish centre are in the works. The community's timing is excellent. The area in which the existing parish is located, and the area where the new project will be located, is booming; one of Canada's fasting growing regions. They have sufficient funds to facilitate a successful project: https://olorchurch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-09-19-Presentation-1.pdf

Unfortunately, their new church will have all the warmth of a refrigerator. An interior scoured of theological richness has been chosen over one that draws people through the transcendentals into the mystery of the Incarnation. A safe space has been chosen over a human one. And, if precedent holds, the celebration of Mass will come to resemble the space: flat; boxy; plodding. That said, the appearance of an apse of sorts, an ever so brief nod to historic and integral Catholic design, is a welcome acknowledgement on the part of any parish claiming to be Catholic. Likewise, the organization of pews restores a sense of navis (ship), the nave, a symbol of the Church, the traditional orientation of the congregation to the sanctuary or holy of holies. Perhaps a healthy number of well crafted stained glass windows and Stations of the Cross will further enhance the Catholicity of the interior.

Proposed design | Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Langford

Rather than a feast, fast food.

For contrast, a couple of "Other Modern" designs.

Saint John The Apostle | Leesburg, VA

Our Lady of Walsingham Cathedral | Mother Church of the North American Ordinariate

Modern need not be mundane. Modest need not mean milk-and-water.

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