Bangalow

If one heads south from Brisbane along the Pacific Highway and exits just over the border of New South Wales, one would find oneself in the small town of Bangalow, perhaps the most charming village in the entire Commonwealth of Australia. Once a regional centre of some importance, Bangalow, like many small towns, has faded from its former days of influence only to be resuscitated by the influx of money from Sydney millionaires looking for a hinterland escape. Mercifully, Bangalow's impressive collection of turn-of-the-century Australian vernacular buildings has survived.

Heading in to town from the east, we happen first upon All Souls Anglican Church, a fairly handsome example of Australia's peculiar version of carpenter Gothic.

We then proceed through a brief residential neighborhood ornamented with such fine residences as this one. Federation style bungalows predominate with their ornate woodwork, window canopies, and quintessential front porches. The main portion of town comes next:

Each storefront boasts a one or two storey verandah, a necessary feature in a climate as sunny and as rainy as that of the northern reaches of New South Wales.

And what tour through an Australian country town would be complete without a stop at the pub (or hotel, as they are euphemistically known). The Bangalow Hotel is a typical example of the Australian pub with its tiled exterior walls and its overhanging verandah canopy.

I was able to spend a single lovely Sunday in Bangalow last winter, and really, that is all that the small town demands. Worth a stop if you're in the area: yes.

The Church is not a Democracy

I saw a subtitle of some article that read "The Catholic Church will face challenges as society changes, and more balk at its authoritarian stance." When will people realize that the Church's doctrines are not public policy that can be changed on the whim of a bureaucrat at the slightest pressure of public opinion? The Church is authoritarian in its teaching of the truth, because it proclaims Christ - the way, the truth, and the life - as King. Christ's Kingdom is not of this world, but it is in this world - in the hearts of all those who allow Him to be their Sovereign Lord.

Society can and will change, to the benefit of some and the detriment of others, but Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The truth will continue to be proclaimed, both in and out of season. The Church's sacred duty is to the truth of Christ, Her Spouse and King.

 "THE CATHOLIC CHURCH is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age. I have compared it with the New Religions; but this is exactly where it differs from the New Religions. The New Religions are in many ways suited to the new conditions; but they are only suited to the new conditions. When those conditions shall have changed in only a century or so, the points upon which alone they insist at present will have become almost pointless. If the Faith has all the freshness of a new religion, it has all the richness of an old religion; it has especially all the reserves of an old religion. So far as that is concerned, its antiquity is alone a great advantage, and especially a great advantage for purposes of renovation and youth. It is only by the analogy of animal bodies that we suppose that old things must be stiff. It is a mere metaphor from bones and arteries. In an intellectual sense old things are flexible. Above all, they are various and have many alternatives to offer. There is a sort of rotation of crops in religious history; and old fields can lie fallow for a while and then be worked again. But when the new religion or any such notion has sown its one crop of wild oats, which the wind generally blows away, it is barren. A thing as old as the Catholic Church has an accumulated armoury and treasury to choose from; it can pick and choose among the centuries and brings one age to the rescue of another. It can call in the old world to redress the balance of the new." - G.K. Chesterton

Image credit to Fr. Lawrence, O.P. - on Flickr here.

Of parabolic vaults

Here's a little design that I came up with. It is a cross-sectional view through a church, looking toward the altar. Stylistically, it is a bit of a curiosity. It started from a square plan based on some Byzantine precedents. Then, it got a rather Baroque looking altar. Add in some Art Nouveau lines and a parabolic arch reminiscent of the Engelbrekts church in Stockholm, and you have something quite intriguing indeed.

If a may engage in a bit of self-congratulation: this is the type of design that is appropriate for a modern church. Yes, the form, plan, and decor is arranged in a traditional manner. But, the stylistic cues come from very diverse sources. The arch over the apse has a certain Louis Sullivan feel to it. The altar, with its domed canopy, evokes Otto Wagner's work on the Church Am Steinhof in Vienna. Even the slim proportion of the Roman brick hearkens to Frank Lloyd Wright.

Short story long: it is traditional, but not historicist. It cannot be pegged to one time period, but it attempts to synthesize some of the highlights of the past 150 years into a cohesive whole.  

Thoughts on Monarchy

Soon after the election results were in, I joked on my Facebook page that I was going to withdraw from American politics, help the French monarchists restore the King, get Quebec to secede from Canada and rejoin the reinvigorated French Empire, and then have them annex Michigan (and Ontario) so that I could live contentedly under a Catholic monarchy. Such fantastic (but far-fetched) scenarios aside, I do have a soft-spot for monarchical government, as understood in Medieval Christendom. Admittedly, there were defects, but in its idealized form all persons were equal before God and treated with dignity. The King administered God's justice and maintained a reflection of the divine order through his reign. The King was prevented from usurping too much power by the Church, who could pressure the King with various ecclesiastical actions (interdiction, excommunication, etc.). The Church also acted as the provider of community welfare through the various charitable efforts of monasteries and parishes, maintaining a level of political stability among the poor.

Monarchy obviously gets a bad name in the US, which was born of anti-Royal sentiment, yet there is something further to be said of the nature of leadership in a monarchy which is distinct from our current form of democracy. The monarch did not have to gain his power. He was born into it. He was groomed for it from a young age - a spirit of service to his subjects permeated his education. He did not have to sell his soul to corporations or special interests to gain power. He could devote himself to ideals shamelessly. He did not have to pander to various constituencies at the expense of others.

There were abuses of this power, but on the whole I think it may be a better system than our current plutocracy that goes to the polls every four years in order to claim legitimacy.

Engelbrektskyrkan

I'm currently perusing Modern Church Architecture, a hefty-but-interesting tome of early-20th Century ecclesiastical design. This church, the Engelbrektskyrkan in Stockholm, struck me as a distinct gem.

It is classic, but with modern touches. The mural of the Crucifixion over the altar is especially fine. The church was designed by Lars Israel Wahlman and completed in 1914. The style is a brand of Arts and Crafts/Art Nouveau common to Northern Europe and perhaps best exemplified in the work of Peter Behrens in the Low Countries.

Liturgical Eavesdropping

The other day, I was at The Cup having breakfast and keeping an eye on my artwork which has been on display all month, and I allowed myself to partake in the minor vice of eavesdropping. Well, perhaps it wasn't so much eavesdropping as being in a small room and hearing another person talk rather loudly. I perked up at this line:

"The thing about a Catholic mass or an Orthodox divine liturgy is that Sunday morning worship doesn't look like a Saturday evening concert."

This is a succinct way of describing the uniqueness of liturgical worship. It is timeless, transcendent, and it has the power to sanctify the week in a way nothing else that occurs during the week resembles. This is why our liturgical worship must be safeguarded and celebrated worthily. It has the power to transform the soul through its majesty and beauty.

This cannot be anything else but the worship of God. It can't be confused with a self-help workshop, a concert, or a speech - it is far above and beyond all that.

(Image borrowed from Te Deum Laudamus - the Most Reverend Alexander Sample, Bishop of Marquette (MI) offering the sacrifice of the mass in accordance with the 1962 missal [the Traditional Latin Mass] in the church of Assumption Grotto parish in Detroit)

Something vaguely Byzantine

A little sketch project of the interior of a somewhat Byzantine or Romanesque church. I tend to use the terms interchangeably, as they refer to basically the same architectural movements in the Western and Eastern Roman Empire, respectively. Of course, there are distinctions to be made. As a rule, Byzantine architecture has a deeper focus on the surface and its ornamentation, while Romanesque tends to be focused on massing of architectural elements. The two can form interesting hybrids, though, with Byzantine surface treatments (mosaic, etc.) grafted onto a Romanesque body. And, that's basically what I attempted here.

A few notes are in order. The ceiling is heavy timber and the walls are stone - preferably of the warm, sandy color often found in Romanesque construction, especially in Germany. The nave is rather undecorated, save for a mosaic frieze that runs around the top of the walls, and the windows, which would be stained glass. The sanctuary is dealt with in a detail drawing below.

The sanctuary of any church should be the most rigorously thought-out in terms of iconography and graphic organization. It is the meeting place of heaven and earth during the liturgy, and its artistic scheme should reflect this nexus. In this particular design, I have divided the iconography among three vertical zones.

The first zone is from the vaulted ceiling to the tops of the windows. This zone represents heaven, and is centered on a mosaic image of Christ in Majesty, surrounded by seraphim. The panels to the left and right depict the Twelve apostles, gathered around the heavenly throne. The floral patterns to the far right and left recall the perfection of creation and the restoration of Eden in the New Jerusalem.

The second zone is that of the windows, which represent God's dealings in human history, through the person of Jesus Christ. Windows depicting the Nativity, the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and Pentecost show the working of God throughout the timeline of our earth. The bottom third of the middle three windows is taken up by a depiction of the Last Supper, which graphically connects the image of the Crucifixion with the altar below.

The altar is the focal point of the third zone: that of God's continuing work in the life of humanity. The central crucifix and tabernacle recall the throne of God depicted above, while the gathering of priests and other ministers around the altar recalls the gathering of the Apostles to the throne of Christ. The altar itself is a fairly straightforward model that recalls many of the altars built in this country in the period between 1870 and 1910 or so.

These three zones work organically in the context of the liturgy. The mass, an event taking place at the altar in real time, re-presents the historic sacrifice of the Cross depicted in the central window, and reminds us of the glory of heaven that we are journeying toward.

Churches are theology in stone, and we should strive to have them reflect the divine order of creation instituted by God. We should not make churches mute buildings that we fill with our own meaning. Neither should we be superficial about the way we decorate or adorn our churches. The church building should be a gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art, where all things within drive home a unified message.