{"id":12761,"date":"2011-12-17T11:02:46","date_gmt":"2011-12-17T17:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=12761"},"modified":"2012-03-08T13:15:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T19:15:12","slug":"open-or-closed-architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/17\/open-or-closed-architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Open or Closed Architecture?"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Architecture addresses and expresses. It touches and repels. It narrates and remains silent. It encloses and excludes. It is definitely permissible to speak of a language of architecture. The horizon of architecture covers a wide span across the history of mankind, from the basic housing afforded by the mud hut to the complex systems of cathedrals and skyscrapers. It would be na\u00efve to suggest that this is a metaphorical way of speaking that could be avoided or even replaced.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This quote is from an editor of <em>Closer to God<\/em>, a collection of photos and comments on contemporary religious buildings. You can find an introductory essay and a sample of the photos <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2011\/12\/12\/sacred-spaces-religious-architecture-closer-to-god_n_1138898.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The introductory essay continues this theme of \u2018a language of architecture\u2019:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;with buildings of religious designation &#8230; connotation and context are read as intelligible, tangible symbols of the content they embody. Reaching far beyond functional considerations, architecture&#8217;s usual criteria of purpose \u2013 access, capacity, construction technique and financial viability \u2013 are simply not enough. More than any other type of construction, religious buildings seem to be essentially about the ideas they contain, and the abstract principles they materialize throughout the interplay of form and content.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As I flipped through the photos on that site, I was struck that virtually all of the buildings convey a sense of openness, of the lightest possible separation between \u2018profane\u2019 and \u2018sacred\u2019 spaces. It is not just a matter of altar rails: in almost every case there is little demarcation between the place for worshippers and the sanctuary.<\/p>\n<p>It would be easy to attribute this openness to \u2018modernism\u2019. There are plenty of traditionalist sources that emphasize the importance of keeping the people out of the presbyterium.This essay, for example, quotes the GIRM:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a7 295 The sanctuary is the place where the altar stands, where the word of God is proclaimed, and where the priest, the deacon, and the other ministers exercise their offices. It should suitably be marked off from the body of the church either by its being somewhat elevated or by a particular structure and ornamentation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Other sources connect the separation between people and sanctuary with the levitical rites and the holy of holies (e.g. Lev 16.2ff), or even the Garden of Eden after the fall.<\/p>\n<p>So is the opening of forbidden spaces purely a modern phenomenon? I don\u2019t think so. When the Jesuits built the Church of the Ges\u00f9 in 1584, they made the nave wide, unbroken by aisles or much of a transept. The sanctuary is wide and shallow, the high altar easily visible. There is no narthex. The pulpit was thrust forward, so that the people could easily hear the word of God.<\/p>\n<p>This continues in Jesuit architecture up to the present day, at well-known churches such as St Ignatius Loyola in New York, Immaculate Conception (Farm Street) in London and Sacred Heart in Wimbledon. Today Sacred Heart describes itself as \u2018an inclusive, welcoming and open Catholic parish serving the wider community\u2019. As early as the 1900s, its architecture sent a similar message.<\/p>\n<p>So openness or closed-ness in architecture may not be aligned with tradition or modernity, but rather a matter of choice.<\/p>\n<p>How open or closed, architecturally, is your church? How open or closed do you want it to be? And what do you think of the openness of the religious buildings in <em>Closer to God<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p><em>Jonathan Day is a consultant and writer; he is also a member of the parish council of the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception (Farm Street) in central London.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How open or closed, architecturally, is your church? How open or closed do you want it to be? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[1743,1064,1744],"class_list":["post-12761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-and-architecture","tag-closer-to-god","tag-huffington-post","tag-jesuit-architecture"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Open or Closed Architecture? - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/17\/open-or-closed-architecture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Open or Closed Architecture? - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How open or closed, architecturally, is your church? 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My church home is the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception (Farm Street Church) in central London, where I serve at the altar and help with adult education at the Mount Street Jesuit Centre. I recently became the chair of Council at Newman University, a small Catholic university in Birmingham. I write here in a purely personal capacity.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/jonathan-day\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Open or Closed Architecture? - Home","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/17\/open-or-closed-architecture\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Open or Closed Architecture? - Home","og_description":"How open or closed, architecturally, is your church? 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