Our recent discussions on this blog over the Crystal Cathedral / "Christ Cathedral" moved a reader to alert us to the following pictures of a Greek Orthodox church in Cyprus, dedicated to St. Barnabas the Apostle and located in Dasupoulis (Dasoupoleos), Nicosia. It was built in the 1970's and is said to be the only church of this type in the island-nation.
These pictures were taken during today's Divine Liturgy in this church by the visiting Patriarch of Moscow. (Link to photogallery.) Click on the pictures to enlarge.
What do you think, dear readers? Could something similar be done for "Christ Cathedral", along the lines of the artistic traditions of the Latin Rite?
(Rorate note: this post is solely about the question of adapting modern architectural forms to traditional sacred art and architecture. No anti-Catholic polemics will be permitted from Orthodox readers.)
22 comments:
Hmmmmm...the interior looks quite nice. But the exterior looks a bit unfortunate.
We can only dream...
This is beautiful but I am not sure that it could work for the primarily renaissance-influenced style of traditional Catholic churches. If Catholic churches in the USA adopted hte more iconographical and 2-dimensional style of the Romanesque, something similar could be achieved. But how do you implement ranks of statues and gothic flourishes and arches and stained glass in a church like that without adding a lot to its structure?
Speaking of structure, the third picture from the top confirms my initial suspicion: This is what it would look like if the shuttlebay of the starship Enterprise were adapted for eastern liturgical use.
(The fact that the Enterprise and this Church were designed at around the same period of real history explains the correspondence).
Well, it is not hard to think of the Crystal Cathedral as an empty cask - it is somewhat sober on the inside, which is to be appreciated; this Eastern church, on the other hand, is even more "crowded" and suffocating than usual.
That is, just a few touches would make it ready for traditional worship; it could be seen as a "covered" setting for an "open air" mass, something Traditionalists are quite used to. In this case, a traditional altar, a baldaquin, modest side altars, and a fine large set of the Stations would be enough, along with kneelers and an altar rail. It can be done, quite inexpensively.
Obviously, that is not what will be done - what hideous Crucifix, modern table-altar, and works of "modern art" are planned for this building?...
This is a beautiful church. It reminds me of the old adage that is usually applied to the traditional Roman Liturgy (but equally applies to all ancient liturgical traditions) - Even in bad settings, the traditional Liturgy is beautiful. Certainly, the traditional Liturgy has a way of making the environment follow it, not vice-versa.
Fortunately, the Eastern Orthodox have retained a sense that liturgical tradition consists of both words and actions; art as well as architecture. One can see the familiar outline of all Orthodox churches in this church. This benefits Orthodoxy whenever it uses temples built in the modernist style.
Unfortunately, the Latin Church hasn't retained a strong sense of environment in worship. Outside of traditional laws governing sanctuary appointments, interior architectural traditions were never legislated or even retained in the consciousness of most Roman Catholics. This is why modernist architecture was given increasing approval in the 20th century (even before the Second Vatican Council).
Combined with no clear rationale against celebration "ad populum" (which was always an accident of celebration geographic "ad orientem"), which effects the church interior in many ways, and no viable iconographic tradition, there were no safeguards for church interiors to remain traditionally uniform even when using modernist churches.
I don't think that the Latin Rite could successfully adapt structures like the Crystal Catherdral, for the simple reason that there is not enough liturgical tradition left to know how to do it.
I understand brick and mortar, and if that's all there is, then that's all there is; but to go out of one's way to make something look weird and stupid really says the person has a very disturbed idea of religion. The heathens even build their places of worship in magnificent expressions of their understanding of the ethereal.
New Catholic said, "What hideous Crucifix, modern table-altar, and works of "modern art" are planned for this building?"
Oh, we just dread.
Matt
Modern architecture doesn't equal ugliness but most of the architects forget about classical architecture and that they are building a temple for God
It looks like the launching bay for the Battlestar Gallactica, when preped for a ceremony.
This pales in comparison to a traditional Orthodox Church. It's missing critical components both on the inside and the outside.
PS. I'm an Eastern Catholic and this is a modernist church -- the Orthodox also have their own version of modernists
I would note that this church is slightly tolerable because it still retains some orientation. It appears from the third picture that the sanctuary remains the terminus of the line of sight, where ever you sit in this church. Even though the church is modernist, it is not so modernist as to scramble the intellect so as to emphasis the nave as being more important than the sanctuary. All is oriented to the sanctuary. If the crystal cathedral can do likewise, a bit of progress might be made. The crystal cathedral would need to be configured so that where ever you are in the building, the mind is automatically drawn to the altar and impressed that it is terminus and center for everything which happens in the building.
Crystal (Christ) Cathedral's interior can and should be redesigned. I suspect that what would happen would not be to my or many traditional Catholics' liking. However, we should not forget that Catholic church of the Pre-Conciliar period has never been afraid of modernist architecture, but used it within the parameters of the Tridentine Mass. If you look at the imaginary church interiors published in Paolo Costermanelli, Architetture sacre : studi, progetti, realizzazioni (Milano : Görlich Editore, 1956), one can easily find something monumental, modernist, and appropriate for Roman liturgy. In fact, some of the grandiose proposals of Costermanelli envisage a Catholic Crystal-Cathedral-type.
Be not afraid. I would approach the Bishop with positive attitude and make some concrete proposals.
I've been in a space-ship type church that was built before Vatican II, and was therefore designed for the Tridentine Mass. It was very confusing--I cound't tell if I liked it or not...
Where could I find more information about those pews? They remind this westerner of choir stalls.
Some comments on the purchase of the Crystal Cathedral, now to be Christ Cathedral.
Our local major newspaper, The Orange County Register, has been following the process of buying the Crystal Cathedral for a year now, and before that many of the problems that led to the bankruptcy. (http://www.ocregister.com/ , search on Crystal Cathedral.) The Diocese of Orange in Southern California has been preparing for a number of years to build a new Cathedral and relocate the Diocesan offices to a new site. The preferred site was a few miles from the Crystal Cathedral, and we were in the process of selecting an architect when this possibility opened up for a substantial saving of money over the original plans. The announced intention for conversion to a Catholic Cathedral is to leave the eye-catching outside intact and gut the interior, even removing the pews to replace them with pews that have kneelers. Only the magnificent organ will be kept from the inside.
The most magnificent (that word again) Cathedral I’ve been in in the U.S. was St. Paul Cathedral in St. Paul, Minnesota. It had twelve ft. high statues of the four Evangelists, on pedestals, inside, dwarfed by the size of this classically designed granite cathedral. It is set on a hill overlooking the city. My wife and I were in town for my son’s wedding, and were unaware of this beautiful tribute to God until we happened to drive nearby and I was captured by the sight of it.
Another impressive local Cathedral is the new one for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The bishop, Roger Cardinal Mahoney, was a controversial leader, and I had heard a lot of disparaging remarks about the design of the Cathedral by people who did not like Mahoney. The building is visible from a nearby freeway, and is kind of nondescript from the outside, but is obviously some sort of Christian Church. Inside, it is modern, beautiful, and inspiring of worship. We attended noon Mass there, and I’ll admit that at first I was distracted by its visual impact, but got past that in time for the homily.
I’ve been in a number of churches in America and Europe, and the most “classical” was a log cabin style wooden Church in Norway. It is either 800 or 1200 years old, I forget which. The most “unclassical” was in the next county from here; the parish was building a new Church, and in the meantime had leased an industrial building that had 700 chairs, no kneelers, while they built. Plus for various temporary reasons, I’ve attended some Masses in tents.
I’ve also attended Masses in the Anaheim Convention Center Basketball Arena and surrounding buildings. Even an Eastern Catholic Rite Mass in a large tent.
For whatever reason I was attending Mass somewhere, I’ve always been able to find Christ.
Some comments on the comments.
New Catholic: “what hideous Crucifix, modern table-altar, and works of "modern art" are planned for this building?” There is still time to pray for the design of this stuff. Please do.
Adam Michael: “Even in bad settings, the traditional Liturgy is beautiful. Certainly, the traditional Liturgy has a way of making the environment follow it, not vice-versa.…Unfortunately, the Latin Church hasn't retained a strong sense of environment in worship.” Can you recommend a Feng Shui consultant? (humor) The worst environment I’ve seen was the bombed-out Kaiser Wilhelm Cathedral in downtown West Berlin. When I was there, in military service, we used a base chapel that was in what had been one of Hitler’s proudest architectural products, the Templehof Central Airport building.
Matt: If you won’t like it, we have plenty of other Churches in the Diocese that you can attend instead.
Spero: “The crystal cathedral would need to be configured so that where ever you are in the building, the mind is automatically drawn to the altar and impressed that it is terminus and center for everything which happens in the building.” The original design of the Crystal Cathedral does that, so we have an example to guide us.
Problem with the Crystal Cathedral is the air conditioning. The roof is all glass, for heaven's sake, and with out a/c it can get really hot inside. This makes for a 'greenhouse effect' on the worshippers within. I hope this can be remediated somehow.
No iconostasis in this cathedral?!?
papabear:
There clearly is an iconostasis. Look at the third picture. More pics of the iconostasis can be seen in the linked photogallery.
good
Sam, barrel vaulting is quite traditional, and this church exhibits it. I'll bet the chanting and music is glorious.
The nuns of Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, PA, have an A-frame chapel that admirably suits their purposes.
Augustinus, thanks for the direction.
My impression is that the church as shown is bound to make a worshipper feel surrounded by saints-- in heaven already, singing the praise of God. I love the strong colors, that paradoxically combine festivity with the solemn countenances depicted. I wonder if it overwhelms in the space.
I'm sure the Sistine Chapel's colors were "strong" when it was freshly painted.
With modern technology, there's so much potential for some very beautiful, digitally-produced art and optical effects for modern cathedrals, but I have yet to see anyone employ this effectively.
Computer-generated fractals on Church walls would be amazing, considering the ancient church architect's love of geometric patterns (e.g., Cosmati patters). Maybe Duncan Stroik is working on this.
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