Title: Our Sanctuary’s Architecture
Text: 1 Corinthians 3: 10-17
Date: June 27, 2004
By: Kendall Brown Kendall's Notebook Page 29
This morning’s topic is the beauty to be found in the architecture of this sanctuary. I approach this topic with fear that every minister, who has been called to this pulpit has felt compelled at least once to explore this subject. Consequently some of you may have heard all of this before. For you, however, I hope that hearing the story from the perspective of yet another minister might be a pleasant refresher. For those of you, who are newer, I hope this morning will give you reason to enlarge your appreciation of the design of this church.
This sanctuary was dedicated on July 21, 1968. Four years earlier a building committee had been formed. The first year of study was led by Ed Becker. In 1965, Paul Schmidt assumed the leadership of the committee that steered the building process to completion.
There is a note of tragedy in the planning of our sanctuary. Miss Suzy Howell was the architect who designed this sanctuary. She was an associate in the firm of Heronimus, Knapp and Given. This was her first and only work. A few weeks after Christ Church had met and voted to accept her design on May 23, 1967, Miss Howell passed away at a very young age. Mr. Robert Knapp, her senior architect in the firm, and her parents contributed money so that the church could afford to include the designs, planned by Miss Howell, and now found as a part of the brickwork on the exterior walls of the chancel.
I am sure that Miss Howell kept in mind our name, Christ Church, as she began to work out her design. For the person and work of Christ are central themes in the design of the chancel area. The chancel is this area of the sanctuary from which the services are led. In days gone by, only ordained clergy were allowed in this area in some churches, although that exclusiveness is not a part of the UCC tradition. The outside walls of the chancel are decorated with two brick inlaid designs.
On the northwest outside wall you will find a depiction of a lamb reminding us of Jesus’ sacrificial role by which he becomes for us the Christ, who saves us. On the northeast side is a depiction of a fish reminding us of the ancient secret symbol used by Christians as an identifying password in the days of Roman persecution and when Christianity was an underground movement. The Greek word for fish is icthus and its letters form an anagram, which stand for the words, “Jesus Christ Son of God Savior.” The fish on this NE wall is swimming in a sea of waves and water. The water imagery never fails to conjure up many thoughts for Christians. There is the water of creation and the water of baptism. The watery symbol takes us to the wells of Jacob and the Samaritan women and to the stories of Jesus walking on water, calming the sea, calling his disciples from their boats, feeding the crowd by the sea with two fish and five loaves, and meeting his disciples on the shore for a breakfast which was probably a meal of fish. The fish reminds me of Jesus’ earthly and human work. The lamb reminds me of Jesus heavenly and divine work.
Unique to Christ Church is the design of the chancel area. The table, lectern, and pulpit have been freed from the drapery to which we have become accustomed and the walls are unencumbered by banners or other decorations. The red of Pentecost was left before you for several Sundays beyond the one Sunday that it is customarily used to adorn the sanctuary. That lingering of brilliant color for an extra three weeks was done that this morning the contrast would be even more evident.
There is a beauty in the simplicity of this chancel and I wanted to bring that beauty out by a lack of adornment. All this reminds me of how the simplicity of God’s design and the beauty of God’s grace can so often become hidden and lost under all the distractions of order, customs, traditions and practices that we impose upon our religion and thereby make things all too complicated. It is amazing how just one simple word of apology can cut through layers and layers of excruciating excuses and the unnecessary complication of explanation. Our chancel is simple and beautiful. Our faith is simple and beautiful.
Covered from your view most Sundays because of the placement of the table coverings is a large rock. This rock is a piece of natural lava and some of you have told me that it was brought here all the way from Hawaii. The rock supports the table and is a central feature of the worship area reminding us of how the earliest gatherings of Christians often took place around a stone table. The rock also reminds us of Jesus’ saying to Peter, “Upon the rock I will build my church.” As Protestants, we have usually taken the rock imagery of Jesus to mean the faith of Peter as well as the faith of all Jesus’ disciples, including us, ever since. The rock itself, being lava, which was once a molten flow perhaps 1000’s of degrees hot coming out of the center of earth, brings us close to the primal creative processes of our God and faith.
The most striking symbol is our cross. Yes, I am told, the cross is sunk quite a few feet down into the ground to hold it in place. It is rough hewn and I understand some of the church members worked on that feature as the sanctuary was being built. The cross’ roughness reminds us of the cruelty of our Lord’s death. The combination of the table and the cross before us is permanent. You can’t move this table without moving that cross and vice versa. The cross as the central symbol of Christianity is for many a symbol of their personal faith. The table is the central symbol of our community, the Lord’s place around which we gather. Every Sunday morning, by the design of this sanctuary, worshippers are reminded that the two go together. You cannot be a disciple of Christ apart from his community. There is a hollowness and much self deception in saying that one can be a Christian and not be a part of Christ’s church. Few churches declare the necessity of community the way the architecture of Christ church does.
From the pew there is the horizontal line of the table. There is the vertical line of the cross. The vertical line is not right down the middle, which is probably where most of us, who operate without the enlightenment of an artist’s eye, would put the vertical line if it were up to us. The off centered vertical line of this cross reminds us that if you have the cross of Christ in your heart, you have a different center, a different point of reference and orientation because of Christ in your life.
The horizontal table line is also off centered in reference to the rock which supports it underneath. If you took the cross away, the horizontal table would lose its balance and tip to the westward side. The cross also keeps the table in balance. Jesus’ presence among us it what keeps our community in balance.
We have the primal symbols of creation in the architecture of this chancel. There is the volcanic rock reminding us of fire, and it stark darkness and random shape reminding us of the pre-creation chaos. There is the symbol of water on the NE outside wall. In the midst of God’s creating activity, in which we are in the midst in this sacred space, we have to have light. The source of light is important. In this sacred space the light comes from above – not just because it is cool to have overhead lighting – but because God’s light is the ultimate overhead light and that is the light which energizes this sacred space in this church.
Thinking about the light takes our thoughts upwards into the shape of this roofline and building. The peak at the front of Christ Church and over the chancel area is a modernistic rendition of the old fashioned steeple. Steeples serve the architectural purpose of drawing our eyes upwards and redirecting our vision towards God above. Speaking of this roofline, I often think as I enter this driveway that Christ Church is shaped like a bird with the downward sloping roofline on each side looking like outstretched wings. That image often reminds me of Jesus’ imagery for God as a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings for protection. (Matt. 23:37, Luke 13:34). That is a Biblical image for sanctuary and that is the imagery of our sanctuary’s roofline.
My wife picks out my ties and basically gets me put together before I leave the house on Sunday mornings. I have often heard Cheryl say, “It is all in the accessories!” A little black dress all by itself is just a little black dress. Add a dazzling string of pearls and the just right earrings and presto, you have glamour. Add a loud pin and a gaudy bracelet and you have pure tackiness. Cheryl came in from working in our garden as I was writing this. She looked over my shoulder at the computer keyboard and said, “Kendall, you have forgotten the shoes. Women will know what you are talking about if you mention the shoes!” It is all in the accessories in sanctuary design also.
One accessory is the baptismal fount. Over the years, the baptismal fount has been a source of perplexity for Christ Church. What to do with it seems to escape us! In the floor plan, printed with the bulletin for the dedication ceremony in 1968, space is provided here in the front of the church for the baptistery. Historical records indicate a period when the fount was placed near the entrance as it is this morning. Some of you remember how on baptism Sundays, bringing the fount forward was a part of the ceremony itself. We have a baptism coming up sometime in the near future, maybe September. I thought it might be meaningful to reestablish that old tradition and leave the fount in the back of the church until our next baptism at least.
The fount’s location near the door is a design used by many Christian churches. It reminds the worshipper each time you enter the sanctuary that you enter the life of Christ through the Baptismal Waters. Perhaps in this church which specifically calls itself Christ Church, we should have that reminder that we all belong to Christ near our entrance. The fount is not there to be used as a bookstand, coathanger, or hat rest. It is a symbol as important in the church as the cross and should be treated with similar respect.
In the early vision of this church and the accessorizing of this chancel, there was only one large candle on this table to represent the light of Christ. The table was kept simple by lack of adornment. I do not believe that everything needs to be set in stone. This morning, three candles are placed on the table. They can stand for the trinity, and Christ’s connection to the Holy Spirit and God. Considering the importance of the trinity to the Christian faith and to our understanding of who Christ is, it doesn’t hurt to have at least one symbol present which represents that dimension of our faith. The three candles can stand for other triads as you come to church and meditate on the symbols that are before you. Perhaps they stand for the triad of important missions of the congregation that gathers around this table – Angel Tree Society, Red Door Preschool and the English and Second Language programs. You may find your own triads. Such is the mystery and power of symbol. The Bible is placed on its own stand this morning apart from its customary place on the table. This has been done to further emphasize the stark beauty of the table. Also, the Bible itself is important enough to the Christian faith and community to be given its own place in the design setting. Word and sacrament are linked but are also separate entities and powerful guides in our faith life. So this morning the symbols for word and sacrament have been separated that each might have its own place and power in our lives.
From the beginning, it has been understood that the offerings of the people be placed at the foot of the cross in the worship of Christ Church. That practice continues to be honored this morning.
Stowe Chapman, a partner in Grossman Chapman Klarer Architects writes:
“Light, shape, space, form, and texture combine to make a room a special place, a place that conjures up an effort to be a part of a greater being or force," Chapman says. "For me, it's a place that is perceptively different than my normal environment, without being strange. And it's a place that tends to make you reflect on something beyond you as an individual."
This chancel with its simplicity and focus on our Lord, does just that. Max Thurian, a theologian with the ecumenical Monastery of Taize in France and a writer with an interest in religious art and architecture also writes:
“The whole church should be arranged so as to invite adoration and contemplation even where there are no celebrations….. Every church must be "praying" even when no liturgical celebrations are taking place; it must be a place where in a restless world, one can meet the Lord in peace.
Visible churches are not simply gathering places, but signify and make visible the church living in this place, the dwelling of God with men reconciled and united in Christ (no. 1180).”
The architecture makes visible that which is invisible. And in that respect architecture joins hand with Christian mission and work. It is the task of each us to be the temple of God, making visible that which is know to us by our faith to the rest of the world. Christ Church sanctuary does a splendid job in that respect and our congregation through its missions and witness carry out Christ’s work outside the doors of this sanctuary.