This is Newman Hall - Holy Spirit Parish in Berkeley, CA, and it epitomizes the brutality, ugliness, and unfriendliness of modern architecture. For the life of me I cannot understand why people assume that such an environment is appropriate for the liturgy. This is not a matter of taste or preference but of the appropriate setting for the glimpse of heaven and the foretaste of the eternal feast that God gives to us as we enter upon the holy ground of His presence. He bids us come, not to the hardness of the world in which we live, but into the blessed joy and the heavenly image of what He has prepared for us. For now we do not know this face to face but in the liturgy and in the liturgical setting for that Divine Service we glimpse this eternal and heavenly glory. So do not dismiss this as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this is not about what we esteem to be beautiful but about the glory of God. Revelation puts that into images that we can imagine -- gold and precious stones that become the floors and walkways of God's people. Unless you think that heaven is a sanitized version of Alcatraz, this is a scandal and an offense to God and His people. Sad to wonder how much money was spent on such a travesty.
3 comments:
Where’s the cattle? It looks like a barn. Even the Brutal architecture from the 60’s didn’t look that bad.
This is not a vision of heaven on earth, but hell.
On second thought, it looks like a place of execution, and I’m not referring to that rag-doll looking Crucifix. Looks as if it is encrusted with some sort of filth, and has not been cleaned of the excrement from the missing cattle the first commentor mentioned.
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