20.04.2015
Churches Must Move the Furniture to Avoid Being Part of Heritage Theme Park – Search Colloquium Hears
Have we become the caretakers of great monuments and should greater emphasis be put on redesigning churches to suit the liturgy? This was the question addressed at a colloquium in Dublin on Saturday.
A large gathering of people filled Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room Hub for Re–Pitching the Tent: Re–Ordering the Church Building for Worship and Mission which was organised by Search Journal and the Church of Ireland Chaplaincy at TCD. The keynote speaker was Richard Giles, a facilitator of creative worship and consultant in liturgical design who has worked all over the world. He spoke on the theme: ‘Moving the Furniture: Trivial Pursuit or Gospel Imperative?’
Other speakers included Dean of Leighlin, the Very Revd Tom Gordon, Bishop of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory, the Right Revd Michael Burrows and conservation architect, Margaret Quinlan. They addressed the work which has been carried out on St Laserian’s Cathedral in Leighlan to preserve the essence of the building while adapting it to meet current and future need. They also touched on the obstacles which must be overcome when attempting to move the furniture.
Richard Giles contended that at a time when the Church was undergoing liturgical renewal, it had stopped remodelling its worship spaces to suit its liturgy as it had done throughout its history. He said that the image of the tent was a reminder that we are a people on a journey and that the church building was a didactic tool which should work with us to proclaim the faith.
“The Christian gift to the world has been wonderful architecture. But we need to examine our roots and be shaped by the Scriptural and Baptismal life,” Canon Giles said. “The church has become part of a heritage theme park in people’s minds. What we are living with is buildings that are not fit for purpose… We inherit spaces that are full and restrictive. The challenge is to remodel them so that they are based around the Word and the Sacraments.”
Above all, he suggested that the notion of the audience needed to be addressed so that there was greater participation and engagement. The seating plan is the first step, he said, as the congregation had to be shifted from being a passive audience to a participating community. “Worship is no longer a spectator sport, in which we watch others ‘do worship’ for us, but an activity which gathers us all up into a common realisation that every one of us is engaged totally in the work of the people of God,” he said.
Canon Giles said gathering face to face was important and proposed a number of ways in which the furniture could be moved to enable the congregation to do this. Firstly the font could be moved to a central location putting the living water of baptism into the heart of worship.
Secondly the pulpit and lectern could be combined into one ambo placed in the midst of the people from which the Scriptures are read, proclaimed and interpreted. Finally, he suggested “rescuing” the altar table and relocating it in the midst of the people where they can break bread together.
“Once you have cleared the space you can do what you like and you can keep changing to show that nothing is set in stone… We are at heart a Eucharistic community and it is for this that all other things exist,” he concluded.
Photo caption: Dean Tom Gordon, Margaret Quinlan, Bishop Michael Burrows and Richard Giles at the Search Colloquium.