architecture and church

[Gwendolyn]

YES

buildings in general have been BORING since the 60s. I don't know why.. even at my university: all the beautiful buildings are old, and most of the new ones are from the 70s and I don't like them at all.

I wonder: when will the old architecture style come back??

I KNOW. Oh my gosh, my university is about 130 years old, and the original buildings are beautiful. Then the buildings that were added in the 60s and 70s showed up............... they are seriously gigantic blocks of concrete with windows, I am not even joking. The library and the social science centre and the administrative building. What eyesores.

Though in the last decade or so the university has been building new buildings in the old style again. So campus is starting to look nicer.

Also, I prefer Romanesque churches, too... Gothic is nice, but sometimes too severe for my liking. What with all those pointy spires and everything... I feel like if they break I am going to get impaled or something.

 

[Fantine]

Mixed feelings, it is good to see modern buildings being used for the right reasons such as Mass, not too sure about all that glass. I too, love old buildings, they have a deep spiritual feel to them. My favourite Catholic building is the Italian Chapel here in the Orkney's. It was made by Italian POW's during WW 2, beautifuly painted with pictures of Our Lord and Our Lady. We only only use it for worship during the summer months, winter it is too cold and sometimes it is too dangerous to cross the barriers.

It's important to protect the treasures you have in your churches. For example, you can put plexiglas shields on the outside of your irreplaceable stained glass windows to that they can't get broken through hailstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

 

[copticorthodoxy]

Do you put bells in your new churches ???

 

[Gwendolyn]

Do you put bells in your new churches ???

Do you mean like bells in a bell tower? Not usually anymore. At least, the modern churches (built after 1960) around here just have recordings of bells ringing that they play over speakers outside when Mass is about to start.

 

[MoNiCa4316]

I KNOW. Oh my gosh, my university is about 130 years old, and the original buildings are beautiful. Then the buildings that were added in the 60s and 70s showed up............... they are seriously gigantic blocks of concrete with windows, I am not even joking. The library and the social science centre and the administrative building. What eyesores.

yes!!! at my university it's the same story. And for some reason it's also the library, social science building, and administrative building LOL!! However recently they built this really new building that looks really nice, even though it's so modern...it's made of glass and inside there's a fountain and trees, LOL!

 

[copticorthodoxy]

Do you mean like bells in a bell tower? Not usually anymore. At least, the modern churches (built after 1960) around here just have recordings of bells ringing that they play over speakers outside when Mass is about to start.

Yes bells in bell tower

you should care about this tradition , it is very important christian tradition
recordings of bells are not enough at all
in Egypt we care about this so much despite of the problems occur because of the islamic beliefs

 

[Maggie893]

If you like Cathedrals I highly recommend a little book by Robert Barron call Heaven in Stone and Glass. It has so many great pictures and explanation of why Cathedrals were built in certain ways like the number of arches and columns and aisles. It's fascinating.

I do have to share this pic of a church in my area. The image of Jesus just freaks me out and most others that see it. People refer to the church as "Oh that one with the really gross Jesus?"

If you look at the whole vertical mural it's odd but not terrible but it's really hard to get away from Jesus' face.

 

[Gwendolyn]

Yes bells in bell tower

you should care about this tradition , it is very important christian tradition
recordings of bells are not enough at all
in Egypt we care about this so much despite of the problems occur because of the islamic beliefs

What do the bells mean to you? What do they symbolise?

I don't really know much about the importance of bells... I only know that I love it when the real bells in the Cathedral downtown ring every 15 minutes. lol.

 

[copticorthodoxy]

What do the bells mean to you? What do they symbolise?

I don't really know much about the importance of bells... I only know that I love it when the real bells in the Cathedral downtown ring every 15 minutes. lol.

The bells mean much in the christian tradition , in the east the bells is a sign for freedom because it wasn't allowed for the christians to ring their bells after the islamic conquest so it is a sign of freedom now when we ring it .
it calls the christians to pray the liturgy , it praise God with its lovely sounds

 

[Sianelle]

And many consider votive candles a fire hazard. That's why those little electric votive lights timed to last for 24 hours are so popular.

Oh how I dislike those electric votive lights. They are souless and truly awful.

 

[Sianelle]

Also, I prefer Romanesque churches, too... Gothic is nice, but sometimes too severe for my liking. What with all those pointy spires and everything... I feel like if they break I am going to get impaled or something.

The parish Church in the next town is in the Romanesque style and it is truly lovely.

Unfortunately many of the small old gothic style wooden Catholic Churches in the district were replaced in the 1970s by truly tasteless flat roofed constructions built in a sandstone coloured brick. Unfortunately our own parish Church is like that. It might be nicely laid out inside, but from the outside it looks like some sort of awful factory.

And bells! Bells must be bells! Recordings are no substitute. I live almost next door to the parish school and they still have their original 100 year old bronze school bell despite yet more awful modernisation. It is a delight to hear the bell rung throughout the school day and I find myself quite looking forward to it.

 

[MoNiCa4316]

I only know that I love it when the real bells in the Cathedral downtown ring every 15 minutes. lol.

me too!! when I visited Ottawa I walked around downtown a lot.. and before every Mass I'd hear the cathedral bells, it was awesome

 

[kepha31]

St. Ann's Parish Community,
Hamilton, Ontario,
Canada

 

[Worcester Beacon]

It's important to protect the treasures you have in your churches. For example, you can put plexiglas shields on the outside of your irreplaceable stained glass windows to that they can't get broken through hailstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

I couldn't agree with you more, we don't get the tornadoes and hurricanes here which is one blessing. But in October 2006 we were flooded out and it was 12 months to the day when we returned. While we were refurbishing we renewed the roof and finally the windows. This was a case of God truly taking care of us as all this work needed doing but as usual with committees there was no agreement so I believe God stepped in and sorted us out. The church is now fully back in order and in a better condition than before.

 

[ukok]

I'm actually more concerned with whether or not it is morally acceptable for $190 million to be spent on building a Cathedral in an age when that amount of money could do so much good to better the lives of underpriviliged peoples.

 

[Virgil the Roman]

I'm actually more concerned with whether or not it is morally acceptable for $190 million to be spent on building a Cathedral in an age when that amount of money could do so much good to better the lives of underpriviliged peoples.

Yeah; they could've spend a quarter of that on building a truly orthodox Catholic Cathedral instead of Pseudo-Catholic garbage Architechture. Spending 190 mil. on crap-style buildings is an affront to the poor and all the laity; they're supposed to make a temple to God's Holiness NOT to Man's self-glorification. ugh!

 

[katholikos]

I'm actually more concerned with whether or not it is morally acceptable for $190 million to be spent on building a Cathedral in an age when that amount of money could do so much good to better the lives of underpriviliged peoples.

People donate their money because they want to do so for the glory of God. If people want to build a Cathedral, that is a good thing.

But building a BAD Cathedral is not good

 

[QuantaCura]

I think St. Bernard said it well lamenting some bad church architecture in his day:

"What is the point of this ridiculous monstrosity, this shapely misshapenness, this misshapen shapeliness? Good Lord! If we aren't embarrassed by the silliness of it all, shouldn't we at least be disgusted by the expense?"