reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches
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Or of this:
For simplicity, throughout the rest of this booklet the
generic term ‘church’ will be used to mean churches
and all other places of worship.I cannot imagine what the Muslims, Jews, Hindus and all of that other expanded faith base must not be thinking of this piece of nonsense.
Nobody employs even the generic term “church” outside of a Christian context.
And, of course, we are back to the “simplicity” bit again – the stupid public might not understand the esoterics of logical discourse!! This is straight out of the 18th century and something we might expect to hear from a despot like Frederick the Great or from the Ernestine Court of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Please, please….
A fine example of a Sakramentshaus from the Cathedral of Fürstenwalde in the of the March of Brandenburg, built by the Saxon sculptor Franz Maidburg for Bishop Dietrich von Bülow
St Mel’s Cathedral, Longford
Trials for the restoration of the plaster-work:
From the web page of the New Liturgical Movement:
Monday, November 21, 2011
Establishment of Liturgical Art and Sacred Music Commission as part of CDW?
by Shawn TribeThis seems worthwhile to post now, rather than waiting until tomorrow. (Thanks to a reader tip for sending this in.)
This comes from Andrea Tornielli, and, for what it’s worth, what I can tell you is that about a month or two back, I was myself first given wind of something of this sort being established in these areas. At the time I chose not to publish it, but given that Tornielli is now speaking of it, I think it has enough substance to be worth sharing.
Here is the relevant excerpt.
11/21/2011
New Vatican commission cracks down on church architecture
The new commission will be established shortly, as part of the Congregation for Divine Worship. It will also be in charge of music and singing in the liturgy
ANDREA TORNIELLI
A team has been set up, to put a stop to garage style churches, boldly shaped structures that risk denaturing modern places for Catholic worship. Its task is also to promote singing that really helps the celebration of mass. The “Liturgical art and sacred music commission” will be established by the Congregation for Divine Worship over the coming weeks. This will not be just any office, but a true and proper team, whose task will be to collaborate with the commissions in charge of evaluating construction projects for churches of various dioceses. The team will also be responsible for the further study of music and singing that accompany the celebration of mass.
Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Benedict XVI, consider this work as “very urgent”. The reality is staring everyone in the eyes: in recent decades, churches have been substituted by buildings that resemble multi purpose halls. Too often, architects, even the more famous ones, do not use the Catholic liturgy as a starting point and thus end up producing avant-garde constructions that look like anything but a church. These buildings composed of cement cubes, glass boxes, crazy shapes and confused spaces, remind people of anything but the mystery and sacredness of a church. Tabernacles are semi hidden, leading faithful on a real treasure hunt and sacred images are almost inexistent. The new commission’s regulations will be written up over the next few days and will give precise instructions to dioceses. It will only be responsible for liturgical art, not for sacred art in general; and this also goes for liturgical music and singing too. The judicial powers of the Congregation for Divine Worship will have the power to act.
If this comes to pass, it certainly is very important news indeed.@Praxiteles wrote:
Too often, architects, even the more famous ones, do not use the Catholic liturgy as a starting point and thus end up producing avant-garde constructions that look like anything but a church. These buildings composed of cement cubes, glass boxes, crazy shapes and confused spaces, remind people of anything but the mystery and sacredness of a church. Tabernacles are semi hidden, leading faithful on a real treasure hunt and sacred images are almost inexistent.
Well the above would almost certainly apply for this mock-up for St. Mels Cathedral. Will the Commission come in to late to act or have an effect on this though?
That is truly a bizarre mock-up, the interior is lit up as though Longford Cathedral was getting a conservatory roof, complete with spindly shadows on the restored columns, yet the image clearly shows the vaulted ceiling restored as it was before the fire with the same clearstory windows – very strange.
Strange too, it has to be said, is that mission statement for that New Vatican Commission [cum Committee for Public Safety] that aims ‘to put a stop to garage style churches . . . cement cubes, glass boxes and crazy shapes . . . of architects, even the more famous ones’.
Clearly someone hasn’t been heeding the admonishment of Deep-Throat to Bob Woodword; . . . if you aim too high and miss, you set your case back years and everyone feels more secure.
There isn’t a wannabe starchitect on the planet who won’t be sharpening the angles on his latest galvanized cathedral of light at the very thought of being hauled, Christ-like, before a bejewelled commission of reactionary Pharisees and get a chance to role-play being a persecuted hero of the modern movement.
How do they come up with these ideas? At best this New Vatican Commission will end up sticking a finger in a dyke that hasn’t held water for fifty years.
@apelles wrote:
@Praxiteles wrote:
Too often, architects, even the more famous ones, do not use the Catholic liturgy as a starting point and thus end up producing avant-garde constructions that look like anything but a church. These buildings composed of cement cubes, glass boxes, crazy shapes and confused spaces, remind people of anything but the mystery and sacredness of a church. Tabernacles are semi hidden, leading faithful on a real treasure hunt and sacred images are almost inexistent.
Well the above would almost certainly apply for this mock-up for St. Mels Cathedral. Will the Commission come in to late to act or have an effect on this though?
That is a very good question and one we shall have to follow closely.
@gunter wrote:
That is truly a bizarre mock-up, the interior is lit up as though Longford Cathedral was getting a conservatory roof, complete with spindly shadows on the restored columns, yet the image clearly shows the vaulted ceiling restored as it was before the fire with the same clearstory windows – very strange.
Indeed. It is a most bizzare piece but probably something much better that what is intended to happen in St Mel’s.
From the Pugin Foundation in Australia
Pugin Bi-Centenary
Thursday 1 March 2012 marks the bi-centenary of Pugin’s birth. The Pugin Foundation intends to mark this highly significant milestone with a series of celebrations and events. We are making good progress in our planning to mark the occasion.
We expect the Australian celebrations to extend from Thursday 1 March to Monday 5 March. They will be centred on Tasmania where the largest, most coherent and most complete heritage of his buildings and objects in Australia is to be found. Also under consideration are possible collaborative events with our English sister organisation, The Pugin Society, and with the town of Cheadle, Staffordshire, site of Pugin’s magnificent St Giles’ Church.
The following is the list of celebrations and activities to date:
A small exhibition of Pugin metalwork, textiles, books, wood and stone carvings, to be held in the newly-completed St Mary’s Cathedral Centre, Hobart, from 1 to 5 March
An organ recital by respected organist, composer and musicologist Dom Alban Nunn OSB in St Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart, on Friday evening 2 March, at 8.00pm
A concert by the Hobart Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Tanfield, in St John the Evangelist’s Church, Richmond, on Saturday afternoon 3 March, at 3.00pm
A concert by the Choir of Newman College within the University of Melbourne, conducted by Gary Ekkel, in St Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart, on Saturday evening 3 March,at 8.00pm
A Missa Cantata in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in St Patrick’s Church, Colebrook, on Sunday 4 March at 10.00AM, with the Choir of Newman College within the University of Melbourne. The setting will be William Byrd’s Mass for 5 voices, with the Propers for the Second Sunday in Lent in Sarum and Gregorian chant (for details click here). Note that because seating is very limited in St Patrick’s the Mass will be ticketed. Tickets will be offered in the first instance to our Friends of Pugin and their families and then to Richmond parishioners (St Patrick’s lies within Richmond Parish). The Mass will be followed by:
A light luncheon in the Colebrook Village Hall for attendees
A Bach solo violin recital by noted Australian violinist Peter Tanfield in St Patrick’s Church, Colebrook, on Sunday afternoon 4 March, the time to be announced
Open days in Pugin’s Tasmanian churches on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 March
A free public lecture in Hobart on Pugin’s Australian heritage, the date, time and venue to be announced
We are also planning a special Bi-centennial edition of our Friends of Pugin Newsletter, issue number 66 for March 2012. It will only be available to our Friends of Pugin.
Our Friends of Pugin will also be given concession rates to attend the above-listed concerts and recitals.
As our planning advances we will continue to keep you informed on this page, including dates, events, times and locations as they are finalised. We also plan to put the various concert and recital program details online on this website as they are finalised and will provide details of how and where tickets can be purchased.
We hope you will help us to mark Pugin’s Bi-centenary in a manner befitting the extraordinary influence of this giant of nineteenth-century design.Concert and Recital Program Details
Organ recital by Dom Alban Nunn OSB: Download the program here.From the Pugin Foundation in Australia
Pugin Bi-Centenary
Thursday 1 March 2012 marks the bi-centenary of Pugin’s birth. The Pugin Foundation intends to mark this highly significant milestone with a series of celebrations and events. We are making good progress in our planning to mark the occasion.
We expect the Australian celebrations to extend from Thursday 1 March to Monday 5 March. They will be centred on Tasmania where the largest, most coherent and most complete heritage of his buildings and objects in Australia is to be found. Also under consideration are possible collaborative events with our English sister organisation, The Pugin Society, and with the town of Cheadle, Staffordshire, site of Pugin’s magnificent St Giles’ Church.
The following is the list of celebrations and activities to date:
A small exhibition of Pugin metalwork, textiles, books, wood and stone carvings, to be held in the newly-completed St Mary’s Cathedral Centre, Hobart, from 1 to 5 March
An organ recital by respected organist, composer and musicologist Dom Alban Nunn OSB in St Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart, on Friday evening 2 March, at 8.00pm
A concert by the Hobart Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Tanfield, in St John the Evangelist’s Church, Richmond, on Saturday afternoon 3 March, at 3.00pm
A concert by the Choir of Newman College within the University of Melbourne, conducted by Gary Ekkel, in St Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart, on Saturday evening 3 March,at 8.00pm
A Missa Cantata in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite in St Patrick’s Church, Colebrook, on Sunday 4 March at 10.00AM, with the Choir of Newman College within the University of Melbourne. The setting will be William Byrd’s Mass for 5 voices, with the Propers for the Second Sunday in Lent in Sarum and Gregorian chant (for details click here). Note that because seating is very limited in St Patrick’s the Mass will be ticketed. Tickets will be offered in the first instance to our Friends of Pugin and their families and then to Richmond parishioners (St Patrick’s lies within Richmond Parish). The Mass will be followed by:
A light luncheon in the Colebrook Village Hall for attendees
A Bach solo violin recital by noted Australian violinist Peter Tanfield in St Patrick’s Church, Colebrook, on Sunday afternoon 4 March, the time to be announced
Open days in Pugin’s Tasmanian churches on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 March
A free public lecture in Hobart on Pugin’s Australian heritage, the date, time and venue to be announced
We are also planning a special Bi-centennial edition of our Friends of Pugin Newsletter, issue number 66 for March 2012. It will only be available to our Friends of Pugin.
Our Friends of Pugin will also be given concession rates to attend the above-listed concerts and recitals.
As our planning advances we will continue to keep you informed on this page, including dates, events, times and locations as they are finalised. We also plan to put the various concert and recital program details online on this website as they are finalised and will provide details of how and where tickets can be purchased.
We hope you will help us to mark Pugin’s Bi-centenary in a manner befitting the extraordinary influence of this giant of nineteenth-century design.Concert and Recital Program Details
Organ recital by Dom Alban Nunn OSB: Download the program here.St. Mary’s Church, Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan
This church is just celebrating the 150 anniversary of its foundation with a series of public events and lectures. Curiously, in the middle of the celebratory events we find the following:
Tues 15th Nov: 7.30pm, Renewing our Church-Breathing New Life into an old building. Speaker: Karl Pederson, Mullarkey Pederson, Architects, Derry.
It is very interesting that these portents should show up and even more interesting to consider the context in which they were talking:
The design of St Mary’s is the work of the Co Armagh architect James Hughes. It is cruciform in shape, using a design known as ‘pointed-Gothic’. The stained glass window in the apse forms a strong internal feature, with the image of the crucified Christ dominating. It also has images of Our Blessed Lady, St Patrick, St Brigid and St Peter, Dating from the 1880s it is attributed to the world renowned stained glass producer Meyer of Munich, who also produced many of the windows for St Macartan’s Cathedral in Monaghan.
St. Augustine’s Ramsgate
http://www.augustinefriends.co.uk/Friends_of_St_Augustine/Photos.html
When it comes to fixing the church roof, rarely has it been so difficult to reach agreement as at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
But, after a centuries-old stand-off between rival religious sects, it looks as if the reputed birthplace of Jesus may finally get the renovation it so badly needs.
With Palestine’s recent admission to Unesco, the body responsible for protecting historic sites, the Palestinian Authority hopes to win recognition for the 1,500 year-old basilica as a World Heritage site, the first step towards tapping the UN’s cultural body for the millions of dollars it needs to fund repairs.
After centuries of neglect that experts believe have damaged the frescoes beyond repair, Palestinian officials say that the most urgent renovations should now go ahead next year.
“We will start with the roof,” said Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser to the Palestinian Authority on Christian affairs. “Hopefully we can start after Easter.”
Experts estimate the cost of the entire renovation could reach between $10-$15m (£6.5-£9.7m).
The most urgent repair of the leaking roof comes in at roughly €1.5m, Mr Bandak said, some of which money has already been raised.
Palestinian officials say the rest will depend on Unesco, itself facing a $65m funding cut from the United States for its decision to admit Palestine.
The Church of the Nativity is among the oldest churches in the world, surviving earthquakes and fires, and more recently, the 2002 siege of Bethlehem, when Palestinian militants took refuge in it.
But it is the explosive tensions between the Christian custodians that are the greatest threat to the basilica.
The three communities with rights to the church – the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Orthodox and the Roman Catholics – can all find the money to repair it.
But none of the three sects has been willing to allow the others to pay for repairs, fearful that it will give the others a right to a part of the church that is not theirs.
“If you repair the roof, under Ottoman law, you own the structure,” said Raymond Cohen, who has written a book about renovations at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Selpuchre. “In the pub, you want somebody else to buy the round. In the Church of the Nativity, it’s the opposite. Everyone wants to pay.”
Tempers can quickly flare over the most basic of tasks. Several years ago, monks flew at each other after Greek Orthodox monks encroached on the Armenian area during a pre-Christmas clean-up, prompting the intervention of Palestinian police.
The PA has sidestepped these rivalries by proposing to oversee the repairs, drawing for some funds on its own coffers but mainly on the international community, a suggestion accepted last year by religious leaders.
It is, as one Palestinian official quipped, “the most successful example of Palestinian negotiations yet”.
But the intervention comes not a moment too soon.
In a damning Unesco report from 1997, the authors wrote that, when it rained, large puddles formed on the floor of the church, that dripping rainwater had damaged some of the wall and floor mosaics “beyond repair” and warned that loose masonry posed a serious threat to the safety of tourists.
The roof hasn’t been replaced since the 15th century, when King Edward IV of England sent lead, and Philip, Duke of Burgundy, dispatched wood and iron.
A.W.N. Pugin Bi-Centerary
From the Pugin Society Webpage:
Anniversary Celebrations 2012:
Next year is the bi-centenary of Pugin’s birth and we plan a series of celebrations in conjunction with other bodies. A conference at the University of Kent is being planned, as well as special visits to the Ramsgate sites and the Houses of Parliament. Plans for celebrations are also afoot in Birmingham and Staffordshire. Watch this space for further announcements.
School of Architecture of the University of Kent, which is hostng the Conference has this to say:
New Directions in Gothic Revival Studies Worldwide
13-14 July 2012
This conference will be the primary international academic event marking the bicentenary of the birth of the architect A.W.N. Pugin, bringing the field’sleading scholars worldwide to a broad-based conference at Canterbury. It will also be the first conference on the British Gothic Revival’s international impact that incorporates North America, and the first significant international conference on the subject since ‘Gothic Revival: religion, architecture and style in Western Europe’ (Leuven, 1997).Keynote Speakers include:
Professor Emeritus Stephen Bann
Bristol University
Pugin and the French ConnectionProfessor Barry Bergdoll
The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design of the Museum of Modern Art in New York
Pugin and the paradoxes of historicismDr Margaret Belcher
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Pugin’s Lettersand
Professor Thomas Coomans
ASRO, Catholic University, Leuven
Pugin and Belgium Worldwide: from ‘Les vrais principes’ and the St Luke’s Schools to missions in Congo and ChinaFurther information:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/architecture/gothicrevival2012/Call%20for%20Papers.pdf
Gazetteer of the works of E.W. Pugin
The Stained Glass of John Hardman and Company under
the leadership of John Hardman Powell
from 1867 to 1895Mathé Shepheard
Volume Ihttp://www.powys-lannion.net/Shepheard/VolI.pdf
Volume II
http://www.powys-lannion.net/Shepheard/VolII.pdf
Volume III
http://www.powys-lannion.net/Shepheard/VolIII.pdfSt. George’s Cathedral, Southwark
Cardboard cathedral ‘will go ahead’
A planned temporary cardboard cathedral to replace Christ Church Cathedral will go ahead despite uncertainty over its location, Christchurch’s Anglican community says.
The proposal for a temporary cathedral made of cardboard was unveiled in August but has run into difficulties with the Christchurch City Council.
The cathedral, designed by world-renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, would cost $4 million, take three months to build, and could seat 700 people.
In a report discussed by city councillors on Thursday, council staff had recommended that no public money be provided for the temporary cathedral.
The report said the council should not allow the cathedral to be placed in Hagley Park, citing the loss of public space and the effect it would have on sporting matches and important events.
Councillors decided to hold off on a decision until it could have an “urgent meeting” with diocesan authorities.
Transitional cathedral group convener Richard Gray said he did not know whether a meeting had been scheduled.
He said the diocese was now looking for a “less supposedly controversial” location because of the council’s report.
“It would have been lovely to have it in Hagley Park, but it’s clearly not plain sailing and we’ve got time working against us.”
Gray said the diocese was confident the cathedral would go ahead but could not wait for the council to decide if it could use Hagley Park.
“The plans are all done … We’ve got to move on for the good of the cathedral community and the province as a whole,” he said.
CATHEDRAL OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
It would cost more than $100 million to fully restore the earthquake-damaged Catholic cathedral in Christchurch.
Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament leaders are considering whether to restore the building for more than $100m or build a new cathedral for about $40m.
Engineering reports on how to fix the damage are expected next week, but a decision will not be made until early next year.
Cathedral management board chairman Lance Ryan said he was in two minds on the future of the building.
“I am still 50-50. Half of me wants to restore it to its former glory and half wants to build a new one,” he said.
“I am trying to get a decision from the engineers by Christmas.
“We will take a breather for a couple of months because it will be a huge decision.”
Ryan said they were still finding damage.
“We can’t make any decision until we have the engineering reports,” he said.
“We are in a situation where it is $40m to build a new cathedral and more than $100m to restore it. When they got inside, they found the floor had moved.”
The building is insured for full replacement, leaving a funding shortfall if restoration is chosen.
Ryan said there was strong motivation to restore the cathedral.
“It’s a special building and there will not be many left.”
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