The Ohio Anglican.blog: Architecture

Showing posts with label Architecture. Show all posts

Thursday, September 10, 2009

More on Church Architecture

As I had mentioned in the comment section of a previous post I thought it would be interesting to record and comment on church architecture from my area that I find appealing in addition to those that I may find elsewhere.

In the buildings that I am critical of it should not be taken as a slam or insult to the particular parish/congregation or denomination in question, but used only as a reference to what I feel is enjoyable seeker sensitive architecture and what is not. If you would like to comment on why you agree or disagree I would love to hear from you.

For our first entry I will keep it very basic and classic, the American Country Church. This specimen is now called the Frostville Village Church in North Olmsted, Ohio, but it has had several name over the last 160 years most notably Briggs Church after the family that had donated the land it originally sat on. The church was built by a group of Methodists for their use from 1847-1871 on the corner of what is now Lorain Road and Barton Road.

In 1871 the Methodist meeting moved and the church was sold to a Congregationalist congregation (the 2nd Congregation Church of Olmsted)for use for nearly 100 years and went through several modifications so that it had a different appearance altogether, as show in the black and white photo. The Congregationalists built a new church building next to the old church and the services were moved to the new building in 1964.

When the Second Congregational Church of Olmsted closed down in the 1970's the building were leased to various other groups, mostly non-denominational until about 2000 when the property was purchased by Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church. in 2003 Holy Resurrection kept the 1964 building for it's services and generously donated the old Briggs Church to the Olmsted Historical Society, which raised funds for the buildings moving and later restoration at the Frostville Museum site in Cleveland Metroparks System (located on the opposite end of North Olmsted)in 2005.

The OHS has nearly completed the restoration of the church to the way it looked in 1847 and is a prime example of a small rural American church of the mid-1800's.

Reference and Resources:

http://www.olmstedhistoricalsociety.org/Frostville_Village_Church_Revis.html

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Friday, September 4, 2009

Seekers and Church Architecture

In Previous posts I had mentioned the effect of architecture in the conversion experience, I am glad to find it is not just me who made this a component of their journey to faith.

Architecture of a Church can be as settling to the eye of a believer or seeker as the Gospel is to the ear or the Sacraments to the soul, the problem is that most churches abandoned traditional architecture about the same time as the "liturgical reforms" and "post-modern theology".

Now for those of you in the UK and Europe, you have not encountered the problem of new architectural models in your churches for several reasons.

The percentage of Christian population is in freefall and there is no new church construction.

Most of your churches were built centuries ago and for the most part have been well maintained.

Most of Europe has not experienced the denominationalism like there has been in the USA

Here in the United States we suffer from rampant commercialism and "newness" syndrome that keeps us building new, cookie-cutter, turn-key box buildings that look more like the local mall or shopping plaza, library or medical building and less like a church. This is due, in part to the rise of the non-denominational mega-church that will want you to feel that warm fuzzy feeling of the mall and none of the fuss of traditional religion.

On the other hand you have those churches that were built in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's when the architects were trying too hard to look futuristic or dropping mind-altering drugs or into that really bad Brady Bunch suburbia split level multipeaked multisurfaced avocado green and mustard yellow tripe.

There are those who say that it is not the building but what is inside that makes the difference, and this is true to a point, but there needs to be a difference in the style of building from where we live to where we work to where we shop to where we worship. If you are a delivery driver or a taxi driver or a police officer, you wouldn't want to drive and own the same type of vehicle you work with all day, would you? If you are a dentist or chiropractor or a nurse you wouldn't want your home to look like the medical office building where you work, would you? Why then would you want your church to look the same as where you buy your lumber or groceries?

In keeping with my policy of minimizing the negative and accentuating the positive, I now present you with, in what is in my opinion, inviting, comfortable and seeker friendly church architecture.