Issue 44 winter 24 - Journal - Page 105
Can a care and a concern, a having and a keeping of our valued treasured places & artefacts be compatible with an unconditional offering, a welcome to all comers?
The second Song of Ascents indicates our basis for this
concern: “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither
slumber nor sleep.”24 For those in our communities who
do not sleep - our homeless, our dispossessed - in the dead
of night, in the dread hours of darkness, our churches,
these havens of peace, these sanctuaries of rest go dark
and bar their doors against the very neediest of our
Maker’s flock at the very hour of their need.
Endpiece
Our places of prayer – our many mansions - must speak
to many, varied places in the hearts of the congregation
of the faithful. For me as architect, ‘Design’ is a tool that
enables concepts to fit the user’s intention. Design is
nothing unless it fits that intention. I have tried to make
places in the cathedral that resonate with differing members of the worshipping community, most specifically to
honour Romero’s work in Central America and his legacy
throughout the Americas ‘the voice of the voiceless poor’.
Thus I hope to have passed on a legible plan of spirituality,
of many mansions for many prayers, a plan that warrants
its keeping and its conservation by my successors in this
work of the ‘church architectural’.
Above, C19th Gothic at Downside Abbey building extended into
the 20th century, a sign of continuity beside Francis Pollen’s
Modernist Library of 1971
What is achieved by this re-ordering towards “Equilibrium
between Conservation and Spirituality”?
In her Letter to Louise and Francis Norcross, Emily
Dickinson writes “I believe in some manner we shall be
cherished by our Maker- that the One who gave us this
remarkable earth has the power still farther to surprise
that which He has caused. Beyond that all is silence.”18
Hers is a beautiful, noble sentiment. Silence has a major
part to play in our search for spirituality amid the business
of conserving the churches we have and hold. Conservation is a sign of stability, preserving our places of worship
as places of sustenance.
Then, all-in-all, “surrounded by such a great cloud of
witnesses”, we must acknowledge and record all collaborators and makers, whose roles should enter the annals
and archives of the great church. For, the psalmist tells us,
“Except the Lord build the House, their labour is but lost
that build it”
A.M.D.G.
In my first article, I quoted from the essay Stability,
Continuity, Place about Downside Abbey. Richard Irvine
continues, ‘It is in this context that the counterfactual
architecture of the monastery comes into its own; … with
its insistence on household, stability and place19. As one
of the monks, a teacher…, explained to me, “I think what
we demonstrate is the value of staying put. Modern society
is so full of people rushing from one place to the next, one
job to the next, even one family to the next. But we’re able
to stay put, and I think there’s something that’s attractive
about that because so many people are rootless.” 20
Irvine concludes, ‘… stability is placed in contrast to the
life of the gyrovague21. An architecture that demonstrates
the importance of place invites a contrast with the world
around it. In this context, the deliberately constructed
medievalism [of Downside Abbey] is not simply an
architectural anachronism, it is a fixed point in the English
landscape that invites comparison. It shows a possibility
of what could be.’22
Mark Dowd remarks during a visit to a Buddhist
monastery in Thailand, that ‘The Samarkee temple had
been an example of unconditional aid’. “Unconditional
aid”23 implies a further question for our churches in a
modern society.
Above, Trent Shopfitters rotated the spigot on a round baseplate
in 2023
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Conservation & Heritage Journal
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