Posted on 06/12/2007 5:48:47 AM PDT by NYer
WARRENSBURG -- After a long winter of services in a nearby funeral parlor and the local Presbyterian church, parishioners found something both ancient and modern when they walked into the newly renovated and reopened chapel of St. Cecilia's Catholic Church for an evening prayer service in late May.
The widened building retained its lofty, high-ceiling feel, and the familiar stained-glass windows let in softening evening light.
But instead of two tidy rows of long wooden pews facing the front of the church, rings of cushioned chairs circle a gleaming wooden altar set right in the center of the chapel.
No matter where they sat, parishioners could look ahead past the altar, into the faces of their friends, neighbors or fellow churchgoing strangers.
For some parishioners, and for Sister Linda Hogan, the church's parish life director, the change in seating represents a changed mentality, a forward-looking shift in the way parishioners relate to each other and to the Catholic Church.
The new arrangement also prepares the church to deal with a priest shortage that is not expected to improve anytime soon.
The Rev. Richard Vosko, a tall man in black slacks and a black polo shirt buttoned up at the neck, explained the new floor plan to the congregation with wit and optimism, though he touched on somber issues.
Since the Vatican II ecumenical council in the 1960s, the church has struggled to make Mass more accessible and struggled with scandal and widespread priest shortages, he said.
"As you transform this building into a new church, you see yourselves gradually transformed into a new 'Church,' " said Vosko, a representative from the Albany Diocese's Architecture and Building Commission.
The changes at St. Cecilia's will benefit these parishioners' children and their children's children, who will have a very different concept of what "Church" means, he said.
"It's not Father giving us something from a high altar. It's something that looks like we're doing something together," Vosko said.
At the evening prayer service, there were few young faces in the audience and plenty of white hair among the congregation.
People entered with an excited murmur, enthusiastic and relieved to be back home after months of shuttling back and forth between Alexander's Funeral Home and the First Presbyterian Church.
They took their seats in the rings of chairs -- none more than a few rows away from the altar -- and the choir's singing poured forth from the apse.
As Vosko has traveled around the country introducing similar changes in other churches, some priests struggle to understand the new dynamic, he said.
Parishioners, too, are taken aback, unsure where to sit, confused how they will proceed toward the altar to receive communion.
Churchgoers wonder, "How am I going to pray if I'm looking across the way to see this person I don't even like?" Vosko said, drawing loud laughter in response.
Rita Ferraro, co-chair of the planning team for the renovations, said the initial idea to have a circular arrangement of chairs at St. Cecilia's "was met with a lot of reluctance."
But then, at the weekly Mass at the funeral parlor, Hogan started arranging the chairs there into a circular arrangement, Ferraro said.
And lo and behold, people seemed to enjoy it.
The only reactions Hogan said she received were either positive or "we'll see," she wrote in an e-mail. "I am sure there were and are negative reactions, but I didn't receive them."
The new design emphasizes that "church" is a people, not a place, Hogan wrote. The arrangement emphasizes community.
"WE are the church. The building is the home of our church," she wrote.
Sue Gallagher, a resident of Ossining who spends summers in Bolton, said she was of the pre-Vatican II generation but thrilled by what she saw.
"Having a church in the round is so exciting," she said. "You're looking at each other, you know, instead of having everybody look at a back."
"I think it's a sign that the church is trying to reach out and connect to members and visitors," said Ed Tucker,
another part-time resident of Bolton.
This kind of circular design dates back to ancient times, Vosko said, and is more recently increasing in popularity. A number of local churches have semicircular arrangements, with seating on three sides of the altar.
The $600,000 renovation project also included new siding, a new sound system, a bathroom for the building and making the church more wheelchair-accessible.
The next step is landscaping, said Hogan.
The expansion of the building and the new seating arrangement also increases seating capacity from 180 to 225, making the church better able to accomodate an influx of tourists and second home owners in summer, Hogan said.
And it has allowed the church to hold only one Mass on Saturday and one on Sunday, instead of one on Saturday and two on Sunday, placing less of a demand on the retired priest who travels to the church for Mass.
"The day's coming when we'll have one (Mass)," Hogan said. "So we're preparing for that day."
IF YOU GO:
St. Cecilia's Catholic Church is located at 3802 Main St., Warrensburg.
Mass is celebrated at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.
Work was still under way on the outside of St Cecilia's Catholic Church in Warrensburg on May 27, though the interior was ready to host the congregation's first Sunday service after a major renovation project.
The changes at St. Cecilia's will benefit these parishioners' children and their children's children, who will have a very different concept of what "Church" means, he said.
"It's not Father giving us something from a high altar. It's something that looks like we're doing something together," Vosko said.
It is modernist sentiments such as these that nearly allowed the ultra-traditionalists to draw me out of the Church. Every time I read something like this, my skin still crawls.
And what hurts the most is that all of this happens with the consent, and often the blessing, of the diocesan Bishop.
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Is he trying to disassociate this "new church" from the Vatican?
GOOD GRIEF!! It is so damn distracting.....looks PAGAN-like!
There you have it. The community is more important than the fact that Christ, acting through the priest, offers Himself to the Father, in the Eucharist.
"Having a church in the round is so exciting," she said. "You're looking at each other, you know, instead of having everybody look at a back."
This reads like something out of a Frank Peretti novel.
That's the way I interpret his statement.
Hubris. It’s not just for the ancients.
See the link to Fr. Vosko in my post above. He is one of a rapidly dieing breed. For many years, he was quite active across the US and around the world, redesigning the interiors of Churches and Cathedrals. It seems folks have wisened up to him and he is now back to his old diocese of Albany where he can pursue his work under the reign of Bishop Hubbard, who still has another 5 years until retirement.
Albany? Nuf said. My heart goes out to the faithful who have to deal with this.
Oh no, now you’ve done it. I’ve projectile vomited all over my keyboard at work............
Where’s the Priestess?
It’s so ugly. Where are the kneelers? I’m horrified. I still can’t believe churches like this are allowed to be built.
From the link I posted above:
Many alert parishioners are disturbed by the terminology that Vosko uses. He glibly employs the tactic of changing the names of things to eliminate the traditional concepts associated with certain words. For example, parishioners need not be "educated" as much as they need to undergo a "process of formation."By allowing Vosko to change the names of things or redefine the meaning of words, he is able to get parishioners to speak on his own terms. For example, the various committees under the tutelage of Vosko, quickly adopt the term "worship space" in place of "church." Church, apparently, is too traditional sounding for Vosko and confreres.
The altar becomes a ‘eucharistic table’ and we no longer have a priest who leads us at Mass, we have a ‘presider.’ Since priests traditionally offer sacrifice in the Judeo-Christian tradition as well as in various pagan traditions, Vosko would like Catholics to forget that a priest is one who offers sacrifice and that an altar is a place on which sacrifice is offered.
READ THE LINK!
I decided to read it after I posted. I'm just glad I don't have high blood pressure!
It seems folks have wisened up to him and he is now back to his old diocese of Albany where he can pursue his work under the reign of Bishop Hubbard, who still has another 5 years until retirement.
Even if he's been reined in some, that's a good start. My sympathies rest with the people of the Albany Diocese though.
Fr. Vosko should really be careful though with what he teaches... something about millstones comes to mind.
This is 'Vosko' speak (see link I posted above)
Not yet. Once the old priest retires, the Bishop will replace him with a Lay Ecclesial Minister - usually a nun.
That would make a great singles church — there could be much winking over the altar at each other!! /s.
Freegards
"So make sure you did your makeup right, keep your knees together, and don't pick your nose!"
Looney Toons. I think this gentleman and his congregation belong in the United Church of Christ.
No kneelers and, this is Albany!, home to Fr. Vosko. The Bishop encourages this architectural design.
Take a close look at the interior photo. Notice how people are sitting? Some have their legs crossed as if they were watching a cooking show on the Food Network. Others are not quite sure how to sit, so they are slouched forward as if waiting for the action to begin. And what's with the children around the altar!
Jaded immediately picked up on the locale - Diocese of Albany. The damage done over the past 30 years will take decades to undo, if ever.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, from Vatican II called for the wrecking ball inside these beautiful old churches. Marble altars smashed to bits with sledge hammers, confessionals and kneelers removed, statues of St. Joseph and Our Blessed Virgin Mary tossed away as trash, etc. The wreckovators such as Vosko cannot believe in the True Presence since, if they did, they would not destroy century old sacristies into "new celebration spaces." Shame.
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