In a lifetime we have gone from silent black and white films to talkies (with explosions) and colour. We have found a new way of seeing the world. It is a world that has always been full of colour and sound but we have not been able to contact it until recently.
What kind of God can we detect in the universe we now know more intimately? It is tempting to think that words like ‘creative’ and ‘surprising’ might be appropriate but most of us detest being patronised and to patronise the Creator seems to be highly offensive to his followers, let alone anybody else.
We can only express wonder or say ‘Thank you’ as Joanna Lumley did after seeing the northern lights. If the vastness of the solar system is beyond imagining, how much more imponderable is the multitude of systems which a Creator has brought into being.
When we Christians are differing in our understanding of patterns of revelation and ways of worship, we have to remember context. We are not talking of petty autocrats and their underlings or tribal identities. The agenda starts with something bigger than that. We can only remind ourselves that if a sense of humour is part of being human, it may well be part of being divine. Indeed, there are occasion on which we might almost have imagined Jesus winking as he made some of his pronouncements. I cannot dismiss Harvey’s poem about ducks as anything other than a reminder that we should not take ourselves too seriously. That goes for church design too.
RE-PITCHING THE TENT
It is not only train-spotters who take an interest in notable examples of construction. Church buildings get a fair amount of attention, though the best examples are rarely to be found in England. A standard work on this subject is ‘Re-pitching the Tent’ by Richard Giles. It has examples of structural shapes possible with modern materials, and internal arrangements that give worshippers due space and a sense of Gospel liberation. Another book of the same kind is ‘Modern Churches’ by Robert Maguire and Keith Murray. It might well be worth organising a trip across the Channel to look at some of the churches listed.
Without any Channel-hopping, we in the UK have our fair share of reminders to keep us from dismissing church design. Parish churches that utilise part of a building far too large for the present townies and villagers are common; in the Scottish Borders as elsewhere churches that once were cathedrals compel worshippers to consider the best use of space.
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