Father Tim Finigan points out another Duncan Stroik project for reordering a church on his blog “The Hermeneutic of Continuity“. The project is to reorder a small daily use chapel.

Here’s the Before:

Here’s the After:

Wow!

See more images of this project on Duncan Stroik’s web site.

Fr. Finigan is pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary in Blackfen England.

In 2000, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced “Built of Living Stones” (BLS), a new set of guidelines for building and renovating churches. BLS replaces the previous guidelines, “Environment and Art in Catholic Woship” (EACW). EACW was a troubled, vague and ambiguous document that never had the force of canon law.

BLS starts out with a modest statement of intent:

§ 3 § Built of Living Stones: Art, Architecture, and Worship is presented to assist the faithful involved in the building or renovation of churches, chapels, and oratories of the Latin Church in the United States. In addition, the document is intended for use by architects, liturgical consultants and artists, contractors, and other professionals engaged in the design and/or construction of these places of worship. The text also may be helpful to those who wish to understand the Catholic Church’s tradition regarding church buildings, the arts, and architecture. While the suggestions and guidelines within the document have been carefully prepared, they are not exhaustive of the subject matter. They are intended to serve as the basis for decision making at the local level and also can become the foundation for the development of diocesan guidelines and legislation governing liturgical art and architecture.

BLS lists five main principles:

• The church building is designed in harmony with church laws and serves the needs of the liturgy.
• The church building fosters participation in the liturgy.
• The design of the church building reflects the various roles of the participants.
• The church building respects the culture of every time and place.
• The church building should be beautiful.

Notre Dame Architecture professor Duncan Stroik wrote an analysis of BLS titled “One Step Forward” in 2003. Stroik says:

There is much to appreciate in Built of Living Stones (BLS hereafter), for it includes many of the requirements from liturgical law while highlighting a number of issues that need to be taken into consideration when building a church. Issued on November 16, 2000, BLS does not claim to be Church law but rather offers helpful guidelines; as the Preface states, BLS “contains many of the provisions of universal law governing liturgical art and architecture and offers pastoral suggestions.” The guidelines found in BLS were developed over a four-year period by a task group of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, chaired by Bishop Rodimer.

The Pastoral Handbook used by the Archdiocese of Denver incorporates the delivery of BLS to the pastor into the design and approval process. (8.9.3.3.)

Architect Adam Hermanson asked the committee to read sections 1-45 and sections 238-261 of BLS before our 11 March meeting. While the committee has paper copies of this document, anyone can read the document on-line through the USCCB web page. Click the link above or at right to read “Built of Living Stones” for yourself.

The Ideas category is intended to be a collection of images, photographs and sketches that can offer ideas to the committee.

The first examples are from the renovation of St. Theresa in Sugarland, Texas. Here’s the exterior:

Original images posted by the Carolina Cannonball on The Crescat blog. See the full posting for More Amazing Photos, including how they handle the relics of St. Therese of Lisiuex.

See more ideas, including construction photographs at Portfolio: St. Theresa Sanctuary by Duncan Stroik.