Monday, June 04, 2007

Liturgical Buildings and Protestants



Here is a clip from Msgr Francis Mannion:




"It is no accident that the Protestant congregational churches have historically set art and architecture in a rather secondary and subservient role in public worship. Catholicism will be led inevitably in the same direction if it fails to renew its theological conception of the complex structure of the liturgy."




Well maybe..but with all due respect to Msgr. Mannion, how to explain the Dresden Frauenkirke, shown here. At least as exuberant as a Roman Catholic Church, did the Frauenkirke builders not understand the Lutheran Liturgy, or is the Liturgy a bit more complex than a two sentence proclomation.




For example, the Tiffany stained glass at the Presbyterian Chapel at Lake Forest College (albeit this shot from a secular frame) is glorious in is craftmanship. Is there something about "tinting the light of Christ" that the Presbyterians missed?
Looking for a shot of the flashy Tiffany windows First Congregational Church in Kenosha, a church that (at one time) strictly regulated devotional imagery. By the 1902 window installation, reduced devotional imagery was not being practiced at First Congregational.
Anglicans, Episcopalians? The Stripping of the Altars did not work out all that well, resulting in Anglo Catholics on one side, and Quakers on the other. So I pass this over to the esteemed Dr. McNamara and/or Matt Alderman:
Denis, Matt...what is it the connection between the built liturgy and Protestants?

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