Additional points related to the icons at Our Saviour

Over the past several days, many blogs and catholic news outlets have covered the grave changes occurring at Our Saviour church in New York City.

This is a very sad development. Over dinner, my wife and I were trying to understand the ideological fervor that motivates the zealous destruction of sacred art, and the sense of the sacred more broadly. We were unable to conclude with any satisfactory explanations. Mentions of iconoclasm seem incomplete in explaining the situation at Our Saviour and at many other churches.

Also, some of the coverage of this story mentions the firm hired to lead the renovation: Renovata Studios. To gauge the vision of this firm, please take a look through their website. Their work has to be seen in order to fully appreciate what some individuals think is appropriate for the liturgy and the Church. My wife compared some of their tabernacle designs to mail drop boxes--and that was generous. They also worked on a church a few miles away from my house. One feels immediately less holy upon seeing it.

Finally, I quote this following passage in full from their website, and it summarizes well the vision of this firm and the churches who hire them:

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Father Doran left us with the mantra, "Think outside the box" and we worked for months with the parish to develop new designs for the worship space. The altar was moved well forward and placed under a beautiful canopy with concealed lighting. A new sacristy was created in the former sanctuary. The former sacristy was made into the Blessed Sacrament chapel. The old choir loft was removed and a new space for music and choir was made near the front of the church. The baptismal font was placed in the nave near the sanctuary and the original crucifix was cleaned of the scorched burn marks and placed upon a sanctuary cross rebuilt from the original design. Other improvements were made in addition to liturgical design changes; all new lighting design, tile and marble inlaid floor, restoration of the pews and stained glass and installation of a new air conditioning system. The result is a beautiful church with award winning designs reflecting Vatican II liturgy." - Lawrence Hoy, 10/1/03

SOURCE:

http://www.renovatastudios.com...

accessed 7/23/2015