The Emperor's New Church
Gerald announces that Fr. Vosko has a new book called God's House is Our House. Not surprisingly Gerald is not soliciting people to buy it through his Amazon affiliation. It is on my own list to buy when the gates of hell include an embedded ice maker.
God’s House Is Our House serves as a platform for rethinking the Catholic environment for worship. Father Vosko provides a theoretical foundation for building or renovating a worship space, by drawing upon biblical, theological, and ecclesiological sources as well as studies on architecture, spatial settings, and creative problem solving.
Since Vatican II, changes have occurred in liturgical texts, music, and life-cycle rituals, especially the Eucharist. Cathedrals and churches have also been transformed, making a formative impact on the life of the church. Some say that new and renovated churches no longer feel like God’s house. Others maintain that a developed understanding of liturgy requires worship settings that accommodate the ritual making of the community.
The liturgical reforms that have guided Catholic, Episcopal, and Lutheran congregations over the last half-century have transformed what these denominations know about worship. Worshipers are no longer spectators, but active participants in the ritual acts that once were the sole possession of the clergy. As the liturgy is modified, church buildings are altered. Almost overnight God’s house has new owners and users and, once again, is known as a house for the church.
How does all such change affect the architectural style of church buildings? Here Father Vosko considers worship space dilemmas and offers practical advice. This book is for faith communities and design professionals. It addresses diverse opinions regarding the environment for worship and through photography and illustration features award-winning examples of new and renovated places of worship.
I am sure that this book will prove that Fr. Vosko is just as good as theologian as he is a Church architect. That is a theology stripped bare and replaced with whatever fancies him at the moment. The Amazon description is so dripping with progressive silliness like "ritual making" and "life-cycle rituals" So smarmy when it comes to statements like "Worshipers are no longer spectators, but active participants." As if in the whole history of the Church no worshiper was ever an active participant in the liturgy. Just blank-eyed zombies sitting in the pew and kneeling on cue. Gregorian chant and a reverent liturgy never touched the souls of anybody until the advent of olympic size baptismal's and space-age looking lecterns. That it is gymnasium and audience hall rip-offs that have finally provoked worshipers to actively participate in the liturgy. No one every prayed during the Mass until they finally got the architectural help they needed. I guess the new churches look like gyms because this is what they think of when it comes to the word active. That it is liturgical posture and responses alone that make you active.
The funny thing is that it is Fr. Vosko's designs that introduce "worship space dilemmas" like did I just walk into a church or was I dropping Johnny off for practice. Wreckovation is a pejorative, but it is just so apt. So many modern church architects have pulled off a Emperor's new clothes trick on people. There willing to believe that their renovated church isn't stripped naked. We do need some child to yell out "The church has been stripped naked" until everybody finally agrees that the boy is right.
Known as 
Jeff, the link doesn't work.
Steve Martin once gave a list of fictitious book titles on one of his albums. One of those titles was "How I turned a million in real estate into $25 in cash". That would be Vosko all the way - cheapening the liturgical environment, one church at a time.
Even sicker is the awards he gets for these ballrooms. It's horrible.
BMP
The phrase that scares me the most is "ritual making of the community". Does this mean the Mass is viewed as a means of making the community God? Whatever it means, it's a creepy statement.
The liturgical reforms that have guided Catholic, Episcopal, and Lutheran congregations over the last half-century have transformed what these denominations know about worship.
You mean how many in the congregations no longer understand what worship is about in part because the architecture no longer reflects the purpose?
Wait.... didn't we already go through this once already? I do not belive "re-thinking" is the right word. How about "continue thinking about the mess we made and still force it upon the faithful"? Those crazy hippies.
"I am sure that this book will prove that Fr. Vosko is just as good as theologian as he is a Church architect."
Just to make it clear, Fr. Vosko is NOT an architect, though he has a tendency to pretend he is.
This article upsets me so much. Church renovations are the thing here in Albany. I have sat at too many Parish Council meetings and Homilies where pastors try to extract hundreds of thousands of dollars from elderly, working class communities because these renovations are needed because no one really enjoyed Mass with the old style of the Church. All the same buzz words are used, including a few "if you don't donate more money, there will be no more Eucharist here" for good measure.
Tim - I don't think Vosko's a Catholic theologian either -- given he's not an architect, ergo he is every bit as good an architect as he is a theologian.
What Mass do "theologians" think that great saints like St. Therese, St. John Vianney, etc. are talking about? Somehow, these people and millions of others who are not so great, managed to worship without modern church architecture (and frankly without all the muck of the "modern liturgy". To say God's house is our house is just taking one more thing owed to God and giving it to ourselves. Considering, however, that the focal point of most "modern" liturgies seems to be the worship of the "community" than of God, it only makes sense that the architecture should reflect it. I'm surprised that instead of getting rid of the beautiful high altars, they haven't just installed mirrors. Ad majorem mei gloriam.
My childhood church in York, PA was built in the 50's. It contained a beautiful mosaic of St. Rose of Lima. Recently, they covered it with what looks like a drop cloth. This is afetr they removed all the beautiful fixtures on the altar.
Now they're building a new church in the suburbs. I dread the thought of what it will be. It'll probably be another soulless box.
The Fr Vosko Blues
Got up Sunday mornin'
kept my fast
drove my car
to get to Mass.
But my church was empty
the grandeur gone
There was a new sign
out on the lawn
It said at the cost of millions
the inside was made new
but what I actually found there
made my stomach want to spew-ew-ew!
Altar's a concrete bathtub
slung on its side!
the statues of Mary and Joseph
Were in a heap outside!
The crucifix was ripped out
the mosaic painted white
the Tabernacle was who-knows-where
And I ain't feeling quite right
I got me.....the Fr Vosko blues!
Yeah! I got me, that Fr Vosko blues!
Lord Jesus help us all
I got the Fr Vosko Blues!
I got back in the car
and drove across town
Lookin' to find
Heaven come down
But I got a big shock
When I got to St Ferd's
Seems that ol Vosko
Already gave that Saint the bird
And I'm singin the Fr Vosko blues!
Yeah I got me
The Fr Vosko blues!
Oh LORDY HAVE MERCY!
I got them, I got them Fr Vo-o-o-sko blueueueueueuesssssssssssss!
hahahahahaa
I wish you'd digitally redecorate one of _Vosko's_ churches.
I have a very special tribute to Fr. Vosko using Shutte material. It is called Be Not A-Liturgist
God's House is Our House
God's House
In the middle of God's street
God's House
Was our castle and our keep
God's House
In the middle of God's street