Dear Parishioners of St. Eloi,
September 23, 2012
A couple of months back, after we had chosen a design for repainting our church, I showed it
to some members of the College of Consultors (Priests in our Diocese who would recommend or
not recommend our design for approval to Bishop LeVoir). Their reaction was lukewarm to the
work we had done. As you can imagine it was hard to hear this at first, but they had some good
points.
I didn’t know what do to about this development and was unsure of how the Lord was
speaking to us through these fine priests. Shortly after that meeting I found myself talking with
Fr. Aaron Johanneck about this and to my great delight he knew of an expert in this area through
his studies, Dr. Denis McNamara. He is the director of the Liturgical Institute at the University
of St. Mary of Lake in the northern suburbs of Chicago and quite possibly the most prominent
scholar in liturgical art and architecture in Western Christendom – in other words Fr. Aaron
recommended that we swing for the fences because it couldn’t hurt to ask! To our great surprise
he was thrilled that we called and was excited to see the work we had done. He ended up
teaching us so much about Liturgical Art and Architecture and even recommended a company he
has used on projects throughout the United States. That company, Evergreene Architectural
Arts, flew one of their experts out to Ghent (on their own dime) to take a look and see what they
thought could be done. They were confident that their artist from Russia would be able to come
up with a design within our budget that puts into practice the principles laid out for us from Dr.
McNamara that have been a part our of faith for centuries. In other words they could give us a
design proper to our beautiful church that will help us enter more fully into the celebration of the
Eucharist.
After all of this took place I proceeded to meet with the Finance Council and Dawn
Vlaminck to explain the situation and show them some of the work that Evergreene has done
throughout the country. All were very impressed with the work that I showed them and were in
favor of moving forward and having this company put together a new design for us to present to
you. I also met with the College of Consultors to talk about the possibility of taking this new
direction. Their response was very favorable this time as well.
Now we are at the point where we need to meet as a parish to see the new work that has been
done and hear what you think. All along I have tried to do my best with this project and I wish I
knew at the beginning what I know now. Here is what I have learned along the way while
working on this project:
- I did not know the nature and purpose of art in a church at the beginning of the project.
Only after Dr. McNamara’s help could I see that there are certain principles that have
traditionally been applied to the decoration and art in churches. These principles have
not much been applied to church buildings for the past forty or fifty years, but certainly
are well-established in the history of church art and architecture taken as a whole over the
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past 2,000 years, earlier if the Jewish roots of Christian buildings and worship are taken
into account.
Dr. McNamara began to teach me the distinction between three different types of art:
liturgical, devotional, and historical. While all three can be present in a church building
and all have their place, liturgical art should have priority, especially in the
sanctuary. This is because liturgical art expresses visibly the invisible reality of the
liturgy; it allows us to “see” what is real, but not visible to our eyes: namely, that in the
celebration of the Mass, the earthly liturgy participates in the heavenly liturgy. The
mistake that I made here is that I had sketches drawn up that were devotional and
historical art, but not liturgical. Each of you saw that the sketches are very beautiful, but
I have learned that they don’t fit the description that Dr. McNamara had shown me
through hundreds of churches. In essence – the sketches of the Baptism of our Lord and
the Pentecost are beautiful, but not fitting for the sanctuary and I think this is what the
College of Consultors was picking up on during our first meeting.
A blessing that has come from all of this is that we have found a company, Evergreene
Architectural Arts, that is very experienced in the field of restoring old churches and
decorating new ones. They are experts in this area, recommended to us by the most
prominent scholar in this area. This is not to belittle the work we had done, but none of
us working on the project knew about liturgical art and architecture. I believe
Evergreene’s expertise will allow St. Eloi to be repainted and decorated in a way that is
consistent with long-standing tradition, and that will provide a unified plan for both the
color scheme and artwork.
In the end if it is possible to work with experts in the reworking of the interior of St. Eloi for
more or less the same costs I think we need to embrace the opportunity. Evergreene’s expertise
in the area of church interior decoration and design and their understanding of the nature and
purpose of art within a church building will ensure that the Church of St. Eloi is beautiful inside
and out and that by the beauty of this building, God will be glorified and all those who enter to
worship and pray will be edified. Upon entering the building our hearts will be lifted up to God
all the more!
IMPORTANT: we will be having a meeting for the entire parish this Thursday at 6:00 p.m.
in the church to show you the work that the artist from Evergreene has done for the parish.
Please pray for him this week as he finishes the designs for us. There will be some different
options that we will need to talk about that night to decide what route we want to take.
Following the meeting I will be leaving for my annual 8 day silent retreat. Our preferences must
be decided upon this night. If you cannot make it, please contact me no later than Tuesday so we
can figure out a way for you to share your thoughts with me because I really want to know.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Jeremy