"What Does Our Building Say?"

In my report to St John`s Annual Vestry Meeting a couple of years ago I proposed the formation of a committee to do some thinking, planning, and praying about the renewal of our worship space at St John`s . The Nave Committee was drawn from a representative group of about 10 members of the parish under the able leadership of Gay Richardson. It wasn`t long before this committee realized that a consideration of renovations to the nave of the church should really take place within the larger context of the entire physical plant. As a result of this conclusion the Nave Committee became the Architectural Renewal Committee or ARC. That is ARC with a "C" not a "K" even though the biblical image of building an Ark a la Noah is an interesting metaphor for us in that Noah`s Ark was all about reading the signs of the times in order to prepare for the future. That is precisely what I believe our ARC to be about.

ARC has been at work now for many months and its work has been reported regularly to the congregation. At the beginning of the summer ARC decided, with Parish Council support, that the time had come to seek the services of a professional architect. Several possible candidates were considered with Cecilia Humphreys, also a member of this parish, being chosen for her extensive experience in church renovation and her keen personal commitment to the ARC process.

I am going to frame my few comments this morning as responses to the question "What does our building say ?" I will use the term "building" to refer to the entire physical plant of church situated here on the corner of Somerset and Elgin Streets. These comments are personal in nature and I do not claim to speak on behalf of anyone else.

Response #1

This place, for me, is filled with the happy memories of eleven exciting years of ministry here. It is familiar, it is safe, it is where I feel at home in prayer and thought. In other words, it is a holy place for me. I understand and can overlook its sombreness, its old- world feel because of the people I know here and the life of the community that this building enables.

But when I try to look at our building through the eyes of a stranger walking along Elgin Street or stopped at the traffic light at the corner here, I see something else.

For many people today Christianity is unknown or disliked, or at best, a faint Sunday School memory. As an outsider I see a fortress, a monument-like building much more foreboding than inviting. It would be an ideal place to seek refuge in a siege with its small windows and massive doors almost too heavy to pull open even though we unlock them daily in the hope that someone will dare to enter the dark gloom of this nave. The only way one can know that there is any life here is by looking at the flower beds, reading the signs out front, and occasionally, hearing the new bell ring out.

How very different is the entrance to St John`s from the kind of buildings of today built to draw people in. How unlike it is to the "cathedrals" of our day, the shopping malls and office towers, with their bright and gaping entrances luring people inside to taste of all that is to be had. The front entrance to our church has inaccessible and dangerous steps, a huge windowless door, and a dark and scary narthex. The stranger surely need to pluck up considerable courage to pull open that formidable door and enter into the threatening gloom.

In a society with increasing numbers of unchurched people are we fully aware of just how uninviting this building is? It bears a huge unwritten sign that reads. "Please ring and wait for armed guard with torch lamp to usher you safely inside". Or, maybe less dramatically, that sign says, "Members only".

Response #2

While all of us agree, I`m sure, that it is not the house that makes for a good family but rather the way the people who live it treat one another; nevertheless, it is also true that you can tell a great deal about what people are like by the way they arrange their furniture and decorate their home. Again, if those of us who are so familiar with this place can look through the eyes of strangers what do they see at St John`s? Grandma`s parlour perhaps? Lovely because Grandma lives there but much in need of upgrading everywhere. Truly, when grandma dies and leaves them the house they can think of fifty things they would do to change it.

This nave is not now set up to accommodate a living and vibrant community of the twenty-first century; it is a monument to the nineteenth century with a nineteenth century understanding of religious authority and worship and community life. We fit ourselves into it rather than shape it to our needs and values.

I am not suggesting that only modern things can be meaningful. Indeed, I find that there is much about this space presently that gives it that special feeling of presence, of holiness. Margaret Visser captures something of this sense of numinous continuity when she comments "A church constitutes a collective memory of spiritual insights, of thousands of mystical moments. ...Memory in a church is not only individual, but also collective... A church stands in total opposition to the narrowing and the flattening of human experience, the deviation into the trivial..." (The Geometry of Love by Margaret Visser, pp 12 & 13). Truly we must aim to keep that dimension of the meaning of a church building before us.

I know that keeping that intact is a priority for many people here. And I know that it is a priority for Cecilia Humphreys.and the committee. I believe we can renew this sanctuary and safeguard our historical and spiritual heritage at the same time. Some of the most beautiful buildings in this city are old ones that have been revitalized with major interior changes and additions. Modernization does not need to disrespect either collective memory or a personal sense of the holy.

What I am challenging here is a "let`s make do" mind-set. While fast-growing churches around us are building huge plants providing appropriate space for all ages, we continue to scrape along with tumbledown and inconvenient buildings as if we were an impoverished community without spiritual and physical resources. We are not. St John`s has as more talent, imagination, energy, and commitment per square inch than most churches in this country. And yet we are complacent about the situation here that we would not tolerate in our homes.

If I were to choose theological terms to describe our physical plant I would say that they speak of a gospel of scarcity. A gospel of scarcity is a piety begrudging of the great generosity of God. We are like the steward who buries the coin given to him by the master to keep it safe for the master's return rather than taking that coin and investing it to make a second coin. We remember how Our Lord chastised the steward who operated from a perspective of scarcity.

Or, as Archbishop Hambidge challenged us at Synod last month, the gospel calls us to see ourselves as stewards of the future not simply managers of the present! The archbishop referred to the story at the end of 2 Samuel where King David, as a sin atonement, seeks to purchase from Araunah his threshing floor in order to build an altar to the Lord. Araunah urges David to take it without charge. But King David replies, " No, I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing" - 2 Samuel 24:24)

Are we living off an inheritance that costs us little? I am not here referring to money only but to risk and faith in the future. Are we offering to God, in the stewardship of this building, a gift that costs us nothing? Are we stewards content with one coin instead of aiming for two coins in the years to come? Are we content to be managers of an annual budget instead of being stewards of a future world?

Response #3

In her book entitled The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery and Meaning in an ordinary church (Harper Perennial Company) Margaret Visser comments, " Churches are laid out with a certain trajectory of the soul in mind". I suggest to you that the trajectory of the soul designed into this church is essentially a linear one from worshipper to altar. The trajectory is from believer to God through the priest who stands at the place where all eyes are drawn. This is a trajectory that is true of most older Anglican Churches. It is a soul trajectory challenged by many contemporary models for new church construction. We are used to it and our souls have been shaped by this spatial arrangement of God in relation to us as individuals in deeper ways than we know.

This trajectory is not wrong by any means but does it leave out an essential dimension to our contemporary understanding of where God is to be found? Have you noticed that the only time your eyes necessarily meet those of the person sitting next to you is when we pass the peace? Have you noticed that you do not usually look into the eyes of the person offering you the body and blood of Christ unless you choose to stand to receive it? Is this an appropriate way to receive such a great gift? And does such a built-in exclusion of our fellow worshipper do justice to our understanding of Our Lord being present in each of us and in our community?

The journey to God is not only linear as this nave suggests; it is also circular. Maybe the idea of a spiral is best. We seek to know and serve God in our contact and embrace of one another. The Spirit of God circles among us drawing us together and then together toward God.

Margaret Visser also commented, " A church is a recognition, in stone and wood and brick, of spiritual awakenings. It nods to each individual person." Over the years people, especially newcomers, have commented to me that they have a positive feeling when they enter this place (or some such language). This space does have a capacity to evoke spiritual awakenings. This positive feeling comes from a combination of the physical and psychic environments; that is, the stone and wood and brick together with the unseen connections of spirit within our community life. Our faith teaches us that we are fully persons in community. Can we then enhance this special feeling by careful attention to a rearrangement of this space that incorporates our contemporary sense of identity?

As post-modern people we have largely abandoned the ancient and medieval world view of unchanging essences and static truth. We have come to see truth as that which happens in a relational context. It is processive, that is, it is revealed in new ways in different social and cultural contexts. The gift of this perspective is that it leaves room for the work of the Holy Spirit to bring out new discoveries or "awakenings" with us as a community. Put simply we arrive at truth differently from our forebears and this hugely impacts our understanding of how authority is to be exercised, decisions are to be made, and communities of faith are to be formed. This new perspective should be reflected in our communal worship space just as an earlier generation reflected its world view in the way this place was built. This Victorian neo-gothic structure reflects a church architectural tradition dating back to the Middle Ages.

Response #4

St John`s is known in the neighbourhood for its involvement with the local community. Our doors are open ( all six of them) every day. Many community organizations use our space, and countless strangers in need pass through these door every day to seek the services of clergy, The Community Shop, the Foot Clinic, and The Well, to mention but a few of the outreach programs that operate here.

I believe that most Johnians value this reputation.. Never in eleven years, have I had a member of this church say they disagree with keeping our doors open and offering this building to the whole community despite the disruption, inconvenience, and extra cost that this involves.

Furthermore, I think that Johnians would support an increase in this outreach work. However, we are "maxed out" as they say these days. We are less and less able to offer space to the neighbourhood due to the ever-increasing number of parish ministries and the expansion of existing outreach services. We are saying more and more, "There is no room for you here, we are separate from the community." In addition to the chronic lack of space, we face a long list of challenges that demonstrate the hopelessly inadequate nature of the building we have for the work we do. Let me name a few::

1. We have insufficient and inappropriate space. Our church school children meet in dark basement corners difficult to find, unsecure, and often unhygienic. Also, church school space is far removed from the office of the Coordinator of Christian Education and storage space is scattered in several different locations throughout the building.



2. Regular group meetings are held in staff offices where confidential information is stored or sometimes left unprotected.



3. Toilet facilities are inadequate and border on disgusting despite every effort by our custodial staff to keep them clean. Most of the plumbing is over 100 years old.



4. Staff and volunteer safety is compromised daily by our inability to find a workable security model for the many entrances into this building. Daily dozens of mentally fragile and serious ill people come into this building off the street.



5. Insufficient parking is a daily frustration for church and Well staff and volunteers.



6. Insufficient electrical supply poses a threat to the building on a daily basis.



7. Our basement is a sour and lightless environment. It is disgraceful that Well staff and clients are subjected daily to such an environment.



8. The wood in the nave is tinder dry and without proper wiring and sprinklers could be destroyed by fire in a matter of minutes.

And so the list goes on.

Let me finish my presentation with a plea that we dream about the future in our planning. What can we do with our buildings that will enhance the life of this church and neighbourhood ? We need to be asking ourselves, "Where do we want to be in 10 years or 30 years? A declining elderly inner city church dying a slow death or a larger multi-generational community- based church? What we do with our building will have a huge influence on how these questions get answered.

Let us build upon the openness of Johnians to be a church open to the world. To do so we must consider our needs as a faith community along with the needs of the community. Not only should we rethink this building in terms of how inviting it is to the world outside but also in relation to the long-term development plans of the City of Ottawa. When this building was erected Ottawa wasn`t much more than a sleepy town. We have become the fourth largest city in Canada and the predictions for the next twenty years are for significant growth.

The draft plans for the development of the City of Ottawa call for the densification of the existing city, especially the downtown core, and the provision of more rental housing especially for seniors and single adults. As far as housing is concerned the city recognizes that there is a mismatch between what is being provided by the market and what the community needs. And of course there is a huge crisis in affordable housing provoking soaring rent increases for many and anxiety and suffering for those with inadequate or precarious housing. This situation is largely due to the abandonment by the Federal and Ontario governments in 1995 of an affordable housing strategy and the downloading of the responsibility for affordable housing to money-strapped municipalities.

St John`s occupies one of the most strategic pieces of real estate in the city. ARC is fully aware of this and the committee`s present strategy is to determine how St John`s can redevelop this total space, including that very valuable piece of land we call our parking lot, in a way that will benefit church and community. This will require seed funding and it will require your attention. If ARC plans go as scheduled you should be presented with a design proposal to consider in the next 6 months.

I close with the reminder to you that as developers we have a broader vision than making money from bricks and mortar. As stewards of the future our vision is not on profit but on building our community of faith and the neighbourhood. Therefore, let us embrace our calling as stewards of God`s future so that we can increase our ability to offer good news to more people in every aspect of their lives? This is our challenge.

Copyright © 2002 Garth Bulmer, Ottawa