Friday, October 22, 1999
Worship's changing shape
New buildings in the suburbs eschew architectural frills, stress function
BY JULIE IRWIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In a different age, Cincinnati's religious communities built the soaring monuments to faith that dot our landscape.
From downtown's Plum Street Temple to the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington to Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, the houses of worship built here in earlier times exalted God and embodied the faith of their members.
With the area's population shifting from central neighborhoods to the outlying counties, another crop of religious buildings is appearing on the landscape. The congregations along the Interstate 275 beltway are fueling a religious building boom, with dozens of churches either under construction or under renovation.
But the area's newest monuments to faith contrast sharply with their predecessors near downtown. Today's houses of worship place a premium on functionality, versatility and user-friendliness, de-emphasizing ornamentation and grandeur in favor of intimacy and comfort.
Symbols of faith are rare; some new churches, such as the Vineyard Community Church in Springdale, contain no crosses or other Christian signs. St. John Catholic Church in West Chester has a processional cross but no permanent cross or crucifix in the sanctuary.
Three new houses of worship, dedicated this month, provide examples of how people build and use contemporary religious architecture.
• Vineyard Community Church in Springdale held its first weekend services in its new $12 million, 103,000-square-foot church Oct. 2 and 3.
• On Oct. 10 St. John Catholic Church in West Chester dedicated its new sanctuary with a Mass celebrated by Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk.
• And the same weekend Congregation Ohav Shalom dedicated its new synagogue in Sycamore Township, following a move from Roselawn a year ago.
While the three new buildings are vastly different, they share an emphasis on community over the individual and on a warm and inviting interior over an impressive exterior. They are a product of their times, of economics and craftsmanship and the way that the role of religion in people's lives continues to change.
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LECTURES SOLD OUT
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The Artistic Expressions of Faith lecture series on religious architecture in the Tristate is sold out, but a color-illustrated catalog is available. The catalog features 40 works of art from the collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College Skirball Museum and the Taft Museum. Cost: $10 plus tax. Information: Call Abby Schwartz at the Taft Museum, 241-0343.
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“Houses of worship — be it a synagogue or a Protestant evangelical church — are becoming community centers as a way to bring people in, but also as a counter to the perception of the way the culture has gone and a loss of values,” says David Cave, an administrator at Chatfield College who has taught courses on world religions and sacred space and Xavier University and Northern Kentucky University.
Dr. Cave gave the first in a series of four lectures this month on religious architecture in the Tristate. Sponsored by the Taft Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, the “Artistic Expressions of Faith” series looks at how different houses of worship reflect the communities that built them.
“In some of the churches being built (today), they're not building so much for the building to give meaning through ornamentation, the experience of the place,” he says. “They're building for the congregating of people to hear the Word.”
The church mall
Walking into the new Vineyard church is like walking into an office building or a mall. The only clue from the outside that distinguishes it is the church's motto, “Small things done with great love will change the world,” engraved across the entrance.
Inside there are four coffee bars, a cafe and shops arranged like a food court, classrooms, day care centers and a gymnasium. They all surround a 2,400-seat auditorium complete with video screens, sophisticated sound and light equipment, and a stage for a worship band and preaching.
The lack of decoration is intentional. The Vineyard is known for its casual-dress, come-as-you-are Christianity that emphasizes relationships in small groups and exhorts members to take part in citywide service projects. Its common touches extend to the cans of Coke members pass out on hot days and the cupholders next to each of the movie-theater chairs in its new auditorium.
“We wanted it to be more like your family room than your living room or dining room,” says Hal McIntosh, an associate pastor at the Vineyard. “People are used to going to Barnes & Noble and Borders, and they can come here and there's a coffee bar and music, they can talk. It's similar to a mall where people can go hang out.”
The new church is getting rave reviews from members.
“I just think (the new building) is very welcoming and inviting, and it's non-threatening to people who are either very new in their faith or haven't been to church in a while,” says Erika Bailey of Forest Park, who has been a member for five years. “At first I thought, how are people going to know it's a church, but you feel the presence of God by the way people treat you there.”
Church interiors
St. John's in West Chester has been trying for years to keep up with the explosive growth in the area. The archdiocese first split the parish and formed St. Maximilian Kolbe Church in 1989. But still the pews of St. John's overflowed with nearly 2,100 households, so in the spring of 1998 the church broke ground on its new $5 million sanctuary.
The red- and cream-brick exterior could be a local library, except for the cross atop it. Inside, the space is airy, with light streaming through banks of windows and pews arranged around an altar in the center of the room.
“We wanted people to have close proximity to the action that takes place at the altar, to be close to one another and let what happens here move us to be involved in the community beyond these doors,” says the Rev. Jim Meade, pastor of St. John's.
The interior decoration is simple and spare. A sculpture depicts Joseph holding Jesus on his knees while Mary leans over her husband's back toward her son. Six bas-relief sculptures of well-known 20th-century Catholics — including Dorothy Day, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and Dr. Thomas Dooley — adorn the walls.
“We talked about saints with a small "s' and that's what these people are,” Father Meade says. “We talked about people whose lives have connected with ours. Our understanding is that saints are people who try to live in their own way extraordinary lives, lives of holiness but with the understanding that they are human.”
St. John's joins many other churches in emphasizing artwork in its sanctuaries rather than the buildings themselves. As building costs continue to soar, many think that money is better spent on items such as St. John's walnut-and-granite altar and lectern.
“Today a lot of places of worship spend their craft money on furniture — the ambo, the altar, the ark. They don't put their money in the frame,” says James Postell, an architect who teaches in the University of Cincinnati's School of Architecture and Interior Design.
“In a funny way, American culture is this way too. People will spend a lot of money on their art, their stamp collections, their computers, and not a lot on their square footage.”
Versatile and intimate
Congregation Ohav Shalom knows better than most how quickly populations can shift, sending religious institutions to chase after them. In its history Ohav Shalom has moved from downtown to the West End to Avondale to Roselawn, and now to Sycamore Township, following the migration of the area's Jewish population.
Their newest building, on Cornell Road, blends in with the homes next door. The 35,000-square-foot building cost about $4 million.
Inside, the emphasis is on versatility and intimacy. A bright classroom and office wing leads to the sanctuary, social hall and day chapel. A moveable divider transforms the sanctuary from about 370 seats to about a thousand, meaning the room can feel cozy for weekly services but still accommodate the crowds who come for holidays. Ohav Shalom's old sanctuary could seat 900, and when 100 or fewer people were there for services, the room felt cavernous.
“We wanted to be a little more intimate than the old style with the leader up front and the people in back, spectator-type thing,” says Rabbi Art Flicker. “We consciously wanted to get greater intimacy and a greater sense of sharing in the services.”
Gordon Schilmeister has belonged to Ohav Shalom for more than 50 years and has moved from building to building with them. He finds the new building inviting and warm.
“It feels very comfortable,” Mr. Schilmeister, of Deerfield Township, says. “We'll be sitting as close here as we were (in the Roselawn building), but no matter how many people you have around you here, you still have that feeling of personal contact.”
Apparently Mr. Schilmeister isn't the only one who finds the new building welcoming. The congregation has added 100 new families to its rolls since its move.
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