Transfiguration Takes to the Road
Congregational Renewal Road Trip
to Holy Cross, Weare, NH
Submitted by Beth Bell Lavoie
On Sunday, May 31, five parishioners carpooled to Weare, NH to tour Holy Cross’s new worship space and celebrate evening prayer. Connie and Ray, Angie, Lori and Beth left the church parking lot at 3:00 in the afternoon and enjoyed a sunny trip to Weare. The Reverend John McCausland warmly greeted the group in the parking lot. Connie immediately noticed that their sign states “Holy Cross Church and Community Center,†and Rev John pointed out the basket ball hoop right by the front door that the youth in the neighborhood find especially welcoming.
Rev John explained that they relied heavily on a booklet from the Episcopal Church Building Fund titled “The Church for Common Prayer†when they developed the plans for the new space. They also spent time studying worship, liturgy and theology as part of the design process.
Rev John showed us into their large welcoming narthex, which has room for a sitting area and library table. They now host the coffee hour in the narthex. They have incorporated the existing altar from the previous worship space to display fliers and booklets in the narthex. A turn to the right and we had a wonderful look at the new worship space through a glass entry. These glass doors really frame the worship space and draw the visitor into the space. The congregation incorporated many of the traditions from their old space into the new space. The design of their old stain glass windows is reproduced in new stain glass in the main entry, etched on the new glass doors to the worship space, and echoed in the shape of several of the window frames. One of their parishioners is a metal worker and has fashioned a Celtic cross for the crucifer that also mimics the original stained glass design. The worship space architecture is reflective of colonial post and beam construction with a Shaker sensibility. The space takes advantage of natural light sources with 12 casement windows, a clerestory, and a large circular window. We loved the beautiful tiled floor, set on a diagonal.
They have moved the baptismal font to take center prominence when entering the space and the altar is moved forward into the congregation. Rev. John explained that they tried moving the altar to the center of the congregation, but they find it more comfortable to have it 1/3 of the way into the seating area. The layout we experienced, with movable chairs arranged facing inward on each side of a large open space, was typical of a regular Sunday worship service. Being able to move things around allows great flexibility for baptisms, weddings, funerals and other liturgical services. They purchased kneelers for about ½ of the chairs, but find that few people use them on a regular basis.
They created a devotional tabernacle space with a kneeler, candles and a box for consecrated bread with materials from their old worship space. They have also incorporated many of the existing furnishings into the new space, honoring the traditional while incorporating the new. They eased the transition by bringing key pieces into the new space such as the baptismal font, the presider’s chair and lectern.
There is a lovely “Godly Play†space in the worship area. Parents like having their children in the worship space, and this play area is set up to provide ‘whisper’ play with soft toys. In the event a parent wants to take the child from the worship space, they also broadcast the service to the nursery and undercroft areas, and are planning to broadcast to the new playground in the backyard.
The process to define a new space and determine what would be changed created some new rules. The stained glass plaques on the windows are hung so that they can be removed and replaced. They resist putting memorial plaques on things to allow the focus to be on worship rather than possessions.
We wanted to celebrate worship as well as tour the worship space, and Rev John joined us as Connie led a service of Evening Worship from the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer. We filled out feedback forms on our way home, and considered the following questions:
- Did you learn something new that you hadn’t considered before?
- What did you like about the worship space?
- What didn’t you like about the worship space?
- Did the space enhance or detract from your worship experience? How.
From our feedback cards:
- We learned:
- When you put the altar in the middle, no one wants to sit ‘behind’ it
- Young families don’t want to drop kids off in a nursery.
- There can be a way to incorporate the important traditional parts of our space into a new configuration.
- Put a basket ball hoop in the driveway!
- Possibility of a quiet play area in the worship space
- Broadcast the service outside of worship area
- Put altars into the classrooms
- We liked:
- The amount of natural light, the glass doors were very welcoming, play space, flexibility to rearrange chairs, wooden beams.
- The chairs were very comfortable, the layout where you can see other people during worship, more sense of community, the flexibility allows compromise and newness. Loved the stone tiles and beautiful iron work. The open space, the art throughout. The glass entry with the wooden frame to allow one to see into the worship space before entering.
- Very open and easy to configure. The layout can be traditional or contemporary for certain worship services. Reconfiguring lends itself to be more useful for certain worship services like baptism, weddings, funerals, Christmas and Easter.
- Tile floors, open feeling, light, and glass entry doors.
- We didn’t like:
- Having to look at people during worship and prayer.
- Liked everything
- No altar rail
- No kneelers/less friendly for kneeling
- The space Enhanced/Detracted from our worship experience:
- Hard to tell when doing a service with very few people in such a large space. Detracted a little – the big, open space made us feel like a very small group and there was no way to sit together as a small group without moving chairs, but that probably would be true in any space.
- Enhanced
- The space enhanced my experience. It made the congregation a bigger part or a more focused part of worship.
- Enhanced. Were able to gather together in open area, flexibility for services of different size groups.
- Enhanced. The openness of design gave a feeling of incorporation and not spectatorship.
If you missed this road trip, another one is planned on August 16 to Exeter. Please make a point to attend worship on our Sundays in Meeker Hall – June28, July 25 and August 30. We will be trying out new configurations, engaging in a dialogue and looking for your feedback.