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Worship Space
As you open the etched glass doors, you are
entering the Worship Space. This space is 60 by 100 feet, has 20 rows of
pews and chairs, and when the Upper Gallery (the former choir loft) is in
use, seats about 600 people.
This is a good place for us to try to put some words around the
Catholic experience of liturgy, the action for which this space is
designed. If you are interested in learning more about Catholic beliefs
about worship that guide the design of our churches, please click on the
last link to your left to read an article entitled “Catholic
Beliefs.” We will continue below with a description of the large room you
see before you.
In Catholic terminology, the words “worship space” or “church” refer to
the entire area in which the Assembly (the gathering of the baptized for
worship) engages in the liturgy, the action composed of word and ritual
that is filled with God’s presence and power. Catholics will gather in
church at other times as well, for community prayer, such as Morning
Prayer or Evening Prayer (Vespers), for novenas or other forms of prayer,
and also for private prayer. The church building is a spiritual home that
assumes great symbolic importance in the faith life of a Catholic.
The shape and decoration of a church reflects both the artistic tastes of
the time in which it was built and the demands of the liturgy. Though the
product of a slow two thousand year evolution, the liturgy has changed a
great deal in the last 35 years as a result of the world-wide gathering of
bishops called Vatican Council II, which took place from 1962 to 1965. The
Council turned the Catholic Church’s attention to its earliest liturgical
roots, and mandated a simplification of the ritual and a return to worship
in the language of the people rather than in Latin. It taught that “full,
conscious, active participation” was the goal to be sought in engaging the
Assembly in liturgy.
St. Peter’s worship space is the result of all these influences. The
1999-2000 restoration was the third renovation of the space since Vatican
Council II. Each successive renovation has brought the church closer to
the ideal called for by the Council, building upon what was learned by
experience of the preceding renovations. The clear, clean lines speak of a
design style that might be called “modern,” distinguishing it from more
elaborately ornamented older churches built in a Baroque style.
The raised platform ahead of you is called the “sanctuary.” In the ceiling
above, a kind of canopy draws attention to this area. The pews are slanted
to gather people around the platform. In the sanctuary the celebrant
(presiding minister of the liturgy, usually a priest) leads the people in
performing the symbolic actions of the sacraments and from here, the Word
of God (readings from the Bible) is proclaimed. A newly constructed
Catholic church would probably be built in a shape that would allow this
unified action of priest and people to be more clearly expressed than is
possible in this rectangular building erected in 1952.
Walk up the aisle and, if it is a sunny day, stop to enjoy the stained
glass windows.
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