And on a side note, I’m curious if they are merging parishes, why are they building a new church vs just using one or the other existing building? Why are they merging parishes in the first place?
Both buildings are too small. The larger church holds, I’d guess, 400. The smaller holds, max, 80. Parishes are merging not due to a lack of priests or anything (we have five), but because: 1. the smaller church was recently converted from mission status to parish status and doesn’t have the numbers to sustain it and, 2. the numbers of the Catholic community in general are getting larger each year, very quickly. Neither building is feasible for expansion. The smaller one because it isn’t structurally sound and isn’t particularly beautiful, and isn’t really anything to build on to in the first place (it looks a bit like a tiny 1960s middle class home with siding on it and a steeple on top), and the larger one because of the unfortunate manner of placement on the land, which is very close to roads which cannot just be moved or something.
I don’t understand this thread…
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it kind of… shallow… maybe even offensive to speak so badly about certain Catholic Churches because you think they are ugly? (…Calling a Church “this thing?” Really??) After all, they are the house of God, regardless of whether or not they are of your particular taste or standard of appearance… you’re there to worship God, first and foremost.
I dunno… there’s just something about throwing around pictures of Catholic Churches and saying “ewww this is UGLY” that doesn’t quite sit right…
I don’t think it’s offensive. I can criticize church architecture and call it all sorts of ugly without it making judgment on what happens within the walls. A building doesn’t automatically gain beauty just because it’s a church, in my opinion. The building itself and the people and liturgy within it are separate entities and should be criticized or praised usually separately. Granted, it so happens that, generally, you can make
some basic assumptions about what liturgies and the “parish environment”
might be like from the architecture of the building, especially newer ones, as church architecture continues to become more and more of an identity statement than ever, but still.
I respectfully disagree, wholeheartedly, that it is shallow to call a church or any building ugly, no matter its use.
All Catholic churches are houses of God, yes, but that doesn’t make them automatically architecturally attractive. I can have respect for the parish without adoring their church building. This thread deals with architecture only, and judgments expressed herein are only intended to be about church buildings, not the people inside them nor the God who resides in them.
I don’t like the seating on the sides of the altar.
They kind of complicate the reception of communion unless you have an altar railing and the priest uses it.
I KNOW!
The sanctuary REALLY needs to be shoved back a bit, and the seating in the transepts turned forward. I was thinking the same thing about communion and having an altar rail installed. I also think the seating in the nave needs to accommodate more. The seating and sanctuary arrangement is my only real qualm. It seems that the architect, for some reason, on the plans, considers the transepts part of the nave.
Thanks for the links.
The Sumter High you refer to is the “new” building that was built in 1983-1984, so it probably seems old to you. It was quite massive when it was built, and as I recall that was the edge of town in those days. I remember that the old downtown of Sumter was in a rather dilapidated condition then. There was a new mall that attracted the crowds.
Is Stuckey Bros. & Hines furniture store still in business? It was out on the highway between Shaw and Sumter. We bought our bedroom furniture, as well as the washer and dryer (all of which I still have–well, the washer has been replaced) there in 1982.
What I remember the most was how lovely the people of Sumter were to us. I have not ever encountered more gracious and kind folks in all my travels.
SHS doubled in size. Mall? Lololololol this mall is embarrassing.
Stuckey Bros. no, Hines yes.
Lovely? I dunno about that.
In any case, I’m not an ardent supporter of the basilica layout for new parishes. When celebrated versus populum, it makes the mass look a bit like a performance on a stage in a school hall, although it makes more sense when you’re celebrating ad orientem.
