Some Aussie Ecclesial Architecture

Hello! Sorry for a "delayed" blog. I had intended to have this ready by last night when I sent out my homily. I was so tired after the very busy week that I decided it wouldn't matter if I sent this out today. So here I am, on Monday morning, finishing my "homework." :)

I had a wedding this past Saturday. As we were going to be in the midst of renovations in our church when I first met the couple 6 months ago, I asked them to find another area church for the ceremony. (Sadly, we're still a bit away from even starting renovations!)

The newest church in the area is called Our Lady of the Angels (OLA). (Understandably, many often confuse it with our parish here in Kellyville, Our Lady of the Rosary!) The parish came to be about 10 years ago, with the building boom in the area. All around us here, what was once farm lands has been turned into urban sprawl. Its a bit sad. (I wonder what the wildlife is doing?) Anyway, when the church came to be, they took about half of our parishioners.

Anyway, OLA is huge in size, but seats relatively few! It's all vertical, which is strange (1-2). I was only able to take a few pictures of the interior before my camera's battery died. Here are a few photos from the web of the outside of the exterior (1) and the main worship space (2). Inside the dome is an image of Christ the Teacher (3), which was done by the same artist who painted the icon of Christ and Mary inside of our Shrine of the Holy Innocents, just ten minutes away. We also have the same dark blue sky and star motif for our shrine, which makes you ask, "Why would you do the same thing another church has done right next door?"

All around the worship space are windows (see 2, but this was taken before the art was installed). They had a very talented high school girl do a series of saints for the windows. The parish couldn't afford stained glass. So they had the art printed onto vinyl and then put it on the all the windows (4-5). I asked if this were temporary, as it looks temporary. The pastor shared, "No. Why would we pay so much more for stained glass windows when we could have these wonderful images at a fraction of the cost?"

Now, yes, the girl is talented. But to be honest, she's not a Michealangelo. It looks like it was done by a talented high school student. Further, I suspect these vinyl images will fade with the strong Aussie sun. Besides that, someone should've given the young artist the dimensions of the window frame. Some of the images fit okay (like this one of Christ with the children, 4). But others, like this one of St. Jose Maria Escriva (5), cut through saints in wrong places. Some lines slash through faces, others, like that of Matteo Ricci which is not shone here, cut across a crucifix he holds up in his hand, blotting out the cross. Ugh!

Then the same priest decided to have the walls of the sanctuary painted with angels (6), with Madonna and Child enthroned at the center (7). Take a look and see if you can see anything odd about this (8-10). (The banner in the middle of each panel (9-10) is for projecting the words of songs on the wall, so that's not to what I refer, though that is odd, too.) Did you notice how all the angels are white and female? I would think that in a country as diverse as Australia we would see diversity in the angels. It all looks too weird to me.

It would be one thing if this church were built in the 70's, but it was just built and this mural was made in the last year or so! (Okay, enough of the perfectionist artist. Here is a selfie with the beautiful Filipino newlyweds, who were married in this very Anglo church, with their Cuban-American pastor officiating, 11.)

On to another Aussie church: St. Matthew in Windsor. It is about a 35 minute drive from Our Lady of the Rosary (12). Its pastor had a death in the family back in India so the friars offered to cover the weekend Masses besides our own busy weekend schedule.

Saint Matthew is the oldest church in mainland Australia, being built in 1840. Here is a shot down the nave (13) (both photos 12 and 13 came from their web site and are not my photos); a close up of the high altar (14); the main stained glass window (15) and a detail of the window (16); the baptismal font, which I imagine was put in sometime in the 70's and is too large for such a tiny church (17); and a lovely statue of Mary (18); and a close up of her face (19). (I like the way Mary's body is the brightest thing on the statue. It is as if she glows!)

Finally, back to my parish, which has its own visual problems (20-22). However, the blooming tulip tree out front is not one of them!