"Living Word Christian Center" is the place where the wedding will be held.It is an ENORMOUS facility, with a bookstore, coffee bars, a sanctuary like a modern theater, PLUS a wedding chapel.
And that is only what I was able to see as I walked through on my way go to the wedding rehearsal.
Below is a picture of what you see when you walk in the front door.
Simply beautiful.
There is also a very large bookstore and gift shop just to the right.
A nice plaza between the Sanctuary and the Chapel.Perfect for mingling between services.
The fountains, clock, lanterns and arboretum create a feeling is both elegant and park like.
I am sincerely impressed, and I approve of this kind of facility.
Its design is fitting to accommodate the activities of this particular church.
Everywhere I looked I saw wise choices to facilitate large groups both efficiently and comfortably.
Even so, I think wistfully about white clapboard churches with soaring steels, and English chapels surrounded by cemeteries.
I've sat and worshipped in the church building where Bernie's ancestors were baptised and married, back in the 1700's, in Maryland. Around that church were the headstones of the families who have worshipped there for generations.
There's something powerful about considering those who have gone before, and imagining how the quiet setting will look when those dead in Christ shall rise again.
I really like how "Living Word Christian Center" performs.
I truly do.
But I think about the words, the titles:
"Sports Center" "Medical Center" "Business Center" "Media Center" "Shopping Center" "Community Center."
Whatever happened to "Church"?
"Church" and "Chapel" and "Cathedral" and "Mission"?
Those old clapboard steepled building really don't make sense any more.
But somehow I always feel a comfort when I see them.
Maybe it is just me.
I hope Living Word Christian Center will still house worshippers three hundred years from now.
And its presences in the future will be a comfort to those who visit it then.
1 comment:
In my dreamy imagination I always imagine a church with a steeple and the cemetery next to it. The first church I attended as a child was the closest to it, that was a same one that had 3 washroom stalls in a very cold basement, and sunday school rooms in the basement, boys on one side and girls on the other. A hard bench on either side of the sunday school table. That is where my memories of Sunday School will forever be. When I read a book and need to imagine a country church it always looks like that.
This churh sounds very comfy indeed. It is absolutely beautiful. They have thought of everything.
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