“O God, who fashions an eternal dwelling for your majesty out of chosen and living stones, help your suppliant people, so that your Church’s material growth may also bring spiritual increase.”
Our Lady of Fatima Parish, in the Diocese of Wilmington, dates back to August 5, 1948, when it was formally founded on land given to the Diocese six years earlier by the Stahl family of Wilmington. Before 1948, the Parish tract, located in Wilmington Manor on the Du Pont Highway, formed part of St. Peter’s Parish, New Castle, Delaware.
The people of God gathering together in union and love, hear these words during the Post communion prayer in the Mass for the Dedication of a Church. They remind us, as we prepare to carry Christ in ourselves back out into the City of Man, that we are indeed in some wonderful way God’s special possession, dearer to Him than all other people. Because God loved us from the beginning of time, He gave us and continues to give us life, even when our sins have made dead men of us. And the beauty of it all is that He gave us true life in Christ.
We are God’s people. We Christians are truly set apart, a holy and chosen people. We are the parts and members of God’s household, as St. Paul reminds us, with Christ the head and its chief cornerstone:
"In Him the whole fabric is bound together, as it grows into a temple, dedicated to the Lord; in Him you too are being built in with the rest, so that God may find in you a spiritual dwelling place."
In the “paschal banquet” of the Mass, we parishioners reunite ourselves with each other and with Christ during the mystery of faith. This is the great action in which “Christ is eaten, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us”. In this action we are not strangers or silent spectators.
We are helped in this by having a church building constructed, as the Constitution on the Liturgy recommends, such that “. . . the very arrangement of places and things will be a clear sign and faithful echo of the sacred assembly, which is the congregation of the people of God, composed of the ‘servants’ of God and the ‘holy people’ duly united together.”
Seeing is believing, so to speak, when it comes to church buildings. Every group of God’s holy people needs a structure to house its Eucharistic assembly, and also one which will shine forth to the world the sacredness of this particular visible community of the faithful.
The church of Our Lady of Fatima Parish, then, is not really a complete innovation as far as the demands of church architecture go. It stands as a clear sign for what it is supposed to be: a meeting-place for the holy people of God, a Mass-house. Outside, it draws the eye to God, ever-present in our lives and in the entire world; inside, it draws us to Christ, present on our altar and pervading the entire interior.
For our Mass-house there exists a treasure house of ideas. Over the centuries the Church has allowed and encouraged the development of nearly every size, shape, and style of church building imaginable. She has welcomed modes and fashions from every age, depending on the natural talents and cultures of God’s people, and the needs of the various liturgical rites within the Church.
What looks like a church to us may not at all suit the tastes of some other century or country or climate. What is important, though, is that our parish Mass-house helps us, in this particular century, country, and climate, see spiritual truths visibly expressed through the sacred image of our church. (To do otherwise would be like asking the builders of Notre Dame in Paris to have imitated the cane and bamboo churches of the South Pacific islands.)
The only real regulation or blueprint that Holy Mother the Church gives us, as it turns out, is that the building be suited to its purpose: “And when churches are to be built, let great care be taken that they are suitable for the celebration of liturgical services and for the active participation of the faithful,” says the Constitution on the Liturgy.
This is the blueprint we have followed in developing, planning, and erecting the new church for Our Lady of Fatima parish. It is a functional plan. The entire structure is designed, as C. A. Reinhold writes, “for the meeting of the congregational, hierarchically organized Body of Christ and the celebration of his Mysteries.”
Our Lady of Fatima’s church follows the same guidelines of artistic functionality that inspired the magnificent cathedrals of the middle ages, the ornate Byzantine basilicas, and even the early Christian churches. They all met the demand of their times. Their creators expressed the liturgical spirit of their own day, with skill and art.
The advantages of the relatively unusual arrangement of this new church are obvious, both from the viewpoint of the people present and from the very reason why the building exists in the first place.
“As we gather at your table…..”
A centralized altar focuses all attention on the sacred action taking place there. But it does something else as well; it emphasizes our participation in the sacred banquet as a “we-you” affair.
The priest-celebrant, surrounded by his people, is at once both one with them and at the same time their spiritual leader. The members of the parish family, of whom he is also the spiritual father, more easily unite with him and with one another in offering the sacrificial gift, their bread and wine, for him to transform into the person of Christ, so that they may share with him and with each other the “food of angels”.
Plan fulfills purpose In the plan of our church, all eyes aim easily at the liturgical focal point: Christ crucified, symbolized by the welded steel crucifix suspended over the altar table.
This six-sided marble table, elevated two steps above the floor of the sanctuary, is flanked by two welded steel candle holders, serving to define the sacred space encompassing the altar. Centered on the altar is the tabernacle, fashioned of welded steel, actually a six-sided model of the church itself.
To one side of the altar table stands the ambo or lectern for the lay commentator. The sedes praesidentialis, a chair for the presiding celebrant during the sacred liturgies, is directly behind the altar table.
The pulpit blends with the other altar furniture, and forms a simple but suitable place from which sacred Scripture may be read and where the celebrant may deliver his homilies on the word of God.
From floor to ceiling behind the sanctuary rises the vertically-grooved wooden wall, drawing the eye upward, from the steel sculptures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph behind the altar, on up to the central “oculus” or “lantern” in the roof. The oculus is located directly over the altar table.
The altar rail surrounding the sanctuary is supported by a series of circles, and symbolizes the timelessness of eternity. Also of welded steel, it blends harmoniously with the other altar furnishings.
Just outside the sanctuary is located the choir area and organ console. This arrangement is designed to aid members of the congregation in more actively participating in singing during the liturgies, and to link more closely the role of the “schola” (or choir) with that of the people.
The chapel is also on the same side of the church as the choir. With its own movable altar (on which weekday Masses are celebrated), this chapel doubles as extra seating space for the congregation during the Sunday and holyday Masses. The windows in the chapel face the sanctuary and main altar, and may be opened for distribution of Holy Communion.
On the other side of the church is a specially-designed “crying” room, where parents may take their children during Mass if they wish. This room, too, faces the sanctuary, and its windows also open for Communion.
The people’s area- Planned to accommodate 800 worshippers, Our Lady of Fatima Church has graceful wood-and- steel pews, placed in smaller groups than are usually found in a church built to hold this many people. Nine aisles extend outwardly from the altar to the walls of the church, like the spokes of a wheel. No member of the congregation is more than 40 feet away from the altar throughout the liturgies.
Confessionals are located at the rear of the church, on either side of the main entrance. There are also confessionals at the rear of the chapel and crying room. For persons wishing to receive the Sacrament of Penance outside the regular hours, a buzzer system connects the chapel confessional with the priests’ sacristy.
Other features Our Lady of Fatima Church actually has three sacristies, one each for the priests and for the servers at the rear of the church, and a smaller sacristy just off the narthex, opposite the baptistry.
On either side of the ambulatory or hall leading from the sacristies to the sanctuary are rooms for storage as well as lavatories. The ambulatory is readily accessible from the church nave.
The Stations of the Cross are represented in the fourteen specially-constructed stained glass windows of the church, seven on each side of the building.
At the left and right sides of the narthex (or vestibule), as one enters the church, are the baptistry and small sacristy. The baptistry, where new Christians are received into the life of Christ in his Church, forms the second of the two poles about which revolves the sacramental life of the Church, and has the same six-sided shape as the main altar table.
The church doors each have eight small etched-glass windows, depicting typical symbols used in Christian art.
The meanings of these symbols are:
Ship – the Church, with symbol of Christ on sail
Lily – the Blessed Virgin
Three fishes – Three crowns
Cross – alpha and omega, the first and last
Heart and crown – Our Lady, Queen of Sorrows
The Trinity and Christ – God working through Mary
Hand – the right hand of God
Descending Dove – the Holy Spirit
Good architectural practices have been followed in the design of the church. The interior acoustics were balanced by the proper choice of materials for walls, ceiling, and floor. The floor of both sanctuary and nave is entirely carpeted, serving several functions, such as enhanced color effects, sound absorption, and simplified maintenance.
Lighting fixtures suspended from the ceiling in the church also contain the public address system speakers, helping to evenly diffuse the amplified speech of the celebrant and his ministers throughout the building. All interior lighting is controlled by dimmer switches, so that light-level intensities may be varied to suit the liturgical occasion.
In addition to the main lighting, twelve spotlights shine down on the main altar from the dome above the oculus. These are complemented by a second circle of twelve lights aimed upwardly from the dome at the bell tower for night-time illumination.
The natural wood finish on the walls, woodwork, pews, cabinetry, and main support arches was selected to blend harmoniously with the cool blues in the carpeting and the colors of the stained glass windows. The windows’ color character is emphasized by their being set into simple brick, painted an off-white, and the cement mullions that hold the glass chips in place blend evenly with the walls. Supplementary lighting for the windows has been installed on the outside of the church by means of recessed spotlights under the eaves.
An electronically-operated carillon system is installed in the tower. The system is programmed to ring Mass calls and the Angelus. It may also be operated manually for ringing on special occasions.
The organ speakers are concealed behind the wall at the rear of the sanctuary, situated so as to radiate their sound outwardly from the wall to provide a balanced organ sound throughout the church.
Finally, it should be noted that conceiving a church structure to properly fit the land available was no easy task. With limited space available due to the plat size and set-back restrictions, area requirements alone could have justified this type of church. Yet to do this so deftly, and at the same time to fill so many other functional needs for a Christian church, represents a remarkable architectural achievement.
There is no set form for a Christian church. We might expect to find something approaching the ideal if we went back to the times closest to Our Lord, when the new community of Christians began building the City of God in the City of Man. Unfortunately, from the very beginning the Christians were persecuted, so what the early Christian churches actually looked like is still one of the most debated matters in the history of art.
We do know, from the Acts of the Apostles, that the Christians celebrated the Last Supper and preached in a large room, usually some part of a private house. Persecuted severely during the second and third centuries, the Christians could scarcely emerge into the open and advertise their presence by ostentatious churches. Apparently they converted the interiors of many private houses for the holy services.
Nearly all church-houses up until this time were rectangular, divided into three parts:
- The apse, usually a bulge-like area at one end for the altar and clergy
- The nave (and aisles, in the case of larger churches), facing the apse, where the people congregated during the paschal banquet
- The narthex, or the vestibule, at the opposite end from the apse
- The baptistry was frequently located in the narthex, symbolizing the Christian’s entrance into the life of God
Gradually, however, this “house-plan” concept came to merge with the public basilica (which tended to have an inwardly-directed floor plan, leading the people toward some central focal point, such as a judge’s throne or altar). This combination also included an area at right angles to the main aisle, known as the transept, giving the building a cross-shaped plan when viewed from above.
Until the fifth century, there was no fixed orientation of the church. Frequently, however, the priest celebrated Mass facing east, with the people facing him, to the west. This eventually changed so that the altar was placed at the east end of the church, with the priest thereby having to stand with his back to the people at many parts in the Mass, since everyone faced east.
This type of altar-placement lasted until the middle ages, but the custom of the priest celebrating Mass with his back to the people has persisted right up until our own day, only now being officially changed by the Church.
Excerpts and Images from “The Church in the Round” by C.S Cushins
