Ryne Morse
ID-162-001
31 January 2016
Experience
as Person
I
attended the noon mass at Christ Cathedral Church in Lexington on Sunday,
January 31st. Unfortunately it is hard for me to be impressed by the
interior of the cathedral, since just this past summer I had the privilege of
experiencing places like il Duomo in Milan, St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican
City, and also the Sistine Chapel. However, my first impressions of the
interior of their sanctuary were quite positive. Honestly, immediately I noticed
that the elegant backdrop to the preaching clergy littered with pipe organs
flaring everywhere, colorful depictions in stain-glass windows, and the
decorative domed ceiling that focuses your attention even more on the middle of
the stage, are far more impressive than any design in the Sistine Chapel itself
(with the exception of the ceiling, of course.) Casually lit by random,
chain-suspended medieval-looking chandeliers throughout the room, one massive
chandelier that hangs over the stage almost out of sight to the normal people,
and also naturally through the beautifully depicted stain-glass windows, brightness
is an important factor in a church mass to symbolize hope and love, and also to
enlighten people’s morning.
On
the other hand, while attending the “Shaping Space” dance concert in Guignol
Theatre on January 29th, many different impressions are given off. I
have never been a huge fan of interpretive dance and theatre, as I find it very
hard sometimes to come across the underlying theme or message. I think of it
similarly to complex literature. Although I do pride myself on being able to
fully understand a complex piece of literature despite all of the other fluff
they throw onto the pages, I find it frustrating with dance since it seems like
they are trying to relay a message to me throughout the whole dance and I am
just not getting it. I almost left the theatre just as confused as I walked in.
I would like to note that this is not a critique on the play itself, as I
thought the performers did an excellent job executing their routines, but it
almost seems like I am watching a movie in Russian. Despite that fact, I was
able to point out some similarities and differences from the church service.
It
is easy to notice right off the bat how one is to occupy each space. Giognol is
nevertheless set up the way a normal theatre would be; a massive stage centered
at the front with about 20 rows of chairs spread among three columns. There is
no restriction on whom to sit with at this event, and in fact, as long as you
are respectful, it is encouraged to discuss the scenes of the play with a
friend or neighbor. This helped me ample amounts, as many other people saw what
was going on better than I. As for Christ Church, church pews line the audience
of the sanctuary, perfectly straight and uniform, much like the way of life for
a die-hard believer, with walkways in between. However, unlike a social event
where one would tend to sit with a friend or someone to make the time go by
quicker, here in the church, it is almost taboo to not sit with your family.
This is for a variety of reasons. One, religious teachings constantly express
the importance of family and love, so it would only make since that you sit
with your family in a time of prayer and Sabbath. Two, if one were to sit with
a close friend, that would entail you to talk to them and be social. Another
taboo of the church, do not talk while the Priest is talking. It is extremely
disrespectful to be disruptive and social during church, much like school.
However, unlike school where the no talking rule is purely so students may
listen and understand material, in church it is “common knowledge” growing up
to churchgoers that mass is a place of quiet worship out of pure respect. Going
back to the earlier topic of the design of the space, this also makes it very
easy to tell which spaces are supposed to be occupied by. For example: the
church pews occupy the lowest level of the building with very high ceilings.
This symbolizes to the people to always remember that you are below a higher
power, far below. As we move to the front, we see that the massive, decorated
stage in which the clergy preach from is approximately 5 feet higher that the
pews filled with normal people, and over their heads resides a massive dome
reaching further into the sky than any other part of the building. This
symbolizes that the clergymen are just that much closer to the higher power
than the people, and the dome represent that this higher power and the clergy
have a direct source of communication through each other. This also touches on
the scale of the space. Pretty much any church you go into nowadays, you will
notice a very large inside with ceilings reaching as far as their budgets will
let them. This is so once again; the people will feel small in the house of
God, and maybe even in the presence of him.
