Loading...With much joy, the members of St. Luke’s Chapel, joined by their friends and family members, gathered on June 20 for the long-awaited dedication of their new church building, specially designed for the burgeoning congregation of elderly and convalescing residents at the Episcopal Church Home in Louisville.
The dedication – and first public Eucharist in the new space – brought a standing-room-only crowd of about 400, and ironically, Episcopal Church Home staff and clergy once again found themselves accommodating an overflow crowd – the very reason the new chapel was built. As they had been doing every Sunday in recent years, the staff had to seat worshipers in the hallway and reception area outside the chapel.
The service was the culmination of an initiative to build the chapel that began 10 years ago and included a capital campaign that has raised $3.1 million to date. Although $450,000 remains to be raised, the joy, like the number of worshipers that Saturday afternoon, was bountiful throughout the hour and a half service, which began with a knock on the chapel door by Bishop Ted Gulick. Following the customary liturgy for church dedications, the bishop asked for permission to enter and, upon entering, marked the threshold with the sign of the cross as he said a blessing. Once inside, he likewise blessed the “inclusion room,” a special room that runs the width of the chapel. Set off from the rest of the congregation by a wall of glass, the room allows worshipers to be a part of the congregation without fear of disrupting the service, even though they may be unable to sit still or remain quiet.
As the bishop and some 20 vested clergy processed through the worship space, it became notably apparent that nearly every nook and cranny was brightly filled with light, but not just that supplied by the many traditional lanterns and wall sconces common in Gothic churches. The octagonal room was bathed in natural light coming from the skylight, the harshness of the sun’s rays amazingly filtered by an artful, trellis-like canopy of wooden slats that form a light-permeable, second-tier ceiling.
In its simplicity and accessibility, the chapel, designed by K. Norman Berry and Associates, should be welcoming for Christians of all sorts and conditions. Central to the expansive chancel, on the wall behind the altar, is a large but unadorned cross, its plain, shining brass a stark contrast to the wallpaper’s soothing green and white pattern. Flanking each side of the chancel are altar rails with kneelers (and demi-kneelers specially designed by the physical therapy staff), but the central section is open, making it easy for those in wheel chairs and using walkers to also approach the chancel and receive communion with everyone. In addition, the chancel is just one-step up from the main floor with a ramp on the right, and its spaciousness makes the pulpit and altar accessible to anyone participating in the liturgy.
As the bishop later described the chapel in his sermon, it is a “glorious space” that “proclaims” in our “youth-obsessed culture” the esteem that local Episcopalians and others in this community accord the elderly and their caregivers.
Referring to the scripture chosen for the service, Gulick found St. Paul’s question to the Corinthians — “Do you know that you are God’s temple?” — to be particularly relevant and affirming. “To proclaim that we are temples of the Holy Spirit is to declare an amazing human dignity,” he said. “The newly baptized baby is a temple. … The surgeon taking a moment for prayer before an operation is a temple …. And on this day of days we proclaim a person confined to a wheel chair, tethered to oxygen, is also a glorious, sacred, treasured and dignified temple of the Holy Spirit! Those who will be the congregation of this sacred place will no longer be leaned upon, reached over, crowded, warehoused in a hallway, where the Divine Liturgy had all of the dignity of Monday night football at the local sports bar!” Likewise, the new sanctuary also is welcoming to those who wish to worship with the residents, the bishop noted, for visitors will no longer need to worry if they are disrupting a resident’s view when they stand during the service and staff are no longer consigned to the back of the chapel or the hallway.
Decrying news coverage about Social Security and Medicare that carries the message that the elderly are a “big problem” for our nation, Gulick jubilantly said of the new chapel: “Those of advancing years will enter this shrine and be welcomed, but not as problems or issues or drains on time and resources. … [Those] who enter this chapel will be honored and cherished as the beloved temples of the Holy Spirit that they are!”
Priests and lay people from all parts of the dioceses attended, and many, if not all cong
regations were represented. Members of choirs from five congregations (Christ Church Cathedral, Messiah Trinity, St. Francis in the Fields, St. Matthew’s and St. Thomas) formed a combined diocesan choir for the service. Congressman John Yarmuth, unable attend, sent his greetings through a member of his staff, Episcopalian Brook Pardue, and said in a letter read during the service that the chapel is “a great addition to Louisville,” enriching a spiritually rich community.
The Rev. Dr. Georgine Buckwalter, the Church Home’s pastoral care director and a central figure in getting the new chapel built, is justifiably proud of it, and a few days after the service she expressed her heartfelt gratitude at the turnout for the first public service. One priest, she said, told her after the service that “it was the most significant diocesan event in my spiritual journey,” and she added that she had to agree.
The top photo is by Al Boice; the other photos are by Don Vish. More photos by Don Vish may be found on his Flickr site.
