AN HOTEL CHAPEL

Hokitika Guardian, 23 April 1929, Page 8

AN HOTEL CHAPEL

PLACE FOR. MEDITATION

Taking a- leaf from the past, when chapel for .meditation and prayer in a the mediaeval traveller could find a wayside inn, the Hotel Baltimore, in New York, recently opened within its walls a similar chapel where people o) all faiths m..y retire for meditation. A dozen guests were present (writes Lemuel F. Parion in the Literary Digest). Easter lilies wore on the altar, and beside it were bowls of vcllow roses. No bloom, lie tells us, wiil ever be allowed to wither here. Fresh flowers wiil always be lon ml on rhe ahar. and above it is the inscription,"Come unto Me all ye that labour

and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'’ The doors of the elm pel will never bo closed. As the correspondent describes- the chapel: —

••Jt is an exquisite little' sanctuary, rein in isent of Saiiite-Cliapello. oil the Isle do. Cite, Paris, a beautiful and cloistered retreat in a groat municipal building. Or it might suggest the tiny chapels hidden away in the floral splendours of the l’alazzo Barborini or til© Palazzzo Doria in Rome. It is without precedent in America, both in its inspiration and in its use of ecclesiastical tradition without fashioning a single definitely religious symbol. Tt is to he a chapel for worshippers of all faiths. “Carved pilasters speak of the choir stalls of Noitre Dame. The tiled floor might have come from a Franciscan monastery. Iron grill work is Florentine, and there are bits of ornamentation suggesting the warm splendours of the San Sulspieo. Beside the altar are small stained-glass windows, with the figures of kneeling angels—drawn, however, with an emphasis of purely decorative ©fleet, in apparent avoidance of any literal symbology. There are hints of Gothic Romanesque Baroque, and Byzantine, all. exquisitely blended.

“One may step down the corridor and look out across the Grand Central station and a wilderness oT skyscrapers,, a jumble oi architecture and a confluence of many faiths and many cultures.

“This shows why this chapel is needed.’’.said ‘John MfEnt.ee Bowman, president of the Hotel Corporation. “I don’t tiiink so much of putting Bibles in the rooms—not to speak with any lack of veneration for the {Bide but I believe rather that a hurried, harassed, and driven person, as ■most of us are these days, need* a retreat like this, where he may .vm-Hiin bis own God in liis own way. The chapel has been planned to provide a. retreat of peace and beautv for Catholic, Jewish, or Protestant ‘worshippers—or those- of any otnei faiths. For this reason, we have eonseiouslv and carefully avoided including the symbol of any particular faith. These chapels will be place 1 in all the hotels of our system, and in any other building which I may happen to control.’ ”