ANCIENT OR MODERN?
A JOY FOR EVER. By H. W. Monaghan. H. H. Tombs, Ltd., Wellington. HIS is the record by its vicar of a New Zealand Anglican parish church, St. Mary’s, Timaru, on which several generations of clergy and parishioners have lavished their reverence and love .and what artistic sense was in them. The book is quite sumptuously produced with several colour plates and a number of photographs and line drawings. Archdeacon Monaghan’s account is clear and modest, and it is evident that he was able to lead his parishioners in their joint efforts to enlarge and furnish their church. Some faults, however, spring from the author’s excess of enthusiasm; his veneration for Gothic architecture is rather uncritical, especially when it leads him to condemn other styles because to him they are "of the earth, earthy." This judgment of his would apply by implication to San Vitale, Ravenna, or St. Mark’s, Venice, which would be less spiritual than any modern Gothic pastiche. The record of modern Gothic is not a- happy one, even in the hands of such a skilful exponent as Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. There is scope for originality in building churches as in building anything else; Bishop Selwyn’s wooden churches were original and fitting; and so too are the chapels at Waiho and Tekapo with mountain views behind the altar. There must be a loss of vitality if all church building is to be in the one style, with fidelity to an ancient model as the only standard
D.O.W.
H.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 362, 31 May 1946, Page 11
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254ANCIENT OR MODERN? New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 362, 31 May 1946, Page 11
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