The Architectural Value of Church Building Societies.

Progress, Volume XVII, Issue 4, 1 December 1921, Page 79

The Architectural Value of Church Building Societies.

Frank Peck.

Churches and " Cheapness."

Ad Major Dei Gloriam.

Until modern times this great phrase when used in connection with the erection, adornment and equipment of religious structures, could be applied with its full significance; and, furthermore, the phrase is not to be exclusively claimed by the' Christian of any one sect any more than by the Pagan of Time immemorial : and only upon the acceptance of this as the true basis of giving— ad major em Dei gloriam is it possible to usefully proceed with this discussion. Men in past ages have given of their best, produced in patience by personal effort and labour; for all lasting work, that which is worth leaving behind us, has been produced by hard work, the doer of which has been sustained, and his efforts tempered, by some degree of " love," which one is bold enough to believe is vouchsafed even to many an untutored savage, as one also sees it in the living animals of creation. Men have raised buildings to worship in, some great and some modest; and "if they have put their heart into it" all their work of either grade is equally acceptable; and they have equipped them in the past with treasures — as have been produced under religious —which we who have inherited them have mostly found to be " above all price " : and all was not weariness in the doing. The material objects of nature with which we have been endowed, we must only consider as " a great entail," So John Ruskin says, and "only use them as they should be used," namely, in a manner directed by true study, education, and observation, which only will enable us to produce works sufficiently worthy to hand down to our successors with the true tradition and symbolism intact.

But why, it may be asked, is it necessary to write this preamble at such length? . . . The answer is, that we must illuminate the subject from the point of view of " values " in order to emphasise the greatness of the danger to the churches and chapels which are likely from now to be permanently built in our youngest Dominion, of their becoming the " dumping ground" for meretricious and unsuitable works, and to give warning to those who are ignorant of what has occurred in England and Europe, the irretrievable damage to the sacred edifices which has been done in the past, and to enlighten them as to the strong

organisations which were founded to combat these evils, which they have done with great effect.

In Europe from the earliest times until the period of their debasement, the Christian Church had inspired influenced and produced for the erection adornment and furnishing of its edifices, almost all that was best in art (and, we can almost say, greatest in constructional science). To the churches, as now, the populace went with receptive minds in peace and quietude to worship; and by listening and seeing, to learn and then carry away the axioms and mental pictures which shaped their whole lives.

In later days, culminating in the mid-Victorian era, our churchmen lost sight of the gravity of their responsibilities towards these fabrics (many of the old ones so magnificent originally), their furnishing, and equipment. Their interiors became the repositories for bad craftmanship, especially in the form of modern brass, pulpits, screens, organ lofts, atrocious glass and "tailors' trumpery," the gifts in some cases of men wellmeaning and earnest enough, who mostly acted, however, in ignorance of the real quality and object of their gifts, to which were ofttimes attached exclusive conditions based upon their individual judgment only. . . . Other donors were a class of purse-proud men perverse sometimes in intention, who, ensconsed in state in the then "fashionable high enclosed family pew —sometimes with its own fireplaceimagined that money could by itself provide the lasting and inspiring work of art acceptable for an edifice which, being tampered with, had already almost lost its original sacred " atmosphere."

These men, with • few exceptions, built "cheaply," not well: and irremediably ruined many churches. "Vested interests" generally controlled the selection of the architect and craftsmen, who as a rule were without education in their subject, were ignorant of ecclesiastical art, its symbolism and tradition, and worked without devotion. The result was a " dead architecture, than which nothing can be more depressing upon the minds and lives of a people." So, again, says the great sage. It behoves New Zealand, therefore, young in its architectural traditions, to take warning, and profit thereby.

And how, it will be asked, can such a serious menace of protracted materialism be combated?

An improved, if not. indeed perfect, standard of church architecture would be assured by founding immediately an " Incorporated Church Building Society " in each diocese of the Dominion, with a parent-society to which every prominent layman should be proud to belong, with the object in view as discussed. Each diocese would receive legacies, bequests and donations through its own branch, and according to the merits of each case would tender what is called in England first aid however small in amount a contribution towards the work of any church builders who made application; attaching at the same time to its gift certain desirable conditions, such as the free allotment of a number of seats, examination and criticism of the plans and such like. It would also volunteer welcome advice to the ofttimes inexperienced promoters as to "preliminary steps in church building," "raising of funds" ; miscellaneous hints affecting " selection of architect," "size of church," "seating," "signing the contract," "organs," etc. . The existence of such a society to refer to and depend upon should relieve the incumbent and promoters from the ofttimes very hard task of refusing, to 'fall in, necessarily, with local "vested interests" in making various business arrangements. "Vested interests" sometimes strangle the best intentions at their.very birth. In England, the parent body of "The Incorporated Church Building Society " has for patrons, president, vice-presidents and committees the highest names, and all the bishops and leading laymen are included; attached to this central body is the " Consultative Committee of Honorary Consulting Architects " — men of established church building and antiquarian knowledge, who are charged with the responsibility of reporting upon all plans or projects (including furniture) remitted by the diocesan branches to headquarters. In New Zealand, this body might consist of two or three professional honorary architects, and if possible, co-opt a non-professional member known to be a Gothic enthusiast or traveller; and its meetings might take place in Wellington as being most central; but the appointments, in the writer's opinion, should not be permanent as in England, where the consulting architects number twelve, three possibly forming a quorum.

Up to 1913 the "Incorporated Church Building Society" of England and Wales had assisted to build, re-build, enlarge, or seat 9,624 churches and mission chapels, providing over 2,000,000 additional seats, of which three-fourths were made free; and it had made grants amounting to £950,456 towards churches, to which the public themselves contributed £18,579,298. ' It held in 1913- invested in trust for repairs of churches and chapels'£l3l.lo4. and a general fund of £35,794. The standing of the Board of Honorary Consulting Architects" as regards all questions connected with the erection and furnishing of churches has become so generally recognised throughout

England, that most committees are satisfied to refer their plans and proposals to it as their very first move not merely to obtain the grant—usually small but in order to get an unbiassed opinion of their schemes : and after approval from this one quarter, other societies almost invariably accept the dictum and without further enquiry will follow suit with' their own grant towards the project in hand. Conclusion. The writer of this article, upon being sent for to advise as to what form of church furnishing some intending donor's gift should take, has several times been urged' " not to advise any stained glass windows : we can get them any day" —a gift conferring eternal prominence at comparatively small capital cost. Also, he had known a good, heavily-laden but cheerful priest to have the courage to —with tact, of course such a gift before his church fabric has been completed, with the result that he has done better in another way. Many, no doubt, have felt—"Oh! that it were one-hundredth part as easy to get this ' gift ' out of my church as it was to get it inV But the old folly of amiable " receptiveness " and acquiescence can be considered as mostly at an end now in England. That great architect, George Edmund Street, says of a fine ancient (Continental) church which had been spoiled Dy the introduction of tablets and " frippery" that "its interior now would gladden the heart of the English churchwarden." That condition is almost impossible now, for the clergy and wardens know how to guard their charge, fully realising that if it cannot be "exceeding magnifical," the fabric at least can be well built, genuine and true : more acceptable without the "frippery" and mere "trimmings." And so can our churches and chapels be guarded by an " Incorporated Church Building Society of New Zealand" with a small "Board of Honorary Advisory Architects."

September 14th, 1921. [The writer of the above cannot refrain from referring to the restful and beautiful new Church of S. Michael and All - Angels, Kelburn, Wellington, the ably written encomium of which appearing in your November issue needs no emphasis from him. He would have walked far in the Old Country to see such veritable objects of art as the sedelia, the altar, and the beautiful font (the last a specimen of the natural and proper use of the marble and perfect in contour), which all students young and old should see; a good augury for the further gifts which we read are "on the way."] 30th November, 1921. ■_ ; More than 27,000,000 square yards of concrete roads, streets and alleys have been placed under contract in the United States for the first six months of the present year.