A Pilgrim's Place: ADVENT SERENDIPITY

Here’s a happy coincidence I could never have anticipated. I was watching the new Star Trek movie listening to the director and who not else talk about the film. During a scene on the planet Vulcan, someone mentioned that the set was actually a church in a cemetery. I immediately knew the location because that very morning I had been looking at pictures of that church in a new book I had purchased. The book: Craftsman Style. The church: Skyrose Chapel in Whittier, California, designed by Fay Jones.

So you can see what I’m talking about, here’s a shot that appeared in the movie with Spok.

And here is a view from the balcony toward the front of the church.

If the church picture had been shot upwards toward the ceiling from the back of the balcony, it would have looked like the Spok scene.

Here's a picture of the balcony. This is used at closer range in some other Vulcan scenes (Spok with his mother).

And for good measure, here’s the outside of the chapel.

I admire the work of the late E. Fay Jones who was for a short time a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. Jones is noted for his church designs, most notably Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

He is a contemporary architect so it is rather strange that his work would be included in a book on the Craftsman Style which was primarily late 19th-early 20th century. The book, however, has several modern buildings in it, so I guess Jones’s work could be included.

What I pondered in all of this was that when the film makers wanted and other-worldly set, they chose a church. Although a lot of churches are based on the model of a theater (I’ve been reading a book on that also, When the Church became Theatre ), other churches are meant to transport a person to a heavenly realm. Fay’s designs are like that.

In Star Trek the Vulcan people are devoted to pure logic. And yet there is something spiritual about this devotion. As a matter of fact, the Vulcan’s are the only humanoids that seem to have a spiritual dimension. Does that sound contradictory for a scientific culture? It needn’t be. Science can lead a person to marvel at the universe, or it can lead a person to treat the universe as mere raw materials needing to be transformed into an object of practical use. If you think about it, both a Walmart store and Skyrose Chapel are the product of scientific engineering. One, however, is a ugly, utilitarian object, a temple to “stuff.” The other is a thing of beauty and inspiration, a temple of a very different sort. When future archeologists dig up our artifacts, will they conclude we were a spiritual culture or a material culture. I know where I’d place my bet.

Many years ago when I was starting out on my own and bought Christmas cards, I noticed there was about a 50-50 split between sacred designs and secular designs. Now it’s hard to find anything with a religious theme. And sometimes the religious cards are bizarre like Santa Claus kneeling at the manger.

A frequent concern of mine in the season of Advent is the confusion between Christmas celebrating the birth of Christ and The Winter Holidays celebrating I-don’t-know-what. Excess, maybe. The Holidays are winning. I am saddened by the many well-meaning Christians who think the solution is to make sure clerks in stores say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays” when they ring up your sale. Good night! All the buying and selling has absolutely nothing to do with the birth of the Savior. Nor does hanging things on fake plastic tree-like objects. Nor do Holiday Spirits in 1.5 liter bottles. Why should we want to attach Christ’s Holy Name to that nonsense?

In the Star Trek film, Spok’s father tells him he will have to choose between following his human or Vulcan nature. Maybe we have a similar choice, to follow our material nature or our spiritual nature. In the end, which will benefit us more, an hour in a place like Walmart or an hour in a place like Skyrose Chapel?

Stir up our hearts, O Lord,
to prepare the paths of thine Only-begotten Son:
that we may worthily serve thee
with hearts purified by His coming:
Who livest and reignest with God the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
ever one God, world without end. Amen.

–Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent