The Architecture of our Church
The Church of St John the Baptist which we worship in today, is considered to be a modernistic Church. From the external point of view, in comparison with most other Orthodox Churches, this consideration is true. But if we look at our Church from the viewpoint of the traditional meaning of Orthodox Church architecture, we find that our Church is indeed as traditional as it is modern.
The first Christian Churches we basilicas. This means that they were the typical public meeting building of the time: straight walled structures ending in an elevated area in which the central activity of the meeting took place. Our Church building is just such a structure. In fact, with its interior pillars, its lower ceilings over the side aisles, and its rounded altar area; our Church on the inside, is the exact copy of the earliest form of Christian Church buildings – the basilica.
When Christian architecture developed over the ages, the great distinction of the Orthodox was the use of the domed ceiling. Unlike the Church edifices of Western Christendom which generally were built to lead away from this earth and to point them upward toward the heavenly realm of God – thus we see the pointed ceilings, the pointed spires, the vertical lines and the darkened interiors. The Eastern Orthodox architecture with its rounded, domed ceilings; its horizontal and curved lines; its colorful icons and its interior lightness; expresses the Christian understanding of the Church as “heaven on earth.” For in the Church “God is with us” through Christ the God-man, in the Holy Spirit, with all the angels and saints. Thus the theological reality of the unity of God and man, of heaven and earth, or this age and the age to come, within the life of the Church, was what the traditional Orthodox architecture was attempting to express in its style and design.
If we consider these things, it becomes apparent that our Church building does just what traditional Orthodox architecture always did. By the use of the curved, vaulted ceiling; the curved, rounded altar apse; the natural lighting of the upper windows, and the indirect electric lighting in the vaults; our Church expresses the same spiritual reality as do all traditional Orthodox Churches. It creates for us, through its style and design, the atmosphere of the Presence of God on earth among men, since in the Church “Christ is in the midst of us” through the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us.
Our Church building, therefore, truly preserves the traditional meaning of Orthodox architecture, while at the same time it uses an architectural form which is truly modern. This modern expression of traditional Orthodoxy is very important for us to understand and appreciate. The Orthodox Church of Christ must not be identified solely with the past. It must not be considered as an archeological museum which exists merely to reproduce and preserve things of the ancient times. The Orthodox Church of Christ must be a living Church; a modern up to date Church. As the True Church of Christ, the Orthodox Church must express not only the Ancient God of the past, but the Living God of the present, and the Coming God of the future. For the Lord of the Church is the Eternal Lord, “Who was, Who is, and Who is to come.” (Rev 1:8)
It is this timeless reality which our Church reveals in modern terms: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever.” (Heb 13:8)
