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The Blessing of the New Font, Narthex and Organ
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- document
- Additional Information
I am one of those – I suspect fairly numerous – who until a year or so ago would have thought that a Narthex was one of those African antelopes which are so useful to makers of crossword puzzles. A student of church architecture, or a liturgical historian, or a musician – and preferably all three in collaboration – could write a considerable treatise on the ceremonies which took place at St. Cyprian’s; and only they could properly appreciate their beauty. An ordinary parishioner came away with, above all, a feeling which St. Cyprian’s particularly knows how to communicate: the joy of watching, and in a humble way collaborating in, the creation and growth of a beautiful church in which the true life, as well as the outer form of Art is to be found. Not only the structure, but the structure and its use together are what constitute the beauty; and a ceremony such as that we witnessed solemnizes the union of the Church and its purpose in a beautiful way. That much, I think, we all must have recognised. And those of us who have had the fortune to be members of this congregation during these years of adorning the church will feel, I believe in future years, a peculiarly intimate membership in it, through having somehow grown with it. And this, one feels, is what Art is for; here it has its place in communal life as so rarely in the modern world. Finally, we may look forward to think of what more there is for us to do to make the habitation perfect.
