///// Okay, this started as a comment on the last post and then just became a whole new post. Here goes, it's a long one with geeky medieval architecture stuff, but its good geeky /////
Yes, Paule, that's why I was wondering about this particular narthex. Just to clarify, I wasn't out of hand dissing this narthex. I'm sure the architects thought about why things are the way they are and there's good reasons for all of those things being the way they are. What I'm wondering is what connection does it have to gothic architecture, or should? or could it?
In gothic cathedrals EVERYTHING meant something. Cathedrals existed in a preliterate culture, so the whole building was a reminder of faith and community and was usually literally at the center of the community. They were usually surrounded (like right up against the walls) by shop stalls, just a whole jumble of commerce and business and life going on. To enter the church, to cross the threshold of the church, was to leave one world and enter heaven on earth. At least that was the intent of the architects, especially high gothic. It's all about creating transcendent space. Which kind of makes sense when for your average surf life was mostly mud and dirt and physical labour. The church was a physical reminder of a reality that was pretty hard for your average surf to remember really existed.
So a narthex, as you pointed out, is at the end of the nave. It was the threshold, the transition from the cares and hard labour of life into the cares and concerns of heaven. The narthex was the first step in conscious intentional movement. Congregants entered the cathedral from the west and moved toward the east, the direction of hope, the direction from which the sun rises. The west doors usually had intricate stone sculptures depicting various biblical stories, often with Jesus at the centre. Sort of a non-textual lesson on the tenets of the faith. They moved through the narthex to the nave, through the whole length of the nave, usually emblazoned with stained glass depictions of biblical stories, more preliterate non-textual lessons, kind of the first graphic novels ever. Then finally to the far east of the building to the alter, where holy communion was partaken of. The church may have observed regular mass, but for the live blood of the church was a parish model. The church was always open, always a open part of life at any time for this kind of pilgrimage from west to east, out of the cares of the world and into holy communion, from the desperation to the hope of communion at the table with Jesus.
The nave takes its basic shape from the basilicas of Rome. Basilicas are basically big rectangular buildings and the basic model for most Roman public buildings. (This was the Roman Catholic Church building these things.) But the great ecclesiastical invention was the introduction of the "transept." Basically that cross piece that runs perpendicular to the nave. The transept opens up this amazing space just before the alter and ambulatory. And the transept gives the floor plan of the cathedral a cruciform shape. So if you look at the building from the air it looks like a giant cross.
All of this stuff was incredibly important and symbolic and thought out and developed over centuries.
Back to the Church of the Resurrection narthex. It obviously doesn't serve the same transitional function as a medieval narthex. But it does serve some kind of transitional function. Oddly, I haven't yet entered Church of the Resurrection via the "main" doors that lead into the church. (Hmmm... maybe that's a good metaphor for people stepping into God's kingdom from places we might not expect.) So, what function does this narthex serve? What does it say about us and our culture, good and bad. (Don't get me wrong, I have no illusions about medieval times and there was a whole lot of bad in with the neat good stuff.) So, good and bad, what does this narthex say about how we do church here and now? (Not pointing fingers at Church of the Resurrection, by "we" I mean we in the Western tradition engaged in church-as-we-know-it.
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