THE restoration of Brisbane’s Sts Peter and Paul, Bulimba, is one of the architectural projects featured in a new website that aims to deepen people’s appreciation of sacred art by featuring Australian artists and liturgical art in its various forms.
The new website, art.catholic.org.au, features almost 30 articles that examine items as diverse as stained-glass windows and liturgical vessels, as well as sculptures and churches.
All the content is written by Australians and each article has a clear Australian link, featuring artists, architects and works in Australia.
The website is a work of the National Liturgical Architecture and Art Council and was launched virtually during the plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
NLAAC chair Fr Tom Elich, who is also director of Liturgy Brisbane, said the set of articles would be added to regularly, to produce an extensive database and reference point for Catholic art.
“We have taken a broad view of Catholic art because the Church has not adopted any particular style or form of art as its own,” Fr Elich said.
“Whatever is good and true contributes a noble beauty to acts of worship. It leads to a new appreciation of the infinite beauty of the Creator God.”
Interestingly the million-dollar restoration of Sts Peter and Paul, Bulimba, was undertaken while Fr Elich was parish priest there, and he writes about the project completed in 2016, the centenary year of the parish.
The distinguishing feature of the church interior is that the altar, ambo and presider’s chair are no longer set in front of an auditorium but are located in the midst of a worshipping assembly.
“In 1926 when the church was built, the question Who celebrates the liturgy? might have elicited the response Christ celebrates the liturgy, that is, the priest acting ‘in persona Christi’,” Fr Elich wrote on the new website.
“Today, our response would be significantly different. We would respond Christ celebrates the liturgy, that is, the whole Body of Christ consisting of all the baptised.
“The full, conscious and active participation of all the faithful in the liturgical celebration is their right and duty by reason of their baptism (SC 14).”
At the centre of the liturgical assembly is “an eight or nine hundred year old font – a gift from the bishop of Worcester, United Kingdom, and a rich symbol of the Church of all times and places which celebrates the liturgy.
The NLAAC hopes the website will be of benefit to a wide range of people, including parishes renewing liturgical spaces, for architects and artists, for students and researchers, and lovers of art.
“Engagement with sacred art is almost as old as the Catholic Church, and has been a great tool for faith education through the centuries,” Fr Elich said.
“This site seeks to continue that long tradition, using our current means of communication.”
Archbishop Patrick O’Regan, the chair of the Bishops Commission for Liturgy, launched the website virtually, with members of the NLAAC joining members of the Bishops Conference online.
“The National Liturgical Architecture and Art Council has completed a number of key projects in recent years, including books on church buildings and on the stewardship and renewal of places of worship,” he said.
“The Australian Catholic Liturgical Art website is another significant contribution to the Church in Australia, helping promote the work of some wonderful local artists and educate the faithful along the way.”
Archbishop O’Regan acknowledged the efforts of Liturgy Brisbane, where Fr Elich has been director for many years, and the Bishops Conference’s digital technology office for developing the website.
“May their diligence and generosity be rewarded with a warm reception and strong interest,” he said.
The NLAAC welcomes additional suggested contributions for the website and can be sent to tech@catholic.org.au for consideration by the Council.
The website can be accessed at www.art.catholic.org.au
