A Vision for a Good Faith Chapel

 

from the Very Rev. Sam Candler
Dean of the Cathedral

Thank you! Thank you for your prayers! And thank you for considering prayer in a new way at our beloved Cathedral of St. Philip. This holy place has long been a stable point in a moving world, and a sacred destination for all sorts of saints and pilgrims. With the inspiration of Saint Philip, the deacon who baptized a traveling pilgrim, we have been a faithful “house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 56:7).

I ask you now to consider a new vision: a prayer chapel. I ask you to consider an expanded opportunity for prayer and contemplation, worship and education, invitation and mission, on our campus. It would be a new chapel, but not a chapel designed in our (now) traditional, rectangular way. It would be a rounder holy space, in octagonal form, welcoming us to common prayer that would develop our community in an expansive way.

Some of you know that more circular, and octagonal, spaces for worship were part of ancient Christian worship. In early centuries of common prayer, Christians often gathered in wider spaces, with an altar set in the middle of a room. Later, Christian communities gathered in holy places like the Hagia Sophia in Eastern Christianity (Constantinople, or Istanbul) or the free-standing octagonal Baptistry of St. John, outside the cathedral in Florence, Italy. Worship in such places emphasized the presence of the Holy within our community, within our gathering, and not just at the far end of a long nave.

Here at the Cathedral of St Philip, we can do both. We can continue our beautiful liturgy in the Cathedral proper, with its reverberant acoustics and soaring space. But we can also live into a quieter and more contemplative space, with open and flexible possibility. The liturgical furnishings in this new prayer chapel would all be movable. We could arrange the altar at the end of the room, or in the middle of the room. It would be a place of quiet, too, during the day, open for meditation and holy prayer, quite an attraction in the bustling and noisy city.

A transcendent dimension of our prayer would be provided by a large round oculus, a clear window at the top of the room, open to the heavens. Indeed, worship in this broadened way might remind many of us of our holy “koinonia” services during the pandemic. In those days, we gathered outside, around each other, in a circle, open to the heavens; and it was wonderful!

This new building would be a Chapel of Good Faith, open to prayer and good faith in new ways. It would also be much larger than our present chapels. The new chapel, along Andrews Drive, would hold up to 300 people, a mid-range chapel size we have needed for many years. It would be a place for all sorts of common prayer: all types of traditional Eucharistic services, weddings, funerals, contemplative prayer services, even interfaith prayer.

But this Good Faith Chapel would not take away from any of our present traditional services in our beautiful cathedral nave. It could host larger educational gatherings; it could hold our larger children’s services. It would be the Good Faith Chapel, serving people of good faith. Such good faith, and openness to expanded forms of prayer, would be an extension of our Cathedral definition as a “house of prayer for all people.” We would be constructing a chapel for expanded holy presence in a new century. Thank you for helping us be ready for the future!

In our tradition, we begin Christian formation with good prayer. Good prayer, and good faith, form good Christians. We become servants in the world, going out in mission and care, because we have met God in holy prayer and good faith. This Good Faith Chapel would be an exciting new stage of our formation, guiding us to a next generation of generous Christianity, open to the world, and serving the world in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.    

Thank you! Thank you so much for considering this new vision. Thank you for your prayer: past, present, and future. I pray that God will lead us to a new way of being a house of prayer for all people, and to a new incarnation of faithful and generous Christianity. Blessings to you! May God bless us! And may we be a blessing to the world.