An article for The Cathedral Times
by the Very Rev. Sam Candler, Dean of the Cathedral
September 29, 2024
Please join us in the Dean’s Forum this Sunday, October 13 at 10:10 a.m. in Child Hall for a special presentation on the Good Faith Chapel!
Thank you! Thank you for considering the Good Faith Chapel — an expanded opportunity for prayer and contemplation, worship and education, invitation and mission at the Cathedral of St. Philip. 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.
With the addition of the Good Faith Chapel, 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 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 and connected to the existing building near the Gould Room, 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.
The campaign for this new chapel is underway, and with the generous support of Cathedral parishioners, we are well on our way to our $31 million goal. But we are not there yet! The Good Faith Chapel needs support from you – yes, financial support, but also prayer. The Good Faith Chapel needs your prayers!
I look forward to talking with you more about the Good Faith Chapel at the Dean’s Forum on Sunday, and I look forward to praying with you in the Good Faith Chapel in the future!
The Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler
Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip
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