New chapel debuts ...


This is a picture of the Church on the Pike's new meditation chapel (I have been trying to think of another name for it, but have not gotten very far). If it looks like it's in the basement -- well, it is, in the former youth room. The altar itself is a very nice, solid one in oak, and memorializes some parishioners from earlier times. The altar was formerly in use by the Sunday School for their chapel service, but was abandoned at some point. So we nabbed it!

The dossal is the one that hung behind the altar in its previous location. You can't see the detail, but it's dark blue with golden fleurs-de-lis. We are so inept that we had to have one of our neighbors come in and hang it for us! Then we realized that it was so long that it covered the baseboard heater, and we were probably going to have a fire. In full panic mode, several of our thinner volunteers crawled behind the altar and pinned the dossal up with safety pins. How professional we are! LOL!

We nicked the table on the left from the larger chapel upstairs. We're hoping it wasn't used that much up there. Don't tell! Maybe the Rector won't notice.

So, as you can see, this little chapel is still kind of primitive. We are waiting for a new, blue rug -- I'm just as glad that the picture doesn't show the stains on the current one. Despite the unfinished quality of the space, we held a Lenten Quiet Afternoon on March 17, and, to our surprise, we had good attendance. We did a Bible study on the Lord's Prayer, had a period of still prayer, enjoyed some very good homemade Irish soda bread and Welsh tea cakes while listening to Celtic music, then recited the Great Litany and read Evening Prayer from the Wee Worship Book. It was a deeply satisfying afternoon.

All we need now is a rug and some artwork, and maybe some softer lighting (there are fluorescents overhead, which we don't want to use). All in all, however, we're happy with this new prayer space, and we had a lot of good fellowship putting it together! And the parish seems to have been craving a space like this, off the beaten track.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Ooh, you really need some icons and some votives or tea lights, maybe a small censor to burn incense in...

My mind automatically wants to make this a Mary Chapel...

All of this begs the question - who am I and what happened to the broad church raised young woman you helped send to seminary???

Stephanie (the somewhat Anglo-Catholic seminarian)
5:21 PM
Anonymous said…
This is a wonderful chapel/prayerspace, and will be even moreso when you've softened it a bit. Your Lenten Quiet Afternoon sounds like a gift from above.
11:37 PM
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