Australian Catholic Liturgical Art
A Work of the National Liturgical Architecture and Art Council
Jubilee of Artists – 15-18 February 2025
You are preachers of beauty. Beauty does good. Beauty heals. Beauty helps us go forward on our journey… Artistic creation completes, in a certain sense, the beauty of Creation, and when it is inspired by faith reveals more clearly to people the divine love which is its origin. (Pope Francis, Vitae Summit, Rome 2022) Continue reading “An Invitation To Artists”
Returning to Blairgowrie, Victoria, from a road trip to Kangaroo Island in September 2022, we stopped in the town of Millicent, SA, to pick something up on the way. Serendipitously we parked in front of the catholic church of St Alphonsus. Continue reading “St Alphonsus’ Catholic Church, Millicent, SA, 5280”
Alan Sumner mbe (1911-1994) was a painter, printmaker, teacher and stained-glass designer. After studying at the NGV school, RMIT and the George Bell School in the early 1930s, Sumner travelled to Europe and the UK, furthering his training at the Grand Chaumière and the Courtauld Institute. Returning to Melbourne, he took up an apprenticeship as a stained-glass designer with Brooks Robinson before becoming a designer for Yenckens. He taught painting at the NGV school from 1947 to 1950 and spent nine years as Head of School from 1953 onward. Meanwhile, over the course of his career he completed approximately 100 commissions for windows in Melbourne and internationally. (National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 2018). Continue reading “ALAN SUMNER – Stained Glass”
Windows for God’s Light
During two thousand years of Christianity, one of the more identifiable ‘archetypal’ forms of ecclesiastical architecture is that of the Gothic cathedral. The term ‘Gothic’ in relation to architecture is associated with light, due to a number of influential structural and stylistic features, namely, pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses which stabilised the structure. These lessened the need for masonry walls and enabled the insertion of large, stained glass windows. Continue reading “SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL, BENDIGO”
On Monday 11 January 2020, the last of the pieces of furniture were delivered for the refurbishment and reordering of the Rosebank Chapel. These are the primary pieces that will become sacred in the coming years as we, the People of God, do the ritual acts of Continue reading “ST MARY OF THE ANGELS CHAPEL ROSEBANK, FIVE DOCK, NSW”
Melbourne architect GREGORY BURGESS (b. 1945) is known internationally for public architecture which both expresses the spiritual and creates a unifying communal experience. His work has included arts and visitor centres, educational and health facilities. Continue reading “A GOOD PARISH CHURCH OF 1987”
St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, Victoria
The nineteenth-century Gothic Revival Cathedral of St Patrick’s, Melbourne, Victoria (1858-1899, 1930s, 1970s, 1990s) is a place for Christian worship. It is a house of prayer, a dwelling-place of the Lord among God’s people. St Patrick’s has been part of my life since before I was born. In 1950, my Swiss-Polish parents, new post-WWII immigrants, were married in the cathedral sacristy by a Polish priest. The architect of the cathedral, William Wilkinson Wardell (1823-1899), became the topic of my doctoral research in the 1980s; and in the early 2000s my youngest daughter was married in the cathedral. It was in the 1990s that I began visiting the Ladye Chapel whenever I was in Melbourne. My younger brother was diagnosed with cancer in his mid-twenties and I found great comfort in simply being present with Mary, mother of us all.
Embracing local holidays in Queensland recently, I found myself in St Monica’s Cathedral in Cairns for the first time in over twenty-five years. I was at last able to behold the magnificent creation windows made in the second half of the 1990s by Gerry Cummins and Jill Stehn. There are twelve windows on each side of the nave, each one measuring 6.5 metres by 1.6 metres. They are a monumental presentation of the Genesis story of the creation of the world, and include many scientific elements in the design together with frequent visual references to the Cairns topography, flora and fauna. They create a dynamic context for liturgy which is both cosmic and local.
The Art and Architecture Committee of Sacred Heart Parish, Sandringham.
Sandringham parish is in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Rev Dr Frank O’Loughlin was parish priest for over two decades (1996-2020). During that time the fabric of the 1974 church building has been transformed and the church has been enriched with beautiful new art, while carefully preserving the stained glass heritage from the first church opened in 1906. Continue reading “Working Together”
The inspiration of St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Geraldton, Western Australia, considered by some as one of the finest cathedrals built in the 20th century[i], can be found in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the principles of the Arts Crafts Movement is engagement of local builders, artists and crafts persons in the construction and decoration of buildings and the use of vernacular materials. Continue reading “Translucence of Light”