The Oakland Cathedral

Welcome, readers of the Curt Jester. I stumbled on this link just a few minutes ago, and am, naturally, caught unprepared (on a morning after a long bullfight, nonetheless). So, here goes:

My first inclination when I saw the plans for the Cathedral were: that monstrosity looks like some giant turbine.

However, the more I look at the renderings, the more that I think it is a fine building... to showcase one of the better pieces in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Air and Space. All of that light, the high ceiling, the glass, the steel.

And then it dawned on me: this is a Protestant church. And it was designed by one of the followers of the Real Absence (I believe that the architect is a member of that dismal cult called the Anglican Episcopal Church or A Bunch of Poofters and Priestesses in Cahoots with a Druid or whatever it goes by this month. Ooooh. The Ecumenically thenthitive will get their noses out of joint at that one! Hoo boo. The Ecumenically thenthitive have gone away from this place a long time ago).

Then I saw the internal rendering and started to giggle. Church in the round. Oh lovely. That is the reason that I do not step foot in Our Lady of Lourdes on the other side of the lake (well, that and icons to the heresiarch Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Dorothy Day (hey, at least she's Catlick!), and the wretched liturgy, the heresy preached (often by nuns), the dismal downcast priest, who embodies the permascowl generation...).

So, I really hope that the Cathedral sits empty. It is about the only time that I like to see sparsely attended masses: when activists seem determined to hijack the liturgy to prove points. Maybe the Diocese can this sell this Turd to the Chabot Space and Science Center, who should turn it into the downtown station for a really cool cable car to take tourists up to the observatory in the hills.

Now, as to the revivalist pastiche that I have seen floating around as an alternative: it is better, but not much. It has all the marks of student work, and would be much better suited to some place that is completely devoid of character. I won't be so mean as to mention which state(s) I am thinking of, but they ain't Alta California.

What we need is an architect who has walked around Oakland, Berkeley, etc. and understands this place. Someone who loves the traditions of arts and craftsmanship that have flourished in Oakland. Someone who is smitten with the native woods (Redwood and California bay laurel and madrone) and minerals (serpentine!) of our land. Someone who is not so stuck on their own traditionalism to realize that tradition is a living breathing thing (I am increasingly lowering my expectations from what shall come from Duncan Stroik and his students, which is a shame since they certainly demonstrate a lot of talent, judging from the stuff on the internet. Too bad it is being driven towards such insipidity).

Somewhere in the past I proposed a direction for the Oakland Cathedral. You can search the archives.

Now, note that I do not fault Bishop Vigneron, who was stuck with this project.

Let's just hope that the Diocese sells it and uses the money to build a good Cathedral.

As for good modern church architecture: look to St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco (and I mean in person, not just in pictures). Go study it, walk around it, go to mass in it, and you will see what I mean.