As I'm sure all readers of Orthfully Catholic know, after the Council parishes all over England and Wales suffered a re-ordering of one kind or another. Well now I think the same is happening again but this time they are being re-ordered to the way they once were! I have just been speaking to a priest who has plans for his parish.
He is going to put up an Adoration Chapel, this is becoming more and more popular in parishes and is doing them a lot of good! People are coming in and spending hours on their knees adoring Our Lord exposed in the Blessed Sacrament and their families and their parishes are feeling the effects of it, the lapsed are coming back and vocations are booming.
He has just put up a sanctuary crucifix which was taken down by the last Parish Priest. He wants to move the Tabernacle from the 'fashionable' Blessed Sacrament Chapel to the sanctuary. He is unsure where to put the Font, I suggested the entrance where Canon Law says it should be but he says he is aware of people not being able to see the baptisms from that position comfortably so he would rather put it between the sanctuary and first pew.
A lot more has to be done but he is making a start!
4 comments:
Let's hope so. I have noticed since I started serving mass in my parish how inadequate the "re-ordered" space is liturgically. The altar is lower (the footpace appears to have been removed and the altar placed on the "top step"), the "chair" is directly in front of the centre, meaning there is no access to the altar except from behind (not very good for Benediction, censing the altar, or reverencing it at the beginning and end of mass). Unfortunately the chair couldn't be very successfully moved without moving the font (which is on the epistle side of the small sanctuary), and for that we'd need a baptistry - I have no idea where the font was originally. And, of course, there is no orient-facing footpace at all so an eastward celebration is completely ruled out. Nightmare, which I imagine a lot of future parish priests will face if they want to restore the liturgical balance to the sanctuaries.
They can always turn round in their pews!
That's what they did at baptisms in the Anglo-Catholic church I attend/ed (foot in both camps, sadly).
Actually, a bit off-topic, but some of the Anglo-Catholic Churches have beautifully preserved the things that seem to be sought here!
I had a quick squiz at the Code of Canon Law (1983) to see where the baptismal font should be located but couldn't find any mention of this. Where should the font be located and where in Canon Law is this instruction?
The people can always turn around. They are not bolted to the floor facing forward. In many churches the font used to be in a chapel off the narthex or in the northwest corner of the church. Lovely. It is not at all appropriate to have the font at the east end of the church. One enters the Church through Baptism.
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