Spirituality and places
I got into a friendly argument with a colleague about “appropriate” uses for churches. It started with an observation he made about how St. Bart’s in Midtown over-advertises its cafe - and why does a church have a cafe anyway? He advocates separation of uses, and deplored as an example, the proposal to turn a church into a nightclub. I believe instead that churches are gathering places - in a whole host of different ways, whether they are cafes, nursery schools, night clubs, or anything else.
Maybe I remember very clearly the packed jazz club in the basement of St. Giles Church, one of the oldest Episcopalian churches in London, where the priest tended the bar, and it was one of the few places you could get absinthe. I thought of it as the safest place you could try absinthe, not as a dangerous place.
The argument reminded me that I took pictures of a cemetery in the East Village - the New York Marble Cemetery, which operates like a park on the weekends. Chairs are put outside and people are encouraged to have picnics and visit the park/cemetery.
What do you think of this use of the cemetery? Disrepectful? Or good management?
Much of our disagreement was wrapped up in our conception of these places and activity that is or is not perceived as illicit. I don’t thinking drinking and dancing or listening to music late at night, say at a night club, is such an illicit activity that needs physical separation from the observance of spirituality. However, my colleague thought that night club activity is immoral and church activity is moral. We agreed to disagree. I do think this discussion highlights some of the fundamental principles guiding people’s inherent reactions to the use of space. What do you think?
7 comments May 11th, 2007