Of churches and church designs

Jul 05, 2024

Reminiscing Church - Richard Chia
One of my must-do places during my family travels overseas, is to visit one or more Catholic churches there. Just to spend time to pray, appreciate the beauty and infrastructure of these old historical church buildings and perhaps attend Mass if our timing is right. Most times the Mass will be in other languages, which we may not understand, but have no problem following, as the sequence and rites are exactly the same.

One noticeable observation is the incredible design and architecture of these old church buildings we saw in Greece, France, Germany, United Kingdom and even in Turkey. We were fortunate to have entered Notre Dame Cathedral in France before the fire broke out in April 2019.

Many of these old church buildings were built during the period of Renaissance and after, with its high ceilings, gothic architecture, stained glass murals, tall columns, magnificent statues and crucifixes, and acoustics that can amplify sound without the need of modern day microphones and speakers. Visitors will feel the awesomeness and sacredness of being present in God’s house.

We also saw many tourists and visitors moving in and out of the church, snapping photographs and walking around the periphery of the church. Sadly, very few were actually going in to pray, to attend Mass or to spend quiet moments in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. In fact, it was a challenge to find a pew to have our quiet time when there are streams of visitors thronging the place.

Is this what churches have become in many parts of the European world? A tourist attraction? A place where ceremonial rituals are performed with an audience?

In Malaysia, we are truly blessed to now have our first Minor Basilica in Bukit Mertajam. We too have our oldest church in Melaka (Church of St Peter), and an equally old church in Penang (Church of the Assumption). No doubt while these two churches lack the grandeur of those in Europe, they are still magnificent in their own ways.

In Malaysia, we have many churches built incorporating gothic architecture. High ceilings, roman columns, thick wooden arched doorways, bell towers, stained glass murals, statues of saints, crucifixes, spires, mostly built during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Some examples include Church of the Holy Rosary and Church of St Anthony, Kuala Lumpur; Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Klang; Church of the Visitation, Seremban and Church of St Aloysius, Mantin; Church of St Michael, Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, both in Ipoh and Church of St Joseph, Batu Gajah; Church of the Assumption and Church of the Immaculate Conception, Penang; Church of St Francis Xavier, Church of St Peter and Church of St Mary, Melaka; Church of the Immaculate Conception, Johor and perhaps more.

The second category of churches found in Malaysia are those with contemporary modern design, but with some aspect of gothic architecture. They have stained glass windows, high ceiling, modern façades, arched windows, open auditorium-style seating capacity, no pillars to block the view, great sound system and screen projection-friendly. Some have a bell tower or spire, to distinguish it from a normal commercial building. Many of these are built after the second half of the 20th century.

A third category of churches in Malaysia, especially those built in the past 20-30 years, are found in industrial locations, sometimes in commercial areas (shoplots or standalone buildings). They are mostly small, with limited car parks and limited seating capacity at the main worship area. Usually worshippers will be celebrating Mass via closed circuit television in adjacent rooms or adjacent building.

Due to the increasing population of Catholics in Malaysia, partly due to the influx of Catholics of other nationalities living in Malaysia, many churches embark on renovation, extension or new build projects. Renovations may include adding seating galleries upstairs, side extensions and adding adjacent buildings to accommodate the increasing number of church worshippers.

Installing LCD screens, television monitors and projection screens seems to be the in-thing in most, if not all the churches in Malaysia today. This is something I do not see a lot of in any of the churches in Europe. Many still expect its congregation to memorise their responses and hymns during Mass.

Moving forward, I foresee our future new churches in Malaysia mostly falling under the second or third category, modern, contemporary, and yet, unassuming from the outside, but practical, spacious and still retaining a prayerful and sacred atmosphere inside. It may no longer have the magnificent gothic design, or the fine sculptural door archways or the intricacies in the stained glass murals, as found in the European churches, but it will certainly have its crucifixes, crosses, statues of saints, shrines, grottoes and stained glasses inside.

In addition, most new churches require sufficient spaces to accommodate their catechism classes, parish community events and meetings, something I observe conspicuously absent in many of the European churches. Some churches have a “cry room”, a space in church where parents may attend Mass with their infants without disturbing the liturgy.

For now, our churches in Malaysia are still having a good crowd attending weekend Masses, and hopefully will return to pre-COVID-19 pandemic days of overflowing pews. We still see many young people in Church, but many are aging fast.
It will indeed be a sad day if ever our churches turn into tourist attractions, or become a building devoid of worshippers and devotees seeking solace, comfort and God. Hopefully, it will not happen in our life time.

(Richard Chia shares his experiences on the journey of the Church in Malaysia in the past forty years. Its challenges and achievements as it moves toward synodality)