New World Byzantine - The Work of Andrew Gould

The New Liturgical Movement occasionally makes forays into the East. Today they have an excellent article on Byzantine architecture in the United States - specifically that of architect Andrew Gould. What I find particularly wonderful about the article is that it highlights an Orthodox mission who is trying to construct a new church building that I visit every few months. See complete article here.

I have continually been impressed with the ability of our brethren in the Eastern Churches, both in communion with Rome and those tragically separated, to preserve their liturgical and artistic heritage in spite of the setbacks of the sixties. Even their more experimental designs, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's clever if outre Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, or the glass-walled Eastern Catholic church of St. Mary's in New York, partake in the tradition in their own way, more successfully than most of our own more modern western-rite parishes.

One large part of this lies in the more disciplined, formalized nature of the ancient Byzantine artistic tradition itself, as it has grown over the centuries. Such traditions should not be seen as frozen in time, or primitive, as they have their own share of richly-developed complexities. It is, however, specific to a certain cultural and liturgical framework. To adopt such a model outright for the West would deny our own local traditions (just as "Latinization" has been such a tragedy for the East), but at the same time, there is still much we can learn from the East in its respectful, careful, loving transmission of tradition from generation to generation, as well as the rich, complex growth of its iconographic system over the centuries...

Complete article here.