ORNATE HISTORY A THING OF THE PAST

Magnificent grandeur is well evident inside Old St. Vincent's Church in Cape Girardeau.

The steeple of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau reached upward as the sun set.A drive-through canopy accents the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, which was built recently at the northern edge of Cape Girardeau.

Does a church need a steeple?

How about stained-glass windows?

Statuary?

Immersion-style baptistery?

An elaborate, ornate pipe organ?

Church designs are changing.

During the past half-century, there has been a surge of construction of churches that often resemble commercial or factory buildings. These concrete boxes, barn-like shelters and sculptural masses have been experimented with since the late 19th century.

Looking at churches throughout Southeast Missouri, and America, people can see modest chapels, cathedrals of grandeur, simple meeting houses, Gothic worship spaces and contemporary churches.

Few people, however, would have any difficulty identifying a church. Most will have some distinguishing look, identifying it as a place of worship.

"A lot of churches are going to more contemporary style," said Ron Grojean, of Grojean Architects, 601 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau. "Some are going without steeples and a few are omitting stained-glass windows."

Two of the biggest changes noticed by Grojean architects who design churches in a 25-state area are the increased use of more sound equipment and lighting, and lower ceilings.

"Almost every church sanctuary will have sound and lighting-control booths," said Grojean. "Many of the churches now put on Easter, Christmas and song production programs."

"At one time, most churches had tall ceilings," he said. "Many are going with lower ceilings now."

Statuary icon is still predominate in many areas, he added.

Grojean's "Zion Architect" Division designs and builds as many as 50 new churches or additions a year, ranging from $100,000 additions to multimillion-dollar buildings.

At one time, the majority of churches had steeples.

The legend goes that clock and watches were almost nonexistent, or too expensive to own, when Christianity became legal. Christians wanted to worship at different times of the day, so it became necessary to develop some means of announcing the time of worship to the public.

Church buildings acquired bell towers, or steeples with bells, to let the people know when services were about to begin.

The steeples became decorative, and towering steeples can be found at many churches, even new ones.

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, now Old St. Vincent's Church in downtown Cape Girardeau, has its fourth tower.

The historic church is a unique local example of English Perpendicular Gothic Revival architecture. It was designed by noted Missouri architect, Thomas W. Walsh, and has served as a center of religious activity in Cape Girardeau for more than 150 years.

The first church, primarily of stone construction, was destroyed by a tornado in 1850. The present church was constructed over the foundation of the old church in 1853, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places .

A church at Newport, R.I., was the first to have a steeple in the United States.

The idea of new church configurations of the recent half century, to model churches more for hearing than for spiritual beliefs, grew out of low church attendance. In recent years, all denominations have been losing members.

Many churches have been stripped of statuary, paintings and traditional systems, and remodeled into "meeting houses."

At one time in religious history, believers met in each others' homes. As more freedom of religion evolved, the era of statuesque buildings, with images, symbols, paintings, tabernacles, giant and luxurious altars, emerged. Gothic and Renaissance churches were established, complete with ornamental moldings, and sculptures, and many of those churches retain their elegant designs, inside and out.

All religions have sacred places or buildings. The Greeks expressed their instinct for worship in the Parthenon; the Romans built the Pantheon. Ancient Egyptian temples resembled the human body (with two entrances feet positioned non-symmetrically to resemble walking). God-worshipers from biblical times had sacred mountains with gates.

Christian buildings have an interesting history. The early Christians had no formal worship space for three centuries. Worshipers met in homes, public halls, hidden rooms or in open places.

Christians started to build symbolic homes for God, whose Son had no place to lay his head. Many denominations and sects begin this way: The younger the group, the simpler the architecture. The buildings became more and more ornate, culminating in the great medieval cathedrals.

The cathedrals had no pews; the people milled about during worship. The space was used for many purposes during the week: Market sales, evening plays, town meetings, shelter for wayfaring shepherds and their sheep.

Religious history tells us that one group designed church-buildings differently, moving both the pulpit and communion table out of the chancel and into the nave, where the people were. At first they had no pews either; people would cluster around the pulpit to hear the sermon or the table to receive communion. Later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, pews became standard furniture. Congregations became spectators rather than participators.

One assistant professor of theology said there was no blueprint for churches of any faith. "Jesus never told us what a church looks like," he said. "That gives us a certain latitude."

Today, there are groups of skilled handymen and builders who will put up a church building in two days, or a week.

This has happened in Cape Girardeau County on occasion, at Jackson and at Cape Girardeau. The most recent occasion came in November when a group of volunteer builders converged on Cape Girardeau to build the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.

About 300 workers spent the Thanksgiving weekend on the construction of a Kingdom Hall, complete with carpeting, wallpaper and landscaping.

This same volunteer group has helped in the construction of 70 church facilities in the Southeast Missouri.

Not all congregations have a place to meet.

Many churches without their own facilities meet for worship every Sunday in diverse places such as schools, skating rinks, malls, even fast-food restaurants.

But, the members expect the necessities of church furnishings for nurseries, lighting and sound equipment, musical equipment, portable pulpit, etc.

Thus, each Sunday a crew packs up everything needed for services and programs, and delivers it to the site of service about a 90-minute chore.