BEGNOCHE: Art, faith and history intertwined at a rural church | Opinion

Both represent a rebirth, a renewal, hope for better times and a better life ahead.

The dark days of winter have passed. The long days of light are at hand.

Nor is it an accident that arts and religions have long been intertwined in many faiths. (The UMC of Ludington last week just unveiled a new welcoming coffee area in its Bryant Road building that includes art by local artists including a commissioned painting from Mary Case.)

I thought about this as I sat down to write with a PBS program about architecture and faith on in the background. The show touched on the many facets of church architecture, stained glass, bell towers and more and how they were used by different faiths, different denominations of the same faith, and in different times.

Earlier in the evening, I was astounded to see St. Joseph Catholic Church in Oceana County’s Weare Township for the first time. Set on a rural intersection of 88th Avenue and West Jackson Road, the church stands out amidst a sea of agricultural fields. Its about four-story tall steeple rises from the bell tower as startingly as a skyscraper alone in a desert might.

Another art form, music, brought me and about 200 others to the church. The West Shore Community College Concert Choir and the bell and chancel choirs of the United Methodist Church of Ludington were presenting a Lenten concert. My wife has been ringing with the bell choir this winter so I tagged along, also with plans to photograph the concert for the paper.

Becky Sopha, director of the WSCC concert and UMC chancel choirs, has long praised the acoustics of the church, but I hadn’t experienced them until Monday. That’s been my loss – and yours if you never been inside this beautiful church.

The parish started about 1857 and the current building dates back to about 1909, according to a parishioner. The German farm community it served had large families. Look around the area, the parishioner said, and note all the old large barns still standing – some barely. (I had prior to the concert and plan to return for more viewing later.) He said many represent the former home of a family with as many as 10 children. It doesn’t take that many families of that size to fill a church, he said.

I am not the first to be wowed by this place of worship.

A Fr. Michael Martin of Grand Rapids wrote an explanation of the interior architecture after switching places for a week with a former pastor there. His full description is on the church’s website.

“Stained glass windows in Church art and architecture not only create an atmosphere for worship, they also weave a multifaceted story for future generations about a people of faith, regarding values held sacred, memories treasured, and people and events that need to remembered,” Fr. Martin wrote.

“St. Joseph’s Church … tells the story of predominantly German immigrant community who had come a long distance, bringing with them treasured memories and life-giving stories. These people needed great strength to survive in a tough wilderness, and the church they built exhibits the stories told and retold that formed much of their source of that strength.”

He states the building tells three stories in addition to the religious ones the art represents. The stories are of its natural beauty, of its orderliness and of equality in the sexes that not many churches had then.

More stories of faith are told in its windows, in its crucifix, in its altar and in its reredos – the back screen of the altar intended to draw attention to what happens on the altar where the sacrament of communion is prepared.

The music of the night also told stories and exemplified art as part of a sacred tradition.

“When we sing, we pray twice,” Father Phil Sliwinski said in introducing the concert.

The music could soothe a soul – or perhaps stir one.

Throughout time and across cultures, music, art, stories and architecture have had spiritual significance in cultures of many peoples and spiritual traditions.

Is that a coincidence? Is it a sign there is more to life than what some contend?

I know that during our troubled time, this beautiful church with amazing acoustics filled with beautiful music of voices, bells and keyboards glowed as bright as the light of the setting sun that fired up the west-facing stained glass windows as the day gave way to evening.

I hope you find something in your life that blazes in your spirit or soul with such stunning beauty and hope.