VIII. The Abbey Church

(#22) The Church Ceiling

Those persons who come to the monastery frequently will usually have occasion to use the guest house, either to meet with one of the monks, to have a meal, perhaps to meet with members of a prayer or study group from a parish or student group. But the building that almost all visitors will see, once they have come through the gate house and glanced at the bookstore or the greenhouse, is the monastery church. Its central location, its accessibility, its handsome appearance, make it a logical attraction for sight-seeing. And, of course, if the visitor comes for spiritual reasons, this is the most logical place for prayer. All these external reasons for the church reflect an interior reality. The church is the most obvious symbol of man's relation to the Divinity, symbolic and actual locus for prayer and celebration; and the external centrality of this building reflects the basic orientation of the life being led here.

Architecture reflects lifestyle. It also furthers a particular lifestyle, a fact recognized in our day by city planners but realized centuries ago by monks. One modern scholar of architecture has noted that monks were actually among the first groups consciously to form their environment in order to further their chosen mode of life. Cistercians were especially gifted in this regard and were conscious of this function of art and architecture. Thus it will prove helpful to the visitor interested in grasping the nature of the Cistercian mode of life to consider in some detail the particulars of this church.

Cistercian spirituality has always centered in the reality of divine love, a love that could and would lead the monk to his ultimate aim of the union of the soul with God. Contemplative prayer was the monk's task, and his physical environment, especially the monastery church, should further this task, should be a workshop where meditation could proceed unhampered. The key to such an environment was simplicity. Imagery was deemed necessary for ordinary Christians, but the founders of the New Order found it both unnecessary and counterproductive for monastic spirituality. Thus in the monastery, the threshold of the spiritual vision, all images were omitted. The architecture was to be clean, stripped of unnecessary distractions, including figurative stained glass. Instead, the carefully proportioned spaces were decorated with simple, meaningful forms which stressed the orderliness of transcendent truths, and produced an atmosphere of calm. One of the main functions of Cistercian art and architecture has always been to discourage emotional, irrational reactions and to encourage a sense of composure, necessary predisposition to contemplative prayer.

(#23) Side view of the Holy Spirit abbey church and bell tower

In the course of the centuries the Order lost sight of many of these ideals and the Gethsemani abbey church, intended by Abbot Frederic as the prototype of the new foundation's church, did not fully reflect them. But beginning in the early twentieth century, and continuing very intensely during the decades preceding and following Vatican II, the Order was engaged in a profound examination of its original charism. The Conyers monastery was being formed precisely during this period of increasing recognition of the significance of the original Cistercian ideals as a workable basis for monastic life in the twentieth century. The construction of the church illustrates especially clearly that attitude basic to the whole development of the monastery of the Holy Spirit, the willingness to adapt tradition to meet new circumstances. As it now exists, this church is a successful blend of tradition and modernity, crystallization of the on-going tradition that is the vital force in modern Cistercian life.

The abbey church first planned by Dom Frederic for the new community was to be a copy of Gethsemani's, with the same floor plan, also of brick. But at first, the war effort prevented construction of "non-essential" buildings. Then brick was unavailable. Then funds were unavailable. And when some years later construction on a church seemed feasible, the Conyers community would make its own plans. A copy of Gethsemani was no longer envisaged. However, the plan adopted in the early 1950's, now of poured concrete rather than brick, was still in the traditional mold. An Atlanta architect specializing in tudor gothic churches was retained, and proposed structure was to have been a grandiose statement of Catholicism in rural Georgia.

Radical modifications developed during the building process, modifications which were reflections of the character of this particular community of monks. Concerned that the architect lacked insight into the nature of their life, the community worked to affect changes that would reflect their Cistercian lifestyle. They managed to avoid the intricate gothic detail-work of the blueprints by recourse to the fact that such intricate work required talented artisans, not available from within the monastery. More importantly, of course, the resultant clean linesdid express the Cistercian ideal as the architect's vision could not have done. The enormous height could be shown to be too dangerous for the monks to contend with. Thus in the course of construction the monks reduced by twenty feet the height of the vault projected by the architect. In this way they also avoided the ostentation associated with such impressiveness and which would have misrepresented the religious witness being lived by this community.

Modifications were further determined by the composition of the growing community. Conyers has among its members gifted men who had studied art history, architecture, sculpture before entering,a and their insights influenced the building process. Thus the final product was truly the result of the community's work and was a visual expression of its values.

The vital interaction of the original Cistercian ideals with the modern era appears especially clearly in the example of the glass work of the church. The life of the mid-twentieth century monks has spontaneously produced an artistic expression which combines the spirit and goals of both the thirteenth and twentieth centuries.

THE STAINED GLASS:
Possibly as early as 1134 and certainly by 1151 there were Cistercian statues proscribing the use of stained glass in their churches. In place of the figural, colored windows of that era, the monks developed Cistercian "grisaille," clear or white or gray-tinted glass with strictly geometric or stylized floral designs. These prohibitions were not primarily an economy measure, to insure poverty, but rather tied in with the attempt to create a physical environment in accord with, and capable of furthering, the Order's spiritual goal - contemplation. Instead of distracting the mind with images, the Cistercian imageless patterns would free the mind from obstacles to contemplation. Today one might say the grisaille functioned as mandalas, providing emblems and abstract forms for the monks' meditation.

(#24) View of the church side aisle

As in the case of the church itself, the community was able to find its own way, so that the resultant glass program clearly reflects the community's life. The financial situation required that if there was to be stained glass, the monks would have to make it themselves. One of their number learned the craft and taught the technique to fellow-monks. A basic plan was developed which was simple enough for non-artists to produce, so that several members of the community could become involved. Each window had a set number of pieces of each color, but the specific arrangement of the pieces was decided by the individual monk responsible for it, working a few hours a day over a period of weeks. In this way individual personalities found expression within a communal effort. And each windowdoes have its own character, a fact that becomes ever clearer the more one gazes on them. The windows thus shared in the unique Conyers experience of community; that is, the character of this monastic family is due in great part to the experience of building the whole complex from ground up with its own labor.

The visible results of the project suggest this community's part in the wider complex of Cistercian life through the centuries. For although the design of the windows appears to the casual visitor as "modern," and no doubt does reflect the taste of the nineteenth century grissaile glass is striking. The reliance on geometric patterns, a a restricted number of patterns repeated again and again throughout the church, produces the same effect as that intended by the grisaille - the windows are non-distracting, they calm, they predispose to contemplation.

Blues predominate in the nave, recalling the European cathedrals of the high middle ages and thus Conyers' participation in the continuity of the faith. The sanctuary, by contrast, is flooded with golden light due to the use there exclusively of white, yellow, orange, and red glass, but again with the same forms. The contrast focuses attention on the Eucharist within the tabernacle and on the daily concelebrated Mass as the central act of active worship.

(#25) Church Window at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit

The windows manifest the essence of the monastic community in yet another way. The dominant motif of the clerestory windows is a trapezoidal figure repeated over and over again in various shades of blue and rose. The source of this motif is found in theSalve (or Lady) window over the main altar, a work designed by an outside artist and executed by the monks before the other glass was planned. This window, an image of Our Lady holding the enthroned Christ Child and overshadowed by symbols of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, can therefore be seen as the artistic generator of the major stained glass program of the church. The color scheme of the whole church also relates to this window. As the worshipers eyes are drawn toward it, so too do the colors in the church progress toward it. Starting in the back, the western rose window echoes theSalve window's luminosity by its gems of red; the blues in the nave windows reflect it; in the transepts the high narrow windows join their reds and yellows to it; and the yellows and oranges are then joined to it in full array in the sanctuary.

Such repetition of basic simple motifs stands firmly in the Cistercian artistic tradition. Artistic practice here also proclaims a spiritual truth. Just as the Lady Window motif is related to the whole building, so too does the spiritual reality imaged there of the Mother of God, the Contemplator par excellence, permeate the life being led in the community. And the symbol of the Holy Spirit interpreted there in glass is affirmation of His action within this monastery whose members continue to be attentive to His guidance.

(#26) The monks gather in the church for Community Mass sanctuary