“Church Restoration and Renovation in our Age of Natural Disasters”
The March ACLS Webinar is Tuesday March 15. It is broadcast live at 1:00 pm ET (12 pm CT, 11:00 am MT, 10:00 am PT). The registration link is below.
A whole different array of issues arises when not only is the church building damaged, but the community is dispersed. I will use the parish of St. Gabriel in New Orleans as a case study. The church flooded in Hurricane Katrina, with 11′ of water inside the building. The entire area of Gentilly where the church is located was left uninhabitable. Still today there are houses with blue tarps on the roof, and incomplete rebuilding efforts still underway.
So what are some of the issues with which you may have to contend?
1) Where are our people? How do we find them? Are they coming back? Do we know when?
2) What opportunities do we have re renovation?
3) What kind of financial support does the parish have? From the diocese? Where will money come from? Go Fund Me efforts?
4) What can the role of volunteer labor be? Where might it come from?
5) Can we trust that “If we build it, they will come?”
Marchita Mauck retired from Louisiana State University as Associate Dean and Professor of Art History in the College of Art and Design. She earned a Master’s degree and PH.D in Medieval Studies at Tulane University, and studied for a year at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and a year at the University of Munich. She also earned a Master’s degree in Liturgy at Notre Dame University. For a number of summers she was a visiting professor in the Theology Department’s summer graduate Liturgy program at Notre Dame University, and in the program for Liturgical Consultants at CTU in Chicago. She also served as a visiting professor for a semester at the Yale Divinity School. She has participated as a liturgical design consultant for numerous new and renovation projects throughout the US, some of them winning national and international design awards. She presently is working on a new university chapel project for Loyola University in New Orleans, and teaches a course each semester for LSU.
Marchita Mauck retired from Louisiana State University as Associate Dean and Professor of Art History in the College of Art and Design. She earned a Master’s degree and PH.D in Medieval Studies at Tulane University, and studied for a year at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and a year at the University of Munich. She also earned a Master’s degree in Liturgy at Notre Dame University. For a number of summers she was a visiting professor in the Theology Department’s summer graduate Liturgy program at Notre Dame University, and in the program for Liturgical Consultants at CTU in Chicago. She also served as a visiting professor for a semester at the Yale Divinity School. She has participated as a liturgical design consultant for numerous new and renovation projects throughout the US, some of them winning national and international design awards. She presently is working on a new university chapel project for Loyola University in New Orleans, and teaches a course each semester for LSU.