A TYPOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE Y.B. MANGUNWIJAYA’S URBAN CHURCH

As the iconic buildings in Yogyakarta, the Mangunwijaya’s churches contribute a great influence on the city. His wisdom is not only written in his books, but also has been implemented through his architectural projects, revealing a specific composition of a spiritual language. A qualitative study is used to reveal Mangunwijaya’s architectural principles, by using the tracing method to highlight the structural elements of his urban churches. A typological investigation is accompanied by retracing Mangunwijaya’s drawing, where its spatial composition and form are emphasized through points and lines. Hence, by eliminating decorative elements, the most fundamental components of the churches can be raised, consisting: 1) The roof as the most dominant element, a volume that suggests the openness of the building; 2) Landscape defines a mutual symbiosis between indoor and outdoor, stimulating communication and gesture; 3) A typological composition that respects a Roman-Catholic church’s principles while revealing a local identity.

Exclusion in Upscaling Institutions: The Reproduction of Neighborhood Segregation in an Urban Church

This paper examines the intersection of neighborhood change and parish reconfiguration in Charlestown, MA. The merger of two Roman Catholic churches has unsettled the congregational cultures, just as gentrification is unsettling broader neighborhood dynamics. Based on findings from 28 in–depth interviews and participant–observation, I examine the spatial reproduction of neighborhood segregation in the sanctuary of St. Mary's church. Affluent newcomers and “Townies”–stalwart residents who have weathered earlier waves of neighborhood upscaling–form power alliances that result in the exclusion of the poorest residents in the shared space of this urban church. By paying attention to the seating arrangements and other social interactions of churchgoers, I discover that the new parish vision of the merged church–albeit one that purported to celebrate the diverse residents of the neighborhood–resulted in the cultural exclusion of Latinos. Institutional decisions, the desire to maintain ethnic enclaves, and tacit messages of group exclusion reify the race and class divisions of the neighborhood within the walls of the church. I conclude with an exploration of the strategies of resilience to gentrification and merger evident in this case by attending to the actions of the disadvantaged in relation to the changing institution.

Finding Still Waters and Green Pastures: Understanding and Reducing Stress in Urban Church Planting

The work of urban church planters is often hindered by high levels of stress. Stress may be viewed as a process that involves stressors and an individual’s perceptions of both the level of threat and his or her ability to deal with the threat. The long term and the short term consequences of stress can be attenuated through appropriate coping strategies such as problem solving, prayer, and seeking social support. Recent empirical evidence indicates that exposure to nature is also very effective, a strategy that might be especially beneficial to urban church planters and their ministries. Several practical applications are suggested.

‘I might be wrong’

For about ten years (1998-2008), Kester Brewin was one of the principal instigators of the Vaux community, a ‘vehicle for exploring radical theological thought and practice’. From these experiences and events, he wrote The Complex Christ: Signs of Emergence in the Urban Church (2004). Since then he moved on as a blogger, columnist, tedx-er, and writer. In 2016 he published Getting High: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the Dream of Flight with Vaux Publishing. Getting High is a fascinating reflection on an era dominated by the flight of technology (from the 1960s on), substituting for the eternal longing for the ultimate. But it is also a moving introspection into Brewin’s own life. Being the son of a preacher man, he was getting high on evangelical ecstasy as a young adult, before he became one of the influential figures in the emerging church movement. He ended up, however, ‘outside of what would be taken as orthodox belief.’ This paper discusses Kester Brewin’s ‘piratic’ thoughts on the church, based on his books, blogs, and columns. How did his ‘theological’ thinking evolve, and what does it mean for ecclesiology?