THE EASA AWARD
The new Altar has been well-received in the wider world.
Fr Keith was asked if he minded it being nominated for the EASA President's Award. EASA (Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors' Association) is a learned society which spans the United Kingdom, and the Award is given for an exceptional example of re-ordering. It is not necessarily given every year.
He could scarcely have imagined that only days later he would be invited, together with Antony Feltham King the architect, and David Gazeley the designer, to the presentation of the Award in the great hall of Westminster Cathedral. (This is the room where the cardinal archbishops lie in state).
Receiving the Award was, Fr Keith said, a bit like receiving an Oscar, and in his short speech he was able to thank the key participants, especially the congregation at St Martin’s which had influenced the design at every stage. He gave examples of how this had happened.
He also explained how the congregation had avoided the "argument" so often found in post-conciliar re-orderings between more than one altar on the same axis. Sometimes the argument takes the form of “which is the greatest”, and the visual greatest is generally not the one actually in use! The other form of the argument is that each altar seems to be saying "I am nothing whatever to do with that one!", which is, of course, not strictly true. Either way there is something profoundly unsettling for the worshipper or visitor in most instances of such arrangements, and this has been avoided that completely.
Fr Keith also said that he thought what had been done was a bold and confident expression of the Eucharistic faith of the present worshipping community, a faith entirely in accord with that of the builders of the thirteenth century chancel.
