I should explain to any visitors that we have this morning that every few years this congregation has debated the idea of building an additional room for worship. The original plan called for us to build in three stages: this auditorium and classrooms, which was completed in 1958; a chapel wing, which was completed in 1963; and a sanctuary wing, which has not yet been built. There are two reasons why we have never built the sanctuary. The first reason is that this room was and is a big success. The second reason is the cost of building a sanctuary. The last time we got an estimate on building the original plan was in 1989, and the cost 13 years ago was estimated to be 2.4 million dollars. I am sure construction costs have gone down in the last 13 years, but still 2.4 million is a lot of money.

About a month ago I invited the congregation to write me letters on the subject of this worship space and the question of whether we should build another room in which to worship. I received over twenty letters. Most of the letter writers are very happy with this worship space.

"The big attraction for us was the trees."

"The worship space is beautiful, the views out the sides fantastic, and the room sufficiently large for the number who attend each service."

"Over the years the space has been made sacred to us by memories of attending Sunday Services, square dances, Thanksgiving dinners, Youth Group dinner productions, Alliance Luncheons, memorial services, and even a daughter’s wedding and reception."

"I love the sanctuary we have. Also I like the fact that it can and does serve many other purposes."

"What fulfills me is being in a room of like minded liberals who have spent their week making the lives of those less fortunate better, using whatever gifts they may have been given or developed."

"From the day I started attending Cedar Lane services over 43 years ago, I have regarded the room—with its bank of windows on each side overlooking our magnificent grounds—as an ideal setting for a meaningful spiritual experience."

"A sanctuary is defined as a place of safety and of worship. I’ve felt that the whole church was a sanctuary."

"Our building is Unitarian presenting itself simply and dignified in its natural setting."

"The Auditorium has been my sanctuary, my place of rest and reflection."

"The nature views through walls of glass on either side are calming."

Some people supported the idea of making changes to this space. One person wrote: "We could spend some money to improve our current space by pushing the stage wing back far enough that no one ever has to sit under the balcony."

A couple wrote that we could spruce "up the present space (perhaps with carpeting and more comfortable chairs) . . ."

And some people indicated support for building a new Sanctuary. One man said that he preferred a Sanctuary because he would like to see a dedicated space for worship and associated rituals such as marriages, funerals, and memorials."

Another wrote that he is "for building a new sanctuary because it will increase the flexibility of church space use and it will provide a dedicated, ‘spiritually’ meaningful place in which the congregation will gather."

Another couple wrote, "We believe Cedar Lane should build a Sanctuary to complete our beautiful church more or less as the Italian architect planned in the original design. Our church needs to go forward. The Unitarian church has an important role to play in our nation, which it is not adequately filling. It needs to grow. It needs to make known what it is, what it has to offer; that it warmly welcomes and trusts individuals to follow honestly their own search for truth and the meaning of life and existence. It needs to broaden and strengthen its rational voice in the national and international matters in a constructive and effective manner. . . we most strongly support the building of the sanctuary."

A woman wrote: "I am for it. Our RE classes are maxed. We pay big bucks to rent the Marriott for an all church meal. It is painful to do the quick resets of chairs we have to make for the auction and other events that are logistically tight. The demographic program we have from the Joseph Priestly District shows that potential members are in our area to be tapped."

And another person said: "I have heard for years the frustration that because the auditorium is our only large space, it is overused, hard to program, and hard to schedule. Therefore, if we had a separate sanctuary, it would allow us to do much more with the auditorium."

Of course, the letters were much longer than the passages that I have just quoted. The letters are thoughtful, and as I read them I saw wisdom in all the points that everyone made.

We have a Worship Space Options Committee that has been at work for over a year. They have been authorized by the Board to spend forty thousand dollars on an Architect in February who will present us with a report.

The first option is to do no new construction. [This does not mean we will do nothing. We are constantly doing maintenance to this room.. This past summer Ed Carlson replaced all the broken windows in this room, and we had the floor in the entrance way covered with tile.]

The second is to make improvements in this room, our current worship space.

The third option is to construct a new worship space adjacent to the west side of the church.

The fourth option is to remodel the present multi-purpose space into our permanent worship space, and construct a suitably sized multi-purpose space between the church and Cedar Lane.

The committee hopes that you will remain open minded and be willing to look seriously at all four possibilities next February or whenever the architect’s report is completed. Each of us here today has opinions about worship space, but if we were asked to vote on these four options today, it would be impossible to make an educated decision. We do not know, for example, what changes might be made to this room if we voted for the second option, to make improvements to our current worship space. We don’t know how much such changes might cost. Next spring with the report in hand we will have a much better idea of the choices before us.

I too plan to keep an open mind. However, I do have a preference, which I have never tried to keep a secret.

I dream that this congregation will some day build a Sanctuary. In my dream this sanctuary will not be the Cadillac or Mercedes Benz of worship spaces, but more in the tradition of a simple Quaker meeting house. In my dream of a sanctuary for Cedar Lane, I see walls and ceilings made of wood. In my dream I hear the organ play and the choir sing, and the acoustics in the room are outstanding. The room is big enough to seat about three hundred and fifty people, including the choir. On an occasional Sunday there is enough room to include the children as part of the worship service so that families can worship together, and there is still room for all the other adults who do not have children. The seating is comfortable. In my imagination I see windows looking out on a forest of trees. These windows make the sanctuary a holy space. The windows give me a feeling of serenity and peace, a feeling that I am in the presence of the holy. Behind the simple wooden, adjustable pulpit, hangs a quilt designed and quilted by the congregation. Adjacent to the pulpit is a chalice and a beautiful flower display. Sometimes in my dream there is a stone fireplace on one wall of the sanctuary. On cold winter Sundays mornings and on Christmas Eve there is a small wood fire.

In my dream the congregation is smiling and at peace, in part because they helped build this sanctuary, in the same way that they helped build the Education Center and Memory Garden. Having participated in the construction, they feel a special joy and pride in what they have done. They are deeply satisfied that in building the sanctuary, they have created a special worship space for the generations that will come after them.. They know that their children will associate the sanctuary with them, long after they are gone.

In my imagination the congregation is also smiling because they were able to raise two thirds of the cost of the sanctuary and finance the remaining third.

Some argue that we should spend the money it will cost to build a sanctuary on social action. I certainly agree that we should support the social action causes that we each feel strongly about. I believe that to fully live we need to do both; we should help others as we can, and we should also create art and enjoy the art created by others. Friedrich Nietzsche argued for the importance of art in his 1871 essay called The Birth of Tragedy. He asked, "Given the pain and suffering of life, what is the purpose of living?" Nietzsche’s answer was that art constituted the essential activity of human beings. Human existence can only be justified in aesthetic terms. We should not look on music or theater or the visual arts as a mere diversion, but as the highest human task.

Martin Buber wrote in his 1951 essay Distance and Relation that it is our ability to create things that have no real survival function that makes us human. He wrote, "let us think of a tribe which is close to nature, and which already knows the axe, a simple but reliable stone-axe. Then it occurs to a lad to scratch a curved line on his axe with the aid of a sharper stone. This is a picture . . ." This first act of drawing a picture on an axe or on the wall of a cave was the first act of creation, that separated humans from the rest of the animal world.

Today we continue in this special human practice each time we paint a picture or sing a song, or help to build a beautiful building. Yes, we help the poor and the hungry and the homeless by supporting community ministry, and Action in Montgomery County. But we also pay attention to the creative aspects of life. We help make a quilt in our church quilting group, or we sing in the choir, or we participate in Cedar Lane stage, or we take photographs or write poetry.

Helping build a beautiful space is another form of creative, artistic activity. This is why I enjoyed helping work on the creation of the Education Center and the Memory Garden in 1998. It is why I will enjoy the process of looking again at our buildings and deciding if the time has come to build a sanctuary or to do something else to this space. I do not know what we will eventually decide, but I feel excitement as we begin to seriously consider our options again. A discussion about our building can lead to important discussions about our purpose as a church. It can cause us to think again about the reasons for our existence.

An Anglican minister, Quentin Morrow, wrote:

The Church building is important to us because it elevates us to the infinite. For most of the week we are occupied by the mundane, the ordinary, the earthbound: mortgage payments; the transmission that needs repair; the kids’ runny noses; the next door neighbor’s dog that barked all night. But one day a week we gather in a place that transcends the everyday, and transports us from the finite to the infinite. Going to...[church]... is not like going to the garage, the grocery store, or the local saloon. The Church building, by its very nature, points our often limited vision away from the ordinary to the transcendent.

A beautiful church can be both an expression of and a stimulant for our highest creative endeavors.

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4099
Tel: 301-493-8300    Fax: 301-897-5713
e-mail: office@CedarLane.org
Sunday Services at 10 a.m.
© 1998-2008, Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
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