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Lights, camera, pediment

St. Paul's illuminated pediment

Rev. Laura Everett photographed the Cathedral Church of St. Paul on Tremont Street after it turned on its new nautilus pediment for the first time tonight.

More on the project.

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Comments

And the church continues its long march into irrelevancy with crap like this. Could have have the representation of St. Paul planned over a century ago completed and continued with a centuries old tradition reaffirming the church's character. Instead we get this exceptional cheap and tacky new age semi-Pagan crap screaming "PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!!"

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Truly ghastly. A new low from the once-esteemed Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

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amirite

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Of how sometimes people only remember the last thing you say.

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how appropriate. they score style points.

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No, not Fibonacci.

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...no, in fact it isn't, but the decision to initiate the thing on that particular date is likely related to its appearance of being like the famous spiraling shell design frequently invoked when talking about Fibonacci sequences in nature. Yes, this was discussed I think on the last posting about this pediment and a bunch of people whose free-time is spent picking nylon-spandex weaves from between their butt cheeks got all uppity about everything -- representations of Christianity, fucking stinky homeless people, the lack of stachoos, the causes of the split of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church and of course the fact that nautilus shells are not perfect examples of a Fibonacci sequence. Jumpin Jesus, this is why we can't have nice things!! (Or even talk about them.)

Lawyers, engineers and anal internet-posting drones -- put em all on the 3rd space ark and send em out early.

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Looks cool......but too bad that place is the meeting place for Boston's homeless elite. Broke beggars who litter in the park like its their job.
They should just convert it to a human-shield recruiting center....

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Those who actually put in to practice what they read about the teachings of the one they follow call them "the least of these".

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I mean really, what did Christ ever say about the homeless, poor and those who are "persecuted for righteousness' sake". Pity a church should pay any attention to those kinds of people.

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Looks like something tacky you'd see in Vegas. Bleh.

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I really like it! Don't drink the haterade.

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How can I have missed that this was going to light up! I take it all back, it is tacky and misguided afterall. I walked by yesterday and I did think the execution wasn't very good--when I saw it last week I thought there was more work to be done but apparently this is it.

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I'm glad I reserved judgement before, because it looked really freakin' awful during the day. But this just looks awesome! I'm glad it's not a total loss... if only we can do something about it's daylight appearance...

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It is their building, so I'd have to say they've succeeded wonderfully. It's utterly free of any taint of Jesus Christ.

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You knew the guy, personally I take it?

If you think this is flashy, you ain't seen nothing. Go by one of those Megachurches in the Southwest sometime! Remember the former Touchdown Jesus, too?

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I think the commenter was trying to say hate on the fact that it's not an ostentatious Christian symbol. Perhaps it's different in the Southwest, but being a bona fide (if part-time) resident of the Midwest now, what I usually see on megachurches are giant, spot-lit crosses doing their best to blind you as you drive past them on the interstate at night.

That said, I think the nautilus pediment is something I liked better in theory than in execution. It does look kinda plastic as it stands. I guess I was envisioning something that looked like the inside of a shell - sort of pearl-y and soft, maybe with a curve to it to emulate its subject. Instead it just looks like flat blue plastic with a plastic design on it.

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No, it's not any Christian symbol. And that's why they like it.

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I kind of like the blue nautilus pediment on it's own, but it doesn't match the building at all, which has sort of a run down (but not unappealing) patina to it.

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God forbid we do anything different in this town.

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Under the shell, it says "The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul" in papyrus? Seriously, who picked that out?

Also does anyone know where in the Bible Jesus mentions a shell? Where anyone mentions a shell period?

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The King james version (and those that followed it) translated οστρακινοις σκευεσιν as "earthen vessles" but in fact it literally means "container made of shell":

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 King James Version

6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

*****

Also, the font is not papyrus. If you're into typographic outrage, you should get a few good reference books and some on the history of typography, with a accent on its cultural influences. I recommend Ruder's Typographie and Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style.

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Oh snappeth.

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Falls way short of the artist's renderings.

A simple, clean, almost minimalist design like that requires flawless execution, which, unfortunately, didn't happen in this case.

I am particularly bothered by that long skinny rectangle inset into the background, right at the base, above the middle two columns. Really draws the eye away from the nautilus design by day or by night.

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