NYC – What’s up at Our Saviour Church where Fr. Rutler used to be pastor?
I have received word that some demolition is going on at the church where Fr. George Rutler used to be pastor, Our Saviour.
As you may know, Fr. Rutler was – in a move that surprised many – transferred not too long ago from Our Saviour on Park Avenue to St. Michael’s in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen and was also made administrator of Holy Innocents in the Garment District.
In any event, I am told that the new pastor at Our Saviour, Fr. Robbins, is having the altar rail torn out and has already removed iconic artwork from the sanctuary.
This is what Our Savior looked like before:
And this is what it looks like today… I really do mean today, literally:
Look. I understand that each pastor of a parish wants to be able to make adjustments, even improvements. But I don’t get this. Is it that he wants to restore the church to what it looked like before the Eastern style art was introduced? I suppose there is some sense in that sort of project, returning a building to the original intent. The artwork, added by Fr. Rutler, can only have been in place for about a dozen years, max, since that was the length of his term. I doubt that that is what is going on here, especially given the news that the Communion rail is slated for destruction. The rail has always been there and to destroy it is ideological, and not restoration at all.
It seems to me that this is a modern example of iconoclasm.
If the iconic work around the sanctuary’s triumphal arch has been effaced, how long can the work in the apse survive?
What’s going on there? Is this “Get Rutler!” time in NYC? Deface Rutler’s work at Our Saviour? Slate St. Michael’s and Holy Innocents for closure a year after he arrives? By next year he’ll be pastor of a cardboard box over a grate near the Hudson.
