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Keeping Nature SacredBy Jon Lee Cope

Photos by Ted Tarquinio

St. Michael Church3705 Stone Lakes Drive

Architects: JRA Architects Mark E. Trier and Colin L.Drake

Cost: $9.5 million

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When the original St. Michael

Catholic Church openedin 1980, Jeersontown andthe land to its southeast

was a very dierent place. About 350 couldassemble at this country church, nestledamong armland, wood, lake and stream.

With the completion o the Gene SnyderFreeway in 1987, the population grew, andmembers o the congregation knew they

would have to grow with it.

In June a new St. Michael opened its doors.Te new church, yards rom the original, seatsup to 1,200 and, although down the road is aKroger and a Starbucks, you still eel as i youare in the country. Te parishioners on thechurch building committee set out to create aspace that honored the history o St. Michaelbut also reected the churchs roots, whichhold that nature is a door to the sacred.

We had to look to the uture but wanted

to evoke our history in Gods naturalbeauty, says Mary Rose Stephenson, oneo the committee members. Te group didits homework, visiting churches all overthe Midwest, and chose the rm o JRA

Architects (with ofces in Lexington andLouisville) when the team noticed architect

Colin Drake taking pictures o the suns

position on-site throughout the day. Weknew we had our man, says the Rev. DickSullivan, the parish priest.

Various woods walnut, European andAmerican beech, and cherry bring natureinto the edice. A white pine taken rom theconstruction site that held great meaningto the parishioners lives on as detail on thepulpit, Drake says. Stones rom the siteare interred in the church, reinorcing the

connection between the congregation and theland.Te churchs spherical shape comes rom

the ministrys logo, a tree with branches thatopen and welcome all. Inside, you eel thepower o these rounded pews, says architectMark rier. Te radiating softs and theoculus deithat spreads light around the altarand wing wells were designed to intensiy theeeling o a circle.

en-oot windows bring the outside in, andthe stained glass is the product o LouisvillesKenneth vonRoenn. Te clerestory is arainbow o color meant to reect Godspraise in Genesis chapter nine, when Noahnally landed. Te window o the archangelMichael is powerul, his shield becoming an

unexpected design element. Te shields orm

allowed us to reect the interior and exterior,shaping windows, pews, and the rames o theStations o the Cross by its curvature, riersays.

A new and brave idea, rarely used in aCatholic Church, results in the congregationentering the church rom behindthe altar. Itchanges how people become involved in theservice, rier says. And the congregationelt that they could bear a new standard.

Te ora-inspired baptismal ont by localblacksmith Craig Kaviar (see sidebar) greetsthose entering rom behind the altar. A smallraindrop o water delicately alls rom leato lea, and the ont itsel is recessed so asnot to detract rom the altar. Baptism is theentrance to our aith, Sullivan says. Weare reminded o that each time we enter thechurch.

In a letter to Archbishop Joseph Kurtz,

Mary Rose Stevenson spoke o the designprocess this way: We wanted to recognizeour beginnings and our history . . . and oursimple, rather rural roots.

Roots like a tree, planted by streams owater, as they say in the Psalms.