c. 1999 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ The day last August that Central Synagogue went up in flames Rabbi Peter Rubinstein rushed to the burning Manhattan landmark and broke into tears. Virtually the next thing he did was call Richard Vosko.

Rubinstein knew Vosko would be just as important to the rebuilding effort as the architect and construction crews.

A Roman Catholic priest, religious philosopher, and architectural designer, Vosko has created a unique niche in religious architecture as a”sacred space consultant.”It’s a tiny profession.”He brings a special knowledge and eye as an expert in restoration and in churches and synagogues,”said Rubinstein.

Using his rare combination of professional, religious and academic credentials, Vosko assists congregations of all sizes in designing worship spaces for the future: from small country churches interested in expanding, to sensitive historic restoration projects, to cities planning major cathedrals.

Vosko currently is overseeing the restoration of San Antonio’s San Fernando Cathedral, the oldest in the nation, and is working with the Los Angeles Archdiocese in its efforts to construct a new, multimillion dollar, 3,000-seat cathedral scheduled to be finished in 2001.

On a much smaller scale, Vosko recommended that a Paducah, Ky., congregation base its church design on the region’s tobacco barns, allowing the modern building to blend into the landscape.

Vosko, 55, describes his role as part communicator, part bridge-builder, helping congregations formulate and then answer critical questions about what kind of space they want to worship in.

What should the lighting look like? The stained glass designs? The altar? The baptismal font? How should pews be arranged in relation to the altar?”Architecture shapes the way we worship,”said Vosko.”Buildings are not just museums or containers for religious symbols, they are living organisms.” At Central Synagogue the mission was to resuscitate a badly damaged structure.

The August 27 fire caused the central section of the 128-year-old building’s roof to cave in. The bema _ the podium at which the Torah is read _ the ark, and the ornate wall stenciling were spared, but most of the pews and the organ were crushed.

Designed in a Moorish style by the Prussian-born Jewish architect Henry Feinbach, Central Synagogue is believed to be New York City’s oldest continuously used Jewish house of worship. Last year’s tragedy struck near the completion of a major restoration project.”The congregation wanted to restore it exactly as it was before the fire. So I asked them, how can we move forward at the same time?”said Vosko.”I hope to challenge their assumptions, to see things in new ways and make connections between the past and the present.” Vosko, who was ordained in 1969, joined the Albany diocese where he was active in its architectural building committee, drafting guidelines for new churches in post-Vatican II era.”The major reforms of the Second Vatican Council created an instant marketplace,”he said.”No longer was it what the priest did for the people, with an audience and a stage. Worship was an act of the people. The language changed, the music and the spaces changed.” For instance he said, consider how altar tables have shifted to the center of the church.”Now it’s in the midst of assembly seating around the table,”he said.”There are similarities in the Jewish tradition with the bema which has also moved.” In the mid-1990s Vosko tackled a nagging problem at St. James Cathedral in Seattle.”It was a city block long, where the altar was 60 feet from first row,”he said,”In the `cheap seats’ you couldn’t even see the altar.” Vosko came up with a plan to move the altar to the center of the space while maintaining the building’s symmetry.”Now no one is more than 60 feet away and 1,000 people can gather around the altar,”he said.

Vosko earned a master’s degree from Notre Dame in liturgics _ the study of worship rituals and how people engage in them _ and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University.

He also received a doctorate from Syracuse, writing his dissertation on how the built environment affects adult behavior patterns. In 1978 Vosko got permission from his bishop to make architectural consulting his ministry. As far as he knows he’s the only Roman Catholic priest with such a ministry.

In Central Synagogue and elsewhere he tries to create more welcoming houses of worship that appeal to the widest range of worshippers. “We need to reach out to an alienated generation turned off by structure, so it’s more than cosmetic,”he said.

Vosko’s innovative ideas have won him numerous awards and landed him a place in the forefront of an international discussion on the future of worship spaces. He teaches, writes and speaks on issues in religious design around the world.

Religious architecture is likely to be even more meaningful in the new century, said Vosko, especially as mainline churches stagnate and the growth of the so-called”mega-church”movement _ with its warehouse-style buildings _ explodes.”There’s an anxiousness about the millennium in the economy, in government,”he said.”At the same time there’s a search for spirituality, a longing to tell stories, to keep religious tradition alive with steeples, menorahs and incense.” It’s more than a century of Jewish tradition that Vosko is striving to protect at Central Synagogue, yet at the same time create a space for future generations of worshippers.”From the music to the congregation to the pulpit, what was appropriate in 1870 is not anymore,”said Rubinstein.”The world has changed, the way people express their need to worship has changed. It would be irresponsible to give the 21st century a 19th-century worship space.” Toward that end, Vosko has held regular meetings with congregants, asking them what they liked and disliked about the old synagogue. As they talked, members began to think more clearly about the place where they worshipped every week, said Maureen Cogan, chairwoman of the restoration committee.”He gave us a framework for discussion,”she said.”Some said they wished they could see better in the balconies _ the lighting isn’t so good.” They also asked for better climate control, more comfortable seats, and suggested removing the obsolete Victorian-era hat racks and steps to the pews that posed a hazard for older congregants.”We want our synagogue to look as it did, but function for the next century,”Cogan said.

DEA END WORDEN