HELLO!

Many thanks to the Triple J’s! Jerry, Jim and June offered inspiring leadership to Woodlawn this morning. Here is the service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkrZHoHKM2o

One night, on a drive home from the church, I listened to the CBC Radio program Ideas, that focused on architect Frank Gehry. I have long been fascinated by architecture, I was mesmerized by the PBS series on Frank Lloyd Wright, the film “My Architect” which is a documentary about Louis Kahn by his son, and I once went on a walking tour of downtown Chicago, led by an architecture student. I know nothing about architecture except what I love and how images, shapes and landscape make me feel\think.

With a gift certificate I received for Christmas I bought a biography of Frank Gehry, by Paul Goldberger. I should add that Gehry only recently died. The author recounts how Gehry came to design the Guggenheim Museum in Spain, his remarkable structure of swirling titanium that changed a declining city into a destination spot. He also redesigned the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, a space I have explored. I am fascinated by Gehry’s long relationship with his psychiatrist and the impact it had on his work. What seems to have driven and animated Gehry was a vision of transcendence.  Gehry retained a childlike sense of wonder. His preliminary sketches were not the rigid stay-within-the-lines work of a confined, conventional adult mind. His drawings burst in all directions, not unlike a child who imagines possibilities that may not be achievable. “I would like to design a church or a synagogue,” Gehry said. “A place that has transcendence. I’ve always been interested in space that transcends to something — to joy, pleasure, understanding, discourse, to be part of the dialogue.” He never got that commission, though he was a finalist for the new Catholic cathedral in Los Angeles.

Some of you may remember the Sunday Jim Sykes worshipped with us at Woodlawn. Jim was the architect who designed many of the buildings on the Dalhousie campus. He and I had long conversations about architecture, often in his home, that he designed to make the inside resemble the outside. Jim wanted to be reminded of nature, the flooring was rock, there were boulders in living rooms, the walls were tree-like surfaces. Jim died in 2025. When we gathered at Brunswick Street United Church, a space he designed after their fire in 1979, I shared what Jim taught me about architecture. He believed living communities need living spaces. Jim believed we all yearn for transcendence. Peace, Kevin