Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts)
by Thomas Farragher
Sunday, July 26, 1998, page B1
Despite doubt, Orleans group builds place of worship
ORLEANS— Passions have cooled, a court-room fight has been settled, and now in picturesque Rock Harbor, the sounds of protest have given way to the clatter of carpenters bringing a touch of old-world Europe to Cape Cod Bay.
Here, across from a charter fishing fleet and a popular vista for sunset-watchers, an 11,000-square-foot limestone church is taking shape, built by a nondenominational Christian group that is modeling its $9 million home after the great stone cathedrals of Italy and France.
“Actually, it just kind of takes my breath away when I see the walls going up,” said Chris Kanaga, the project manager and a member of the Community of Jesus for 15 years. “We’re from all denominations here, so it’s exciting for me to have a place where we can all worship together no matter what our backgrounds are.”
As construction workers begin to place Minnesota limestone the color of sand around the church’s concrete shell, their dusty work marks a turning point of sorts for a religious community that some viewed with undisguised suspicion when it started here in 1970 with 20 members.
In 1985, two sons of a Community of Jesus co-founder defected along with about 20 other people. The ex-members told stories of psychological harassment, charges denied by leaders of the community.
In 1993, WCVB-TV’s “Chronicle” questioned whether the group was more of a cult than a genuine group of worshiping Christians. A spokeswoman for the Community of Jesus called that report, which alleged mind control, verbal abuse, and restrictions on members’ freedom, old and inaccurate news.
“We didn’t agree with the slant of that show,” said Blair Tingley, a spokeswoman for the self-contained religious community that is led in worship by 12 ordained ministers from five denominations. The church, which has 65 celibate religious sisters and 25 celibate brothers, also has a publishing house and a choir, Gloriae Dei Cantores.
In 1991, when the community, which by then had grown to its current membership of about 330, proposed a 540-seat, granite, Gothic-style church with a 104-foot tower, it stirred a storm of protest. Amid concern that the church would violate zoning laws, reduce property values, increase traffic, and flout “appropriateness” standards in a historic district, every town board with regulatory authority opposed it.
The Community of Jesus, whose members include a Rockefeller heir, a former president of the US Chamber of Commerce, and worshippers with blue-collar backgrounds, went back to the drawing board for its new church. It also launched a public relations initiative that has earned plaudits from some local officials.
“When we first started, we hadn’t quite established ourselves,” Tingley said. “There wasn’t much interaction with our neighbors. I think we were a little more self-centered, focused on who we were, and not as caring or as considerate of the people around us. But now I think we have a very good working relationship with our neighbors.”
The community reached out by putting on harborside teas, Fourth of July fireworks, dinner concerts, and theatrical productions at its landscaped campus of single-family homes and white-clapboard, dormitory-style buildings. At the same time, church planners found a new architect and design that ultimately passed muster before a host of local and regional agencies.
“Six or seven years ago, there was a contention and feeling on the part of a fair number of townspeople that the visual impact of what they were proposing would not look good,” said Orleans Selectman Frank Suits. “But over time they have modified their plans and scaled them back, and, at the same time, feelings within the town have modified, too.”
In 1993, the Community of Jesus and the Cape Cod Commission settled a lawsuit over the commission’s rejection of the earlier design. Under the agreement, the Community of Jesus scaled back and relocated its project, and the commission, the Cape’s regulatory land-use agency, withdrew it objections, which were based primarily on its visual impact.
“It’s going to be noticeable no matter where it is because it’s a large building,” said Margo Fenn, deputy director of the Cape Cod Commission. “But it is a much lower and less obtrusive building than it would have been if they hadn’t changed the plans.”
The result is the Church of the Transfiguration, whose building height has been trimmed to 55 feet and whose free-standing bell tower will rise 75 feet. The rectangular structure is partially shielded by other, more traditional buildings on the community’s 10-acre grounds.
Construction, begun in a rainstorm last Nov. 1 – All Saints’ Day – is expected to conclude in the church’s dedication late next year.
Robert L. Wilkinson, a longtime Orleans resident, said he believes the large church is incompatible with its setting on Rock Harbor, an area he called a “gem” to be guarded.
“Personally, I wish they weren’t building such a large structure down there,” said Wilkinson. “I think their use is too intensive for the land. On the other hand, they’ve gotten their permit and have compromised.”
Wilkinson said some Orleans residents remain “cynical” about the church, but he said that suspicion has diminished.
William Rawn, the church’s architect whose design for the Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood won him national acclaim, said he was sensitive to the church’s location on a village harbor with a 200-year history as a maritime center. “There’s a simplicity of life on Cape Cod and we wanted this building, even as it’s out of stone and even as it’s larger than most Cape Cod buildings, to have that simplicity,” he said. “We thought that was important. We chose a limestone that is very much the coloration of the sand.”
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