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Click here to view a pdf of the article, which includes the images of the Church of the Transfiguration.

The Church of the Transfiguration, located near picturesque Rock Harbor on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, may be the most art-intensive worship space built in recent years. Everywhere you look there seems to be carved stone, cast bronze, mosaic, fresco, or stained glass.

But the Church of the Transfiguration is art-intensive in another way: From the beginning, the worshiping community has attracted members with an artistic impulse. The Community of Jesus, the intentional ecumenical community that worships here, is widely known for the quality of its musical ministry—from a choir that has toured in 24 countries and produced 45 CDs to a world champion marching band.

As the community built its new structure, it retained master artists in traditional media and apprenticed members to those artists. As a result, the community not only learned new skills and partly underwrote the building with sweat equity, it also deepened the community's creative spirituality. When the community outgrew its original worship space, it thought carefully not only about what worship activity would happen in the new space, but also about what that new worship space would say, what its witness would be. Thus, the building's focus on art with a biblical message.

The church building was dedicated in June 2000, and in June 2010, the congregation celebrated the completion of the extensive artwork. Christianity Today editor in chief David Neff interviewed Community of Jesus spokesperson Blair Tingley about the biblical message of the church's art.

What is the point of all the art in this church?

When we thought about the art, the fundamental thing we wanted was for it to teach the Bible. It needed to be a teaching church that would recount the history of salvation from Genesis to Revelation.

In addition, we wanted the art to support and illuminate the Easter mystery—hence the centrality of the altar—and give glory to God.

Parallel to that is the celebration of creation. That's what you see when you approach the church's atrium. The exterior of the church celebrates the beauty of creation as recounted in Genesis. The first two verses in the Bible, which talk about God's Spirit hovering over the chaos, are portrayed on the lintel over the door. The front doors show Adam and Eve standing beside the Tree of Life. This celebrates the beauty of God's work before sin. In the atrium, each of the carved stone capitals on the pillars celebrates a different day of creation.

I noticed Garden of Eden imagery just inside the front doors, too.

A Tree of Life mosaic starts on the floor right at the doors and carries on the full length of the center aisle. Then it bursts into full flower at the altar.

Embedded in that tree are different portions of the Bible story. Because the church tells the story of salvation, the first thing we do is show the need for salvation. We recount the story of Cain and Abel in mosaic on the floor at the very opening of the doors.

Then you come to the baptismal font, which is large, made of marble, and eight-sided. The theme of the baptismal font is the Trinity enlivening the newly baptized. Here Christians are reborn. That's a re-genesis. On the floor surrounding the font is the story of Noah and the Flood, another of God's works of salvation. We have embedded in the Noah story 42 aquatic animals from the Cape Cod area. That gives salvation a concrete context. Yes, salvation occurs everywhere, but the art emphasizes that it happens in this place.

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October 2010, Vol. 54, No. 10

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