“We need the sense of the sacred, and the sense that things transcend our grasp.
We need to know that we are dependent on others,
and that the condition of our existence is the existence of others.”
The founding of many education communities is inspired by faith communities. In many of them the place of worship was the very first building. College and university chapels are central places of worship for students, staff and faculty, and provide a space for solitude and reflection. A place for feeling at home in the world.
International Building Code | Section 303.4 Assembly Group A-3
There are several hundred technical standards, or parts of standards, that govern how churches and chapels are made safe and sustainable. Owing to innovations in construction, operation and management methods, those standards move, ever so slightly, on a near-daily basis. They are highly interdependent; confounded by county-level adaptations; and impossible to harmonize by adoption cycle. That movement tracked here as best we can within the limit of our resources and priorities. That’s why it’s best to simply click into our daily colloquia if you have a question or need guidance.
Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi.
The 13th century Eucharistic chant of Ave verum corpus was set to music by Mozart in 1791 to be sung especially to celebrate the feast day.
Here I sing it in the historic chapel of Launde Abbey. #History pic.twitter.com/frkUFkPHVj
— Katie Marshall (@KatieHistory) June 11, 2023
Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief | Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Sam Harris
The image criteria of our WordPress theme does not permit many images of college and university chapels to be shown fully-dimensioned on sliders or widget galleries. We reproduce a few of the outsized images here and leave the complexities of financing, designing, building and maintaining of them in a safe and sustainable manner for another day. CLICK HERE for the links to our Sacred Space Standards workspace.
Click on any image for author attribution, photo credit or other information*.
In the sun-dappled chapel, all 155 new families were welcomed to the start of their Denstone journey. #ItStartsHere pic.twitter.com/veefqSVBGG
— Head | Denstone College (@DenstoneHead) September 3, 2023
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen:
not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
— C.S. Lewis
The “Dark Ages” produced the most divine vessels of light ever built.
Sainte-Chapelle:pic.twitter.com/B2lPLtWEVx
— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) February 12, 2024
Sainte-Chapelle:pic.twitter.com/B2lPLtWEVx
— Culture Critic (@Culture_Crit) February 12, 2024
Loyola Marymount University / Los Angeles, California
Luther College at the University of Regina / Saskatchewan, Canada
Christ’s Chapel | Hillsdale College, Michigan
St. Ignatius Church | University of San Francisco
More coming.
*404 ERRORS and Page Not Found messages are common as webmasters move content.
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CLICK HERE for bibliography
“The Church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians,
but a school for the education of imperfect ones.”
— Henry Ward Beecher
WEBCAST Committee Action Hearings, Group A #2
2024 International Building Code: Chapter 3 Occupancy Classification and Use
In the International Code Council catalog of best practice literature we find the first principles for safety in places of worship tracking in the following sections of the International Building Code (IBC):
“303.1.4: Accessory religious educational rooms and religious auditoriums with occupant loads less than 100 per room or space are not considered separate occupancies.” This informs how fire protection systems are designed.
Section 305 Educational Group E
“305.2.1: Rooms and spaces within places of worship proving such day care during religious functions shall be classified as part of the primary occupancy.” This group includes building and structures or portions thereof occupied by more than five children older than 2-1/2 years of age who receive educational, supervision or personal care services for fewer than 24 hours per day.
Section 308 Institutional Group I
“308.5.2: Rooms and spaces within places of religious worship providing [Group I-4 Day Care Facilities] during religious functions shall be classified as part of the primary occupancy. When [Group I-4 Day Care Facilities] includes buildings and structures occupied by more than five persons of any age who receive custodial care for fewer than 24 hours per day by persons other than parents or guardians, relatives by blood, marriage or adoption, and in a place other than the home of the person cared for.
Tricky stuff — and we haven’t even included conditions under which university-affiliated places of worship may expected to be used as community storm shelters.
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
Public response to Committee Actions taken in Orlando in April will be received until July 8th.
Because standard development tends to be a backward-looking domain it is enlightening to understand the concepts in play in previous editions. The complete monograph of proposals for new building safety concepts for places of worship for the current revision cycle is linked below:
2021/2022 Code Development: Group B
A simple search on the word “worship” will reveal what ideas are in play. With the Group B Public Comment Hearings now complete ICC administered committees are now curating the results for the Online Governmental Consensus Vote milestone in the ICC process that was completed December 6th. Status reports are linked below:
2018/2019 Code Development: Group B
Note that a number of proposals that passed the governmental vote are being challenged by a number of stakeholders in a follow-on appeals process:
A quick review of the appeals statements reveals some concern over process, administration and technical matters but none of them directly affect how leading practice for places of worship is asserted.
We are happy to get down in the weeds with facility professionals on other technical issues regarding other occupancy classes that are present in educational communities. See our CALENDAR for next Construction (Ædificare) colloquium open to everyone.
Issue: [17-353]
Category: Chapels
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben, Larry Spielvogel
More
Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt. pic.twitter.com/H6dgJ5DnSC
— Prof. Feynman (@ProfFeynman) October 8, 2023
The World Soil Museum hosts a range of educational programs and workshops for students, researchers, and other visitors who are interested in learning more about soil science. These programs cover topics such as soil classification, soil management, and soil conservation, and they are designed to help people understand the vital role that soils play in supporting agriculture, ecosystems, and human societies around the world.
Hillsdale College | The Theological–Political Problem and the American Founding | Glenn Ellmers
From George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, 18 August 1790
In Federalist No. 2, John Jay [1764 Graduate of King’s College; now Columbia University] argues that a strong union under the Constitution will promote peace and prosperity, which are conducive to the spread of religion and morality:
“Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people—a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs… These considerations, and many others that might be mentioned, prove, and experience confirms it, that artificial distinctions and separations of [America’s] land are essentially unnatural; and that they may be eradicated and extirpated by the united and advisable efforts of individuals and communities…”
The Federalist Papers discuss themes of morality, social order, and the importance of a cohesive society, they do not explicitly emphasize the importance of Christian faith to the American constitutional republic. The authors generally focused on principles of governance, political theory, and the structure of the proposed Constitution.
Harvard’s Memorial Chapel, also known as Memorial Church, was designed by the architectural firm Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch, and Abbott. The church was dedicated on Armistice Day, November 11, 1932, as a memorial to Harvard alumni who died in World War I.
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Sunday Service Announcements and Music Notes
John Harvard, the namesake of Harvard University, was a 17th-century English minister lived on campus from 1607 – 1638 and conformed to Puritan ideal of dedicating Sundays to worship, prayer, and rest.
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Observed the fourth Sunday of Lent, known as Laetare Sunday, a day when the strict fasting rules of Lent are traditionally relaxed. The name referred to the practice of returning to one’s “mother church”—the main church or cathedral of the region—for a special service. Over time, this evolved into a day when people, especially young servants and apprentices working away from home, were given time off to visit their families and attend their home parish church and sharing Simnel Cake.
Vide: Office of National Statistics: How is the fertility rate changing in England and Wales?
The weather this week has been glorious! 🌤️
Photo by randheer_photography04.
Please send us your pictures via direct message for a chance to be featured next week. pic.twitter.com/Pe6xQ9W4ko
— University of Lincoln, UK (@unilincoln) March 6, 2025
BSI Group | Estates Annual Report 2024
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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