Country Gothic Church in Virginia

Barnes Vanze Architects presented this design concept for a new Catholic Church in Virginia as a Country Gothic expression that would fit well into the surrounding landscape, and welcome all with a humble beauty. Using simple planes of natural stone texture, with moments of crisper detail at windows and doors where the eye and hand rest with the passage of persons or light and views, the design creates a permanent invitation to encounter the Divine in the gathering together of “two or more in His Name,” the hearing of the Word of God, the reception of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity in Holy Communion, and the action of the Liturgy made together with the entire Communion of Saints, present in this time and place, and whose continual presence is recalled by sacred images in stained glass windows, statuary and other sacred art.