Novena Church

Novena Church
Source: The Straits Times

This view greeted us when we reached. It was a Saturday morning and the place was flooded with people who came to visit the church which was recently developed. Amongst the visitors were also people who were on their usual Saturday routine to attend the church Saturday services, now in a newly designed building which could house twice the number of worshippers (800 to 1500 seatings) 

After doing our background research on the redevelopment of the church, we found out that the growth of worshippers was the main reason why the Church of St. Alphonsus embarked on this massive project amounting up to $55m as indicated here: (http://www.novenachurch.com/redevelopment.html) 

Personally (Esther), I have not been to the old Novena Church before the renovation. I got a shock when I googled images of the old building. The new building was on an elevated ground and the land area occupied was at least twice the original land mass! The interior designs of the service hall were also 1000x more grand and definitely more comfortable for worship to take place (It is now air conditioned). As there was ongoing services when we were there, we did not manage to capture the interior of the assembly hall, but the view from the outside, in my opinion, was already very breath-taking! 



Before
Source: The Long and Winding Road 

After
Source: The Straits Times 
Source: The Straits Times 

You can head over to http://str.sg/novena for more photos of the revamped church! 

Did you know? 
  • The church was formerly located where Thomson Medical Centre Stands today 
  • One of the first few churches to be built after WWII 
  • The church is well-known for its tainted glass doors/windows, which continues to be a special feature of the newly designed church. (Preservation of Culture?)  
  • The Church lends its name to the area such as roads (Jalan Novena Barrat, Novena Terrace), buildings (Novena Villes and Novena Gardens) and even the MRT! (Nope, it is not the other way around!) 
  • A Novena generally refers to '9 days of prayers' (The Straits Times) 
  • The architect of the new church got his design inspirations from the bible. As quoted from Straits Times,

He said he was inspired by the Bible scripture of King Solomon's temple. The king had a temple he built that was inlaid with carved engravings of palm trees. "Inspired by the palm trees, I clad the columns of the main sanctuary hall in curved segments of limestone to create the appearance of a cluster of thin palm tree trunks with ribs, reaching for heaven," said Mr Gamayot.

The 4 of us were intrigued by how grand the church has become after its redevelopment. We also witnessed certain changes and continuity through the visit to the church. Changes took place in the structure and designs of the building. But we continue to see worshippers who are faithful in their Saturday routine of attending the services. Also, we were fortunate to witness the tradition of Priests anointing worshippers at the new building. (Though, we had forgotten to take a photo of it). Well, you can attempt to replace the old building with the new building in the photo below to visualise the continuity. Alternatively, head down to the church on Saturdays to witness for yourself how this traditions continues to be a part of the Catholic culture even in the phase of change (re-development). 


More comparisons to the past and present of the Church; 

Before

After
Realise how the church has been elevated off the ground!





A group selfie!! 

Off to the next location!


Location: 300 Thomson Road, Singapore 307653

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Single Storey Shophouses #601-639

Image
Single Storey Shophouses #601-639 Such Single-storey buildings were found in many parts of pre-1965 Singapore, especially in the suburban and rural areas. They were built by early developers for sale as shops and homes for new settlers from the rural areas who were told to leave their rural areas for urban developments. Though these shophouses were some of the earliest buildings to be constructed, the architects had seen the need to integrate some designs in the form of Art Deco pediment above the five-foot way to make it more aesthetically inclined. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has made conservation efforts to these buildings by prohibiting any alterations to these buildings. We have heard about the famous 'Tau Sar Piah' shop which was situated at one end of the stretch of shophouses. However we did not know that along that stretch alone, there were 4 Tau Sar Piah shops! Despite the choices of shops available, consumers still chose to flood the shop at ...
Read more
Image
Reflections: Jerome: a. What was your impression of Singapore history and cultural heritage before going on the trail? When I first set out on this trail and did my research on it, I honestly felt that this was going to be an utter waste of time with my perceived lack of culture and tradition within such a young nation like Singapore. My initial thoughts were that these trials were all set up merely to put up a facade to the locals on our heritage so as to falsely inculcate a  sense of national identity within the many races based on a heritage that we never had. b. How has your experience of the trail changed your perception of Singapore history and her cultural heritage? However , I was gravely wrong , the trail had turned up so much traditions and culture blending within Singapore that I never knew we had. The main idea of the trail wasn't as I had initially thought to inculcate a national identity but more so to educate people of the history of this young nation...
Read more

Balestier point

Image
Balestier point As we continued our trail we ended up at Balestier point, at first glance it looked like an unattractive and rundown mall with little attractiveness to anyone due to its simplistic architecture but little did we know the rich history behind it. Balestier point cost  $35 million dollars for construction and exist both as a residential area while also being mall at the same time. It serves as the homes for 68 families which consist of both two to three rooms flats and also for 62 commercial businesses. The simple facade upon closer inspection took an entirely different view.The simplistic designs were merely a but one perspective of the entire building which consist of lego like blocks that constituted the core of the building.The lego like blocks were seemingly "stacked"on top of each other to form the building which greatly contrasted to the surrounding building who were largely still simplistic in its design during this period of time. The i...
Read more