University Church Lighting Feted with Award

Contributed photo

The relighting of the University Church was honored on June 27 with a 2012 Illuminating Engineering Society Award of Merit.

The project, which was overseen by Brooklyn-based Studio T+L Theatre Consultants + Lighting Designers, aimed to increase light levels throughout the church, install additional lighting to give the architecture greater presence, replace the aging control system, reduce energy consumption and increase the lighting flexibility in the sanctuary.

Phase one of the project, which was completed in the summer of 2010, involved replacing the old dimming system, replacing the lamp arrays in the pendant lights, and adding the LED uplights grazing the walls of the church, which was built in 1845.  

Contributed photo

The second phase, which was completed in the summer of 2011, saw the replacement and supplementing of the lighting in the sanctuary and new fixtures illuminating the statuary at the ends of the east and west transepts. 

The final phase, which is currently underway, will provide new light for the organ that is currently being installed.

The project was evaluated based on the complexity of problem, the lighting concept; architectural integration, originality, performance criteria, visual comfort, energy and environmental design implementation, budget restrictions and ease of maintenance.

In addition, the design was also one of 58 that received a score high enough to qualify for a second, higher level award that will be presented in November.

—Patrick Verel

Concerts and Lectures Fete Distinctive Churches

Fordham hosted a pair of spring concerts on April 9 and 10 that focused on the art and architecture of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle and the Fordham University Church.


The Fordham University Women’s Choir conducted by Stephen Fox and the Fordham University Choir conducted by Robert Minotti performed Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Mark Jennings’ O Crux and Gabriel Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Requiem. The Bronx Arts Ensemble provided the music.

Gregory Waldrop, S.J., assistant professor of art history, discussed the mural The Crucifixion on April 9 at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle. The mural, which was painted by William Laurel Harris from 1906 to 1908, hangs above the door of the church.


The story depicted in the artwork is very familiar and has a “classic cast,” as Father Waldrop called it, featuring Jesus surrounded by golden ether, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and St. John.


The crucifix in the mural is in axis with the cross over the altar at the front of the church.

“The conjunction of images of Christ’s saving body defines a space, and gathers up in that space all those present in the church—the flock, who gather to praise God on the cross, who gather to hear the word proclaimed from the pulpit, who gather to receive Eucharist at the altar,” Father Waldrop said.



Father Waldrop discussed details that only can be seen by looking closely at the mural from the balcony. He described the gold shimmer that coats the pink sky and purple city in the artwork. He said that the city scene and sunset are based on the actual Jerusalem, at least in mood and lighting, and show a definite moment in time.

The city painted in the mural above the entrance of church is contrasted with New York, the “very real, very alive, very specific city where hope is made concrete in our living out the love that God has shown us,” he said.



Monsignor Joseph G. Quinn, vice president for University mission and ministry, spoke on April 10 about the Stations of the Cross at the Fordham University Church.

Photos by Michael Dames.

-Jenny Hirsch

Ecumenical Patriarch Receives Honorary Degree

From: FordhamUniversity | October 30, 2009 | 0 views
Fordham University conferred an honorary degree upon His All Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, on Oct. 27 on the Rose Hill campus in the Bronx.



The Ecumenical Patriarch, the 270th successor of the 2,000-year-old Christian Church founded by St. Andrew, received a doctorate of laws, honoris causa, at a ceremony attended by more than 1,000 people in the historic University Church.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who has occupied the First Throne of the Orthodox Christian Church since 1991, accepted the honor of being received into the "doctoral college of this esteemed Jesuit school" with sincere gratitude. He then addressed the audience with a speech that touched on "ecumenical consciousness," or the opening of the heart, opening up to others and to all things created by God.

See complete story on the University home page.

Anything But Plain

Though modestly described in some literature as “plain wooden doors,” the University Church’s nineteenth century doors can only be called “plain” in the sense that Horace used the term simplex munditiis, or perhaps "simply elegant."

Recently restored, the three outstanding elements no longer fade into the woodwork. The tympanum (the top of the doors) goes back to the 1800s, where Mary, the Mother of God is depicted with a torch and sword on either side. The Latin inscription just below it, illi autem sunt in pace (“they, however, are in peace”) was added in 1948 when Francis Cardinal Spellman, then both Military Vicar and Archbishop of New York, dedicated the new Fordham University war memorial. The memorial can be found just inside the vestibule, where the names of Fordham alumni who gave their lives in service of their country during World War II are carved in oak panels.

What the doors’ recent restoration reveals is the third element, previously obscured by time and weathering: the four military service emblems: Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. The “plain wooden doors” are now truly a jewel of history at the landmark University Church.

–Nicholas D. Lombardi, S.J.

Top to Bottom: The Doors; Marine Corps; Air Force; Navy; Army