By David R. Bains

The City of Biringham, Alabama, was established in December 1871. The history of the development of spaces for Christian worship in the area since then can be helpfully understood as composed of three, unequal, periods. Each is discussed on a separate page.

Historic forms. From the city’s inception until about 1960, Birmingham Christians generally ordered their worship spaces according to the well-established or wide-spread practices of their denominations. Churches featured in Spaces for Worship from this period include:
— Cathedral of St. Paul
— Cathedral Church of the Advent
— Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

Experimentation. The years from 1960 to about 1995 were a time of architectural and liturgical innovation in Birmingham. The period started earlier in other parts of the world and may have run later. Novel architectual materials (concrete, steel, and, above all, laminated wood) often catalyzed new architectural forms while retaining traditional liturgical plans. Sometimes, however, the spirit of creativity did result in innovative plans, especially when motivated by teh principles of the ecumenical Liturgical Movement. The milestone the movement is most easily linked to is the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican II (1962-1965) and the subsequent reformation of the Roman Catholic Church’s liturgical books (1969-1973). Two of Birmingham’s institutions of higher education built chapels in this period that did things that would not have been possible in a local congregation. One embraced the norms of the Liturgical Movement and one resisted them.
— Yeilding Chapel
— Hodges Chapel

Digital Age. The twenty-first century saw the advent of digital projection in worship services and the live streaming of services online, a phenomenon strongly advances by the Covid-19 pandemic. This strongly shaped the rise of multi-campus churches, but also encouaged new emphasis on the authenticity of in-person encounters. This period also saw an increase in the redevelopment of secular spaces into worship spaces.

— Church of the Highlands

Click here to continue with the page on the first period.

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This post is part of “Spaces for Worship: A Birmingham-Based Introduction,” a section of Magic City Religion, written by David R. Bains, published in 2024, and funded by Samford University’s Center for Worship and the Arts.