ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the more typical experiences of church architects and clergy in Britain during this time of change, looking at the transformations that took place in the liturgy from the 1950s until the 1970s, the influence of NCRG debates on architects, and their effects on parish church architecture. Liturgical movement views contemporary liturgy as the culmination of a long deterioration characterizes by clericalisation, the liturgy becoming distant from the people, performed in splendidly decorated chancels divided from the laity and viewed from afar, with the congregation reduced to mere spectators. Such accounts, however, were motivated by a reforming agenda. Britain was relatively late in adopting European styles of liturgical innovation and participation. Most large churches of the 1950s and early 1960s had long rectangular naves, but it had been an important principle since the Counter Reformation, accepted with renewed interest in Britain in the late-nineteenth century, that everybody should see the sanctuary and follow the Mass.
