ABSTRACT
The Roman Catholic Church in Britain wanted to claim a civic status, and its architecture contributed to this aim: its embrace of modernism demonstrated its willingness to participate in the modern nation. Yet new theological ideas began to change the Church's conception of its purpose and its relationship to the world, and church architecture changed accordingly. In the 1950s, the Parish church was considered a sacred edifice declaring its noble purpose as a shrine of worship and prayer and was often charged with expressing the fervour of the faithful. Monumental churches began to be viewed with suspicion as the symbol of a Church under the delusion of triumph. The Church had to be open to the world around it rather than confronting it, a view that also implied new attitudes to Christians of other denominations in a growing movement towards Christian unity, or 'ecumenism'. These concepts found expression in new forms of church and new relationships between church and city.
