Pastoral Work

Millennium Chapel

In Paceville, where God has much competition, the Millennium Chapel affords a welcoming oasis of peace to comfort the souls of many a troubled human being. This sacred place is designed by Prof. Richard England as a prayer space of today; one that can be seen, above all, as a house where sacred time and sacred space are brought together to evoke the ritual of eternal presence.

Within the space of an already existing building, the Millennium Chapel layout develops as a series of telescopic spaces focusing on the altar and bare timber cross behind it. In Richard England’s words, the transition from secular to sacred space is marked by a threshold, which is to be read as a meditative bridge between the world and the sacred space. The passage way leading to the chapel is to be seen in terms of a preparatory pathway for arrival where man allows his heart to start tuning into the presence of God and tuning out of the world. Behind the altar, the cross-bars of a cage-like structure stand as a dividing screen. It is not, however, what is contained that is caged, but the outside members of the congregation who are restrained by this enclosure. Yet in their captivity of human limitation they are allowed to capture views of the evanescent dark-blue background radiant with fibre-optic star-like lights, evocative of the glittery splendour of eternal spatial galaxies. Under these lights, over a group of large natural stone boulders on a timber plinth, stands the Blessed Sacrament, exposed. Furthermore, the Augustinian Fathers are always present for all pastoral and spiritual guidance.

The aims of the Millennium Chapel are:
• to be an oasis of peace in the heart of Paceville to all visitors of all creeds and religions
• to be a place of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for Christians
• to offer care and understanding as well as counselling to people who seek it, with the cooperation of Caritas and Sedqa
• to offer first aid help to drug and alcohol abusers and gamblers, as well as those who are suffering of broken relationships and solitude
• to be a meeting place for youths and local residents
• to welcome foreign visitors and tourists in the spirit of faith