BY CHRISTINA WHITE

PARISHIONERS unhappy at the reordering of their churches have a new organisation to give public expression to their anger and fight their cause.
Ouch! — Outcry Against Ugly Churches — launched by the Catholic writer and journalist Moyra Doorly this month aims to reclaim the sacred spaces of churches and to deter parish priests from insensitive modernisations.
The society's first bulletin has been sent to every diocese in England and Wales with a plea to priests to "end the disaster — reclaim sacred space". Miss Doorly maintains that contemporary church design is based on modernist principles which are relativist, rather than religious.
"With all distinctions diminished, the impression is of homogeneity and lack of direction ... it says: 'There is nothing special here'," she writes.
She insists that modern church buildings deny the "transcendent" and no longer point to a heaven that is beyond.
Miss Doorly advocates returning church buildings to their original form, ending the modern practice of the priest facing the people.
But Canon Alan Griffiths, a member of the heritage committee of the bishops' conference of England and Wales, was unmoved by pleas for a return to pre-Vatican II practice.
He said: "I think that the lady will find, if she looks in the revised Roman Missal, an express commendation of Mass to be celebrated facing the people wherever possible. Perhaps that is something she might like to note."
Miss Doorly is currently preparing an "Ouch! manifesto" to guide her campaign against the brutal ugliness of much modern church building. It is unlikely to find favour with modernists.
Architect Austin Winkley, who has undertaken hundreds of church reordering projects, described the campaign as "mischievous".
He said: "I think this is an old-fashioned view and I find very little common ground with these people.
"They express a vague spirituality that is common to them and not to anyone else. I rapidly lose patience with the preaching mentality that goes with it. I think it's just mischievous."