KOTA SENTOSA — Sacred Heart Church, Kota Sentosa has a new Tabernacle. Originally, the Tabernacle was used to reserve the Most Blessed Sacrament so that it may be available to the sick as Holy Communion when the need arose.
With this reservation, the sacramental presence of the Lord Jesus remains after the celebration of Holy Mass, thereby marking the church as a particular sacred place for adoration and worship.
For a number of years Sacred Heart Church, Kota Sentosa, lacked this important feature of Catholic parish churches.
On 24 April 2022, the Second Sunday of Easter / Divine Mercy Sunday, to the great joy of many parishioners, a newly constructed Tabernacle in Sacred Heart Church was blessed by the Rector, Fr Felix Au, at the 7:30 am Mass.
The following are responses to questions directed to the gifted artist and designer of the tabernacle, Gordon Kong. They reveal the effort and inspiration behind the construction of this striking tabernacle.
How did you come to design the tabernacle for Sacred Heart Church?
Fr Felix first approached me way back in Dec 2021, asking me to help him design a new Tabernacle for the church. I thought this would be a challenge and opportunity to create something different and relevant. As this project involves areas of my interest, namely furniture design, visual art and interiors, I agreed.
What theology or spirituality did you draw on for inspiration? What is it that you want to convey with your design?
The design: As the Tabernacle would be positioned in the middle of the sanctuary wall, its visual elements needed to be impactful, ‘clean’ and uncomplicated, so as to be easily seen from the back of Sacred Heart Church, which is quite sizeable.
Together, these elements of the Tabernacle would also become an important focal point for meditation and reflections [during one’s personal prayer].
The three main design elements are: 1.The Sacred Heart of JESUS 2.The Cross 3.The ‘flame of Love’ emanating from the Sacred Heart. They have been highlighted with gold accents.
The Sacred Heart of JESUS is like a furnace with flames of love emanating from it. Here, different shades of red and gold accents are used to create depth.
The heart – a universal symbol of love and affection – is depicted as in gold, indicating GOD’s infinite love for every believer. The drop of blood in gold signifies the atonement by JESUS for our sins through His passion and ultimate sacrifice on the cross, that won us salvation. The blood also recalls His blood that sealed the new covenant between GOD and every believer.
The design process
For this Tabernacle to have impact, I felt a sizable ‘feature wall’ was needed. For this wall, we chose Travertine natural stones to suggest the stone of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, while Belian ironwood was employed as accent to complement the stone texture and warm colour. The four carved angels were used to mark the boundary and corners for the feature wall.
The inspiration for it came from the description in Scripture of the Ark of the Covenant – a sacred, gold-plated wooden chest that GOD Himself dictated to Moses for construction after the Exodus during the Israelites’ sojourn in the wilderness. In the original Ark, the figures of two cherubims were placed on the ends of the mercy seat. They represent angelic presence in the sanctuary, who offer their praises and worship to the LORD day and night.
Throughout the design process, its practical functionality was also considered after discussions with Fr Felix – ie. what would be the appropriate size and height, choice of materials, etc to achieve good ergonomics. For the Tabernacle, we decided to go with mild steel as the material of choice for its main body, while the front panel will be carved out in a selected hardwood.
Gold was therefore our ideal colour of choice as it was used in the inside and outside of the original Ark of the Covenant. Gold also connotes regality – most fitting for the LORD, the King of kings.
The relief for the angel icons and Tabernacle front panel were carved in Belian ironwood and Raintree wood respectively. We decided to use both CNC machining and traditional carving methods due to time constraints. Belian ironwood was also chosen for the wooden edge profile and the ‘ciboria ledge’. The wood element in the design also compliments the natural stone of the wall and gives it a contemporary touch.
What was the process of construction like? What were the challenges?
The challenges faced were ‘the last-minute surprises’ that came unexpectedly. One such instance was the steel box construction of the Tabernacle itself. When custom hinges were introduced into the design [which was not originally planned] they affected the overall look and design as they are much bigger than conventional hinges. What happened was they caused the position of the Sacred Heart icon to become off-centre. Thanks to Fr Felix’s quick thinking we introduced another design element to ‘re-centre’ the Sacred Heart icon.
What have you learnt from the experience?
Working well together is key to ensure success. Throughout the entire project, good communication was essential. Getting everyone on the same page in a timely manner ensured that issues that arose were identified and solved as soon as possible.
And with all work, the Bible tells us to always seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance first [Prov 3:6], and He will direct our ways.
This was certainly true in this project. Sometimes, things did not turn out the way we expected. I had experienced situations where it seemed like I hit roadblocks with no solution in sight; yet, somehow the Holy Spirit led me to new alternatives that made available to me more resources, and thus made progress possible.
It was teamwork where everyone worked on the same level, and were accessible, cooperative and flexible. I learned that when we worked in this manner, putting our heads together when there were issues, most problems could be solved. Keeping everyone properly informed with communication throughout the design process helped us to iron out potential pitfalls.
I would like to express my gratitude to all who collaborated and shared their expertise in making this project a success and completing it on time [before Good Friday].
Many thanks to all our sponsors who supported financially – all for the glory of GOD.
– Sacred Heart Church, Kota Sentosa
