There are things in life that we mistakenly assume are permanent, like art and architecture. It’s understandable. Artworks and the places that house them can seem so steadfast it’s easy to take them for granted. But that’s a mistake. The truth is nothing is permanent. Everything is ephemeral.
That’s part of what makes the recent fire at St. Anne’s church so devastating; we assumed it would be there forever. The fire, which broke out on the morning of June 9th, gutted a unique neo-Byzantine treasure, modeled after the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, and destroyed an irreplaceable set of Group of Seven murals, by, J.E.H. MacDonald, Frank Carmichael and Frederick H. Varley. To look at them, you had to look up and rotate — a physical manifestation of awe.
