Monday Thoughts: Deconsecrating Sacred Space

If you look at the post immediately below this one, you'll see the liturgy I used in the deconsecration service of the chapel of College Wesleyan Church (we are moving buildings).

I have excerpted some of the liturgy below. What do you think of the theology and/or hermeneutics?

1. The Opening Sentence
Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge. Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there I will gather you, and from there I will bring you back.

2. The Content of the Opening Litany
Throughout the Bible, the history of Israel, and throughout Christian history, God has set aside “sacred spaces” where heaven and earth meet. Such spaces are like the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. God sets apart ordinary materials for holy purposes, and they become special mediations of God’s presence and action in us. The Bible is no less of a sacrament, a “place” where ordinary words are set apart for holy purposes, and God’s revelation is mediated. The Chapel of College Wesleyan Church has served such a sacral purpose for us.

When the common materials of this building were consecrated to God, God began to use them to mediate His presence and action here. First, this place became symbolic of heaven and God’s presence. We did not treat this space as we would treat ordinary space but as we would treat the very presence of God.

But sacred spaces are not merely symbolic, for God graciously transforms symbolism into reality. Not by our action or conceptualization, but through His gracious action the common becomes the holy and ordinary space becomes God’s real presence.

Today we return this space to the common and return this place to the earth. God will still be present here, for He is always everywhere present. God might still meet us and act in this space, for God can meet us and act anywhere. But today His glory departs from this room and from this church with us, until He deigns to sanctify new holy ground for us.

The Collect for the Day
All present God, who has sanctified this ground as holy ground, has met us here in the body and blood of your Son, has sent your Spirit forth time and time again and created us anew: Go with us from this place today until we find another resting place where we may remove our shoes in the presence of Your holiness, through Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

What do you think?