General Convention Chapel: Contemplation and Reflection

By Sharon J. Tillman, July 12, 2009 [Episcopal News Service] At the far end of the farthest hall of meeting rooms on the second floor of the Anaheim Convention Center sits the General Convention Prayer Chapel in room 201D. Designed with the sole purpose of giving convention attendees a place to recharge, reflect and contemplate, the location alone fulfills the mission.

But chapel planners Randy Kimmler and Daniel Ade, both priests in the Diocese of Los Angeles, wanted it to be more welcoming that just another meeting room. The goal was to create an attractive, welcoming place of some reverence, using very little money.

"Usually General Convention chapels are ugly, out-of-the-way rooms," said Kimmler, the canon missioner for vocations, Diocese of Los Angeles. "This one is hard to find and out of the way, but that’s okay."

Convention attendees are finding the chapel, he said, drifting in and out throughout busy days of legislative sessions, committee meetings and visits to the exhibit hall.

Ugly it is not. Adorned with eight Simon Carr acrylic paintings depicting the Stations of the Cross on loan from the artist in New York, plus four pavement lights (large candleholders) and three Ethiopian liturgical umbrellas from St. John’s Cathedral, Los Angeles, the "space has a focal point and sense of transcendence in a convention center meeting room," said Kimmler.

The Prayer Chapel is open when the convention center is open through July 17. Members of the monastic orders conduct morning and evening prayer daily. The chapel is available to all.