The National Conference of Catholic Bishops have approved the first national guideline for church art and architecture. Titled "Built of Living Stones," the document advises parishes, priests, and architects on appropriate church styles, which reflect solid theological foundations.

Correspondent Deryl Davis takes a look at the new guidelines that require prominent placement of the tabernacle (a receptacle for the consecrated elements of the Eucharist) and baptismal font. He also talks to Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb, chair of the Bishops' Committee on Liturgy and Duncan Stroik, editor of SACRED ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE and associate professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame.

DERYL DAVIS: Which is more conducive to worship ... grandeur or simplicity? A sense of the past, or a glimpse of the future? The bishops' document responds to these questions in an attempt to build consensus on appropriate church styles.

Archbishop OSCAR LIPSCOMB: "Built of Living Stones" is an effort on the part of the body of bishops to address in a contemporary, and I think, effective fashion, developments in art, architecture, and the building and restoration of churches for the present.

DAVIS: The bishops' new document is a response to decades of architectural experiment and debate which followed the sweeping reforms of Vatican II in the 1960s. Reflecting a new emphasis on communal worship, churches moved the altar forward from the back wall and began to incorporate non-traditional elements such as semicircular, or angular, seating.

In a bid for simplicity, some congregations removed statues, images, and stained glass windows, traditional elements of catholic worship. Others moved the tabernacle, which houses the communion bread, blessed as the body of Christ, from the heart of the sanctuary to a less central location. Conservative critics say these changes were more than cosmetic -- that they stripped churches of the element of transcendence, or mystery, so important to Catholic tradition. Church architect Duncan Stroik has problems with the new style.

DUNCAN STROIK (Church architect): It tends to focus on the assembly, that the church is the people, and therefore transcendence, really, there's no place for that. It tends to be focused more on the people of God than on God himself.