Page 8 - 2000 ICELAND

The plaza in front of the largest church in the country, the Hallgrimskirkja, is
also hospitable to crowds. The church is Lutheran and is very impressive. It

is a quite large concrete structure of a pyramidal shape in the facade that
faces the plaza. It starts low at the edges and goes by squared-off steps up

to a very high central spire-like portion. Some folks describe the church as
“profoundly ugly,” but most are inspired by that soaring facade.

In front of the church is a greater than life-size statue of Lief Ericson given to

Iceland by the people of the United States. However, since we are reluctant

to give credit to anyone but Columbus for the discovery of America (because
we were taught early on that “in 1492, Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue”

and discovered the New World), the statue is engraved with the Viking’s
name and “Discoverer of Vinland.” Old “truths” die hard, even when the

best scientific evidence now strongly suggests that Eric was in the area of
Nova Scotia and even Massachusetts at least 350 years before the Pinta,

Nina or Santa Maria scraped onto the shores of Hispaniola!

Inside the church, all is very spare as in most Scandinavian Lutheran churches—

white walls, modern pews, little or no statuary, very simple lectern and altar
under a plain egg-shaped dome; the only real decoration is the wonderful

design of the organ pipes. These pews do have a different twist however;
the seat-backs pull forward or backward so that the congregation can be

facing the altar or the back of the church depending on the function.

At church services, of course, they face the altar, but when the church’s
organ is used for concerts, the audience faces the organ pipe display. We can

attest personally to the clear and resounding acoustics and the power and

beauty of the organ since we were so lucky to find that there was an organ
concert this very night at 8:00 o’clock. So jet-lagged or not, we were there.

The organist was a guest artist from Oslo, Norway, and he was quite

accomplished. We greatly enjoyed hearing that instrument and watching
the cathedral walls practically “breathe” with the sounds. Even with all that

volume, we were fighting sleep some of the time.