Today’s The World Around Us will be presented in Finnish and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai

Greetings and welcome to today’s The World Around Us. Finland is renowned for her natural beauty, graced by flourishing forests and adorned with twinkling lakes. It is said that nature is part of the Finnish national character and identity, a blessed source of inspiration and creativity for Finnish people.

This is demonstrated by the design of modern Finnish church buildings. The sacredness of these revered places is often exemplified in their style of purity and minimalism. These buildings also bear an intention of to be attuned to nature. Natural light, space and material are over interwoven in design and construction.

On this episode, we are traveling to Helsinki, the country’s capital, to visit a wonderful modern church, Temppeliaukio Kirkko. This unique church is carved into rock. It is a remarkable and magical expression of the strong dedicated faith in God and, of course, a firm oneness with nature.

Temppeliaukio Kirkko, which is also well known by its nick name, Rock Church, is part of the Evangelical Lutheran faith. As its name states, it is located in Temppeliaukio (Temple Square). The Temple Square is in the Toolo residential district in the center of Helsinki and was named in the early 1900s.

Since 1906, three architectural design competitions had been held for this project. The entry entitled “The Stone Church” by two architect brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen won the last competition run between 1960 and 1961.

The two architects were born and raised on Suursaari Island in the Gulf of Finland. When Maila Mehtälä, the Finnish non-fiction writer, interviewed Timo Suomalainen, the architect talked about his deep relationship with the Earth since their early years. He stated that the island’s rocky hills, steep cliffs, caves, stony fields, etc. had long been participating in their architecture spontaneously.

Chief Guide of Temppeliaukio Kirkko Veikko Laitinen shares with us more about the design of the church and other fascinating details.

It was quite a big surprise when brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen won the architecture competition. They were young architects, quite unknown architects; they were born on an island, so they have seen stone since childhood. Nowadays they are quite famous. Timo Suomalainen is very active and often in our church, still nowadays, himself.

One of the principle ideas of constructing the church at that time was to preserve the natural character of the place, especially the granite rock hill and to offer a feeling of being close to nature. To fulfill this objective, the Suomalainen brothers made the design of carving the church into the bare rock.

In the beginning, many thought that perhaps this kind of church is too modern. But in fact it is so that here we can see the nature and that is very important for Finnish people. So Finnish people really feel to be at home in this church building. They see nature. And granite stone is very common stone art in Finland. In fact, the whole Helsinki city is on the granite rock. People really like this church building. We always have a lot of people.

Temppeliaukio Kirkko was consecrated on September 28, 1969. Its popularity soon flourished. Now it is one of the compelling landmarks in Helsinki, Finland. Each year, about half a million people from around the world visit and admire “the Church in the Rock.”

In an international exhibition tour hosted by Museum of Finnish Architecture in 2003 and 2004, Temppeliaukio Kirkko was one of the eminent buildings included. Later, a book entitled “Sacral Space” was published in English to introduce the churches presented in the exhibition. The book’s cover photo is Temppeliaukio’s iconic copper roof.

People really like this church building, so the people always come to the church when they come to Helsinki. They say that that is the thing they remember of Helsinki.

When we return, let’s have a closer look at this awe-inspiring and innovative house of worship. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Faithful viewers, you are watching the World Around Us on Supreme Master Television. We are introducing one of most popular sites of Helsinki, Temppeliaukio Kirkko, the church that is built into rock.

From its outside form, you may not think the architecture of Temppeliaukio Kirkko actually is a church. From the sky looking down upon the temple square, the roof of the church appears as a green-colored disc. It looks so much like a spacecraft sunk into the ground. If you approach the church from one of the side street, you will see mainly a small rocky hill. The green-colored dome with a gentle curving outline emerges from the stones at the top.

To make the church easy to access, the architects chose to locate the floor of the church hall at the same level as the Fredrikinkatu Street, which leads to the church entrance. This arrangement naturally makes visitors feel they are warmly invited.

Now let’s go inside Temppeliaukio Kirkko and look at more amazing features of this unique church.

So the main church was dynamite stripe into the bedrock. The church is built a little bit higher by quarried stones, which they got of the same rock. And then as roof in the church we have a dome, and this dome is covered by copper, and there is 22 km long copper strip going around. And this construction makes an optical illusion, so the church seems to be higher than what it is. Dome itself is 3 meters high and total height from the floor to the highest point is 13 meters but it is really seems to be much higher.

Except the surprising copper roof, the inside walls of the Temppeliaukio are all original rocks. The strong, persistence quality of these rocks conveys a message of the permanent faith of the Finnish people. These thick rock walls also shut out the hustle and bustle from the outside environment. The quiet atmosphere is noticed by the visitors who just step in. They like to visit the church and pray in the same tranquility found in their beloved forests and soothing lakes.

Not only do the rock walls inspire an appreciation and feeling of nature, but also the architects allowed sufficient natural light to come into the church hall by specially designed windows.

This dome is joined to the rock by 180 concrete beams, and between the beams we have roof windows of special warm glass, so we get daylight from the morning into the evening into the church. It isn’t dark at all, even if it is inside the rock. And so it is directed so that summer time, sunlight falls to the altar wall in our morning service.

Temppeliaukio Kirkko skips complicated ornamentation. It uses its original character to generate the pure atmosphere in this sanctuary. On the day of celebrating the church’s 40th anniversary in September 2009, architect Timo Suomalainen, now 81, was interviewed by journalist of Helsingin Sanomat in the main chamber of the church.

The architect said: “Whenever I come here, I get the feeling of what my brother and I were looking for when we designed the place. Above all there is a sense of the devotional, as this is a church after all.”

The main purpose of course is that it is a church building. Our parish has services here every Sunday, 10 o’clock in Finnish language, and then 2 o’clock pm in English language. We have service every Wednesday and lot of special services.

We have in the church a pipe organ which was built by Veikko Virtanen. This pipe organ has 43 stops and 3001 pipes. Front pipes of the organ are made of copper which is seldom used material for organ pipes, but because we have a lot of copper elsewhere so architects wanted that, and they said copper pipes. We use the organ always when we have service.

The Rock Church’s cavernous hall produces magnificent acoustics for the Temppeliaukio's organists. This marvelous church is also a very popular concert venue.

Acoustics in the church is excellent. That makes that we normally we have 3, 4 concerts every week, December month we have over 40 concerts. That means that we have a concert every day and some days two or three concerts.

So far there are numerous concerts that have been held in Temppeliaukio Kirkko. On September 21, 2009, a special concert was held to raise funds and awareness to save the Finnish lake seals. These seals are endangered due to climate change and fishing.

The organizing group of nature-loving and compassionate musicians, including some of the most famous in the field. The Harpsichordist Elina Mustonen had initiated the idea. We thank Chief Guide of Temppeliaukio Kirkko Veikko Laitinen for all the interesting stories about this sacred site.

May the beautiful Temppeliaukio Kirkko continue to offer solace, strength, and harmonious experiences with nature for all who enter.

Thank you for joining in us on today’s journey. Now, please join us for Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News, here on Supreme Master Television. May you always Have a chance to enjoy the sacred natural wonders of the Creator.