Mission  Statement

St. Gregory House,  Institute for Religious Music, was founded by the leadership of the late  Gereon Goldmann, OFM (Franciscan), in 1979, in his pursuit of a three-pronged  goal: prayer, research and education. The House has steadily broadened its  activity in creative ways since then. As a diaspora in Japanese culture, the  House, since its foundation, has communicated not only with Roman Catholic but  with other denominations. A case in point is its ecumenical activities  including union worship services.

P. Gereon  Goldmann, OFM, the founder

The late Gereon  Goldmann, OFM, came to Japan from Fulda, Germany, in 1954, and served  as the Rector of St.  Elizabeth Church, in Itabashi, Tokyo for the next 24 years. He then founded  the Institute for Religious Music, St. Gregory House in Higashi-Kurume, Tokyo, and  served as both its chairman and principal  for the first 16 years of its  existence. Father Gereon Goldmann devoted the last phase of his forty years of service  in Japan to liturgy and  church music, returning, due to his physical condition,  to his home  monastery in Fulda,  Germany, where  he passed away on July 23, 2003.

Characteristics of  St. Gregory  House

In the spirit of the  Church in diligently preserving and propagating traditional church music, St.  Gregory House has attentively studied Japanese culture and tradition, as well  as engaging with Buddhist temples in joint musical performances. Since the  very objective of church music is the glorification and admiration of God as  well as the consecration of Christians, this cannot be accomplished without  our worship of and prayer to eternal God - Prayer. It is simply through our  uninterrupted day-to-day worship, that all activities and events follow.  These words of Gereon Goldmann clearly explain his conviction that the  celebration of liturgy is the most sacred act of humankind.

This conviction  for St. Gregory House is explained by his youthful engagement with the liturgy  movement of Guardini in his youth. Since its foundation, the activities of the  House have adopted the spirituality and liturgy of the Benedictine  Confederation. In 1993, the House started to have a close relationship with  the Archabbey of Otillien, Germany, and it currently hosts 22  Oblates recognized by the Archabbey.

The  Building.

The building was  designed in the period when the management of the House was occupied in  creating the programs which achieve its three objectives of prayer, research  and education. The challenge was to design an architecture without any  assumptions as to its operating scale, number of personnel, operational days  during the year, or other considerations. The architect had to anticipate some  of these factors of operation and size, which sometimes were subsequently  confirmed and sometimes constrained our activities.

It was an architectural  accomplishment to incorporate these concepts and activities in the small space  of  1800 square meters.

One space for the integration of prayer and  music, another for the community of prayer, and a third for education and  lodging are intersected by a belfry, while the central square for the general  public and the inner garden of the community are separated by a corridor which  creates a much deeper impression of the entire structure.

The chapel is  designed on one-quarter of a circle. However, the circle is externally  recurring with its center moving toward the very center of the chapel, where  the altar is located. This provides a concentration within the very abstract  space.