Religion : A Simple Cross Ends Decades of Division : Architecture: Three denominations finally agree on a design to renovate Jerusalem church’s dome.

It is among the most revered sites in all of Christianity--the place where Jesus was crucified and buried, then rose from the dead.

But for decades, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has deteriorated as the three denominations that control the holy site--the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian churches--argued over plans to renovate its venerated dome.

Now that standoff has ended, and the three churches have agreed on a single design, and an unlikely designer, for the renovation project: Fresno advertising executive Ara “Corky” Normart.

Normart, 60, knew from the start that the renovation of the dome’s interior would be a difficult task. “I had to get an agreement on my design from three churches who hadn’t agreed on anything major in 200 years,” he said.

But after almost two dozen of his proposals were rejected, the three churches finally agreed on one Normart design: A simple cross in gold, blue and white, with 12 gold bars--representing the apostles--pointing toward the dome’s skylight.

Work on the redesign is now underway and should be completed by next fall.

Despite the sacred role of the church in Christian history, millions of devout Christians--including the man chosen to redesign its 1,700-year-old dome--had never heard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was built in 333 as the Basilica of Constantine, on order of the Roman emperor who adopted Christianity as the empire’s religion.

Normart said he was flabbergasted when he was asked by an old acquaintance from Fresno to handle the renovation. So were his friends.

“I was on my way to a lunch in Sacramento,” Normart said recently, “when I received a call, totally out of the blue, asking me to design the decorations for the dome.

“I went to lunch and told my friend: ‘Buzz, I’m going to design the dome at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.’ He almost fell off his chair.”

Normart is hardly an internationally known designer. In fact, he makes his living as the head of an advertising firm in Fresno. And although he paints watercolors in his spare time and considers himself an artist at heart, he wasn’t exactly an obvious choice to land the job that would place him center stage in the world of religious designs.

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But when Vatican emissary Donald Mansir in Jerusalem was allowed to suggest a design for the dome, Normart was his first and only choice.

Mansir, director of the Pontifical Mission in Palestine--the Vatican’s agency for humanitarian relief in the Middle East--received permission from the three controlling churches last year to come up with a redesign plan for the dome. Mansir immediately thought of Normart, whom he had known for more than 10 years, since Mansir was a principal at a Catholic high school in Fresno.

“The hard part was getting the three churches to agree on something, a design that did not favor any one church,” Mansir said. “I didn’t want to get someone who would try and market himself as an artist. I knew Corky had the talent, and had the humility, because artistically this was going to be fairly limited.”

And Mansir considered Normart’s business acumen a plus. He would know how to handle the sometimes-difficult negotiations among the three churches.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has survived centuries of invasions, earthquakes and fires and dozens of repairs and modifications. It retains the same basic configuration it has had since the Crusades in 1048.

The region’s last major earthquake, in 1927, severely damaged the church, and it took decades of debate before the three churches would agree to allow an English company to begin repairs in 1972.

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The renovation of the dome’s interior remained undone, however, until the three churches accepted Normart’s design. Now, that project is expected to be completed by September.

From Normart’s perspective, the hardest part of the renovation is behind him. He submitted nearly two dozen proposals before he came up with one that satisfied the leaders of all three churches.

The design, of course, couldn’t be Greek, Roman or Armenian, or favor any religion more than the others. The Greeks, for a while, argued it should be made of mosaics, their style, but the Armenians and Roman Catholics disagreed.

At last, the churches agreed on a simple design--a cross-lit decoration of gold, blue and white. Twelve gold bars, representing the Apostles, in relief, on a pearl background, point toward the blue skylight.

Critics of the design say it is too simple. But those who know the church say it is the right approach--that it invokes not the majesty and awe of architectural splendors like Santa Sophia or Chartres or St. Peter, but the simple, personal piety that is appropriate for Christianity’s holiest site.