From the architectural “Second Spring” department comes good news on a recent church renovation. Architect James McCrery of McCrery Architects in Washington, DC sent this photo of a new altar for an existing church which he is renovating: Saint Bernadette in Linville, North Carolina in the highest peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The new altar, made of Italian marble, is shown here on the left in the church which is still under construction. Notice to the right the old altar, made of slabs of sawn tree trunks.
The pastor, Rev. Christopher M. Gober hired McCrery to do a substantial interior renovation with Architect of Record, Robert Salisbury. The church renovation is part of a larger project of parish improvements including a new rectory, new parish hall and new landscaping. The new altar is the centerpiece of an entirely new sanctuary, and McCrery promises photos forthcoming in late September. McCrery recently started his own firm after working on such projects as the Nashville Dominican Motherhouse Chapel and a new friary for the friars of EWTN with the firm of Franck, Lohsen, McCrery. He is currently at work on the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy project in Chicago.
August 4, 2008 at 7:15 pm
This kind of thing gives me great hope for the future. The tides of madness are receding.
August 4, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Very nice. But, perhaps one day they will finally do away with free standing altars altogether……..
August 4, 2008 at 10:13 pm
There is no reason to “do away” with freestanding altars…no matter which way Mass is said, ad orientem or versus populum. Fixing an altar to a wall is actually less correct than freestanding, even in the EF, because the rubrics call to incense all the way around the altar.
August 5, 2008 at 5:27 am
They may be technically correct, but looking at many of the monstrosities that pass for freestanding altars nowadays, you wouldn’t see me crying over their elimination. A glorious, ornamented soaring high altar or a slab of granite in the middle of the floor. Not a hard choice for me 🙂
August 5, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I’ve been to this parish last summer and saw the plans for the new sanctuary. It’s definitely a giant step away from banal.
BTW, the priest wore an cassock, and vested using an amice, if that tells you anything.
August 7, 2008 at 8:24 pm
the new altar is lovely, but I don’t understand what was so terrible with the wooden one. To me, it looks like a gift of the heart, and one our Lord, a carpenter, would value. The marble is fantastic, but what matters is what happens at the altar, not what it’s made of. From a purely poetic standpoint, having the sacrifice of the Mass take place on wood is more reminiscent of Calvary. They can get rid of it if they want, but it’s cosmetic, not some sort of signal about how orthodox their Masses are.
~Nzie
August 8, 2008 at 3:37 am
Thank you, this is beautiful.
December 7, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Nzie– I understand your point. But the altar is not merely an irrelevant piece of material. It is a sacramental thing, and as such, is intended to indicate the nature of the altar, which is an image of Christ himself. The earthly Christ was indeed humble and his glory was veiled, but the liturgical Christ is the eschatological Christ of power and glory of the Second Coming. For this reason, the tree trunk was inadequate, even as it has a certain sincere charm.