Agreed! Stunning, stunning, stunning, it should never have been wreckavated but hey it is back where it should be and Deo Gratias for that, everything in place high altar, six candlesticks, crucifix, tabernacle in the center, communion rail, pulpit on the right and high above the congregation, bishops cathedra not behind the altar but where it should be to the left and focus on the altar of sacrifice. God willing many many TLM's will be offered there, love the Latin written around the Baldachino and no more FELT BANNERS on each side. TLM TLM TLM
Duncan Stroik is the gold standard of Catholic architects. If he works on your church, it is guaranteed to be better when finished.
Likewise, Richard Vosko is poison. If your bishop announces that Vosko has been appointed to renovate your parish church, it's time to find another parish (and question the sanity of your bishop).
When the altar, as here, has a ciborium magnum (baldacchino) it is going to be freestanding, and Mass can be celebrated in either orientation. Let's hope that the liturgy is worthy of its setting. This is not a foregone conclusion; although the cathedral has enviable musical resources (a mixed choir of 40-50, a chant schola, even a group specializing in Renaissance polyphony) the attitude of the cathedral clergy is crucial. Even Palestrina can't rescue a pedestrian and studiedly informal vernacular Novus Ordo.
One thing that makes us Brits envious - a historic church with acres of parking space!
John Nolan, yes the attitude of the clergy is very important. From their decorum, gravitas, how they are vested and carry themselves, etc. One can have the most beautiful of structures, a wonderful choir, but if the clergy are bufffoons, it accounts for very little.
It wasn't until I looked at my post on my iPad where it is easy to expand the photos that I realized the before photo has the ambo on one side and altar on the other side and guess who is plopped in the middle as king of the cathedral? The celebrant's chair.
Rambush was hired to renovate our Cathedral Basilica in Savannah around 1974 and the plans he submitted would have ripped out the high altar and place the bishop's throne there and the sanctuary would have been pulled forward into the name with the altar on one side and the ambo on the other. Once word got out about it, the bishop was derided and a huge controversy erupted throughout the diocese. After a few death threats the bishop withdrew his proposal to renovate.
Fr A sounds like the new priest of my youth that i talk about once in a while, the plans he had were absolute destruction, rip everything out, choir in the old sanctuary,after all the old wood ornate altars were burned, altar in the middle of the building, round pews, even the stained glass and the loft had to go. then we had conformation, 10 weeks after he came, Bishop sat up front and i quote " It is so wonderful to be in a church with all the beautiful altars still intact and the wonderful stained glass and the statues, love them. Oh and the choir sounds so heavenly up there in the loft where they belong." Fr never brought up a remodel again, just paint and weatherproofing. Still to this day i wonder how much money slipped under the door at the archdiocese office, when i ask questions of some of the eldest members of the parish all I get is grins
10 comments:
Agreed! Stunning, stunning, stunning, it should never have been wreckavated but hey it is back where it should be and Deo Gratias for that, everything in place high altar, six candlesticks, crucifix, tabernacle in the center, communion rail, pulpit on the right and high above the congregation, bishops cathedra not behind the altar but where it should be to the left and focus on the altar of sacrifice. God willing many many TLM's will be offered there, love the Latin written around the Baldachino and no more FELT BANNERS on each side. TLM TLM TLM
Yes, both the cathedral church and the church in Spartanburg are beautiful. The architectural
lines are great in both churches.
Duncan Stroik does marvelous work. Please go to his website and be enchanted.
Duncan Stroik is the gold standard of Catholic architects. If he works on your church, it is guaranteed to be better when finished.
Likewise, Richard Vosko is poison. If your bishop announces that Vosko has been appointed to renovate your parish church, it's time to find another parish (and question the sanity of your bishop).
When the altar, as here, has a ciborium magnum (baldacchino) it is going to be freestanding, and Mass can be celebrated in either orientation. Let's hope that the liturgy is worthy of its setting. This is not a foregone conclusion; although the cathedral has enviable musical resources (a mixed choir of 40-50, a chant schola, even a group specializing in Renaissance polyphony) the attitude of the cathedral clergy is crucial. Even Palestrina can't rescue a pedestrian and studiedly informal vernacular Novus Ordo.
One thing that makes us Brits envious - a historic church with acres of parking space!
John Nolan, yes the attitude of the clergy is very important. From their decorum, gravitas, how they are vested and carry themselves, etc. One can have the most beautiful of structures, a wonderful choir, but if the clergy are bufffoons, it accounts for very little.
It wasn't until I looked at my post on my iPad where it is easy to expand the photos that I realized the before photo has the ambo on one side and altar on the other side and guess who is plopped in the middle as king of the cathedral? The celebrant's chair.
Rambush was hired to renovate our Cathedral Basilica in Savannah around 1974 and the plans he submitted would have ripped out the high altar and place the bishop's throne there and the sanctuary would have been pulled forward into the name with the altar on one side and the ambo on the other. Once word got out about it, the bishop was derided and a huge controversy erupted throughout the diocese. After a few death threats the bishop withdrew his proposal to renovate.
nave
Fr A
sounds like the new priest of my youth that i talk about once in a while, the plans he had were absolute destruction, rip everything out, choir in the old sanctuary,after all the old wood ornate altars were burned, altar in the middle of the building, round pews, even the stained glass and the loft had to go.
then we had conformation, 10 weeks after he came, Bishop sat up front and i quote " It is so wonderful to be in a church with all the beautiful altars still intact and the wonderful stained glass and the statues, love them. Oh and the choir sounds so heavenly up there in the loft where they belong." Fr never brought up a remodel again, just paint and weatherproofing. Still to this day i wonder how much money slipped under the door at the archdiocese office, when i ask questions of some of the eldest members of the parish all I get is grins
Death threats over a proposed cathedral renovation? Really? Some people need to get a life. Really.
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