I copy this from the Deacon’s Bench with links:
WHILE THE CHURCH IS NEW, IT ALSO HAS MANY VINTAGE ELEMENTS INCORPORATED INSIDE, MAKING IT A WELL-SPRING OF ART THAT REACHES BACK OVER 100 YEARS.
People who say, “They don’t build them like that anymore” need to see what has just happened in Daniel Island, South Carolina.
There, in the Diocese of Charleston, they’ve just dedicated St. Claire of Assisi Catholic Church. (Full disclosure: the pastor is a friend of mine, Father Gregory West. I posted about the project a couple years back.)
Now, the new church is featured in Liturgical Arts Journal:
After eight years of planning, design, and construction the beautiful new church of St. Clare of Assisi on Daniel Island (Charleston, South Carolina) has been dedicated. Construction took three years and two months. With great solemnity it was consecrated on April 22 in a liturgy celebrated by the new bishop of Charleston, the Most Rev. Jacques Fabre-Jeune, CS.
Washington D.C. based architects Franck & Lohsen are responsible for the design and they worked with a local company, Trident Construction, and Hord Architects of Tennessee. Evergreene Architectural Arts helped design interior elements. The cross came from Demetz Art Studio in Italy. The bells came from Paccard in Annecy, France.
Visitors who pass through the main entrance are greeted with beautiful words carved above the entrance portal: “LOVE GOD. SERVE GOD.” This is a quote taken from St. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253), the church’s patroness.
This new church is a triumph and yet another example of centrifugal forces striving in many places to restore the sacred – a return to a Catholic synthesis – in the realm of ecclesiastical architecture. While the church is new, it also has many vintage elements incorporated inside, making it a well-spring of art that reaches back over 100 years. Hearty congratulations to this wonderful new community, the founding pastor, Fr. H. Gregory West, and all the fortunate parishioners. Generations will worship here and benefit from the great beauty that is on display for the greater honor and glory of God.
My comments:
This is how to do a free-standing altar. This church incorporates older liturgical items harvested from churches which have been closed, usually in the northeast. The free standing altar is new, but from the congregation’s point of view, it looks like one piece and not two competing altars, although the 100 year old reredos has an altar, but it is not pronounced with this configuration. And the free standing altar is in its traditional three or more steps higher than the main level of the sanctuary.
But first, my bishop of faculties I have in Charleston :
6 comments:
This church building is now the home of the Bishop England High School weekly all-school Holy Mass. thanks be to God! Back in the ‘80s when we were downtown crammed on two acres, Mass was on a practical folding table in the gym with a contingent of apprentice Hippies providing the hootenanny. Father West is an alumnus. He’s now done as much for our alma mater than any single person since Fr O’Brien founded the school in 1915. Please pray that the juxtaposition of this great church and great school produces many more vocations like Father West.
Magnificent - when I was a tiny child, attending the Basilica at Notre Dame was a feast for the eyes and kept me occupied while listening to Palestrina and Chant. After the Calvinists took over the liturgy and church architecture, young kids must have been bored stiff. No wonder they have no great memories of their time in Church
Stunning church.
Agree on the altar cloth. After taking the time and spending the money to add such magnificence to this structure, the simple detail of a crumpled cloth is analogous to wearing the finest suit with unpolished shoes.
Best wishes to those who will receive graces while enjoying their new home for years to come.
Father, you need to take your "iron" pills or you're gonna bust a gut. (I agree BTW)
The sacristan needs to be spanked! Such an obvious miss
In terms of the Liturgy, the Dedication Mass was dignified, but they missed a real opportunity. The Vidi Aquam was probably the best thing that was done from a musical and liturgical perspective. The Roman Canon was not used, a HUGE mistake. For a Church of this beauty they should have had an entire Latin Missa Cantata because it looks like this congregation could have handled it. I noticed they sang the Agnus Dei quite well, so no one was going to storm out, if they had a Dedication Mass, constistent with the beauty of this structure. That being said, this was a HUGE improvement over the slop that was served to us routinely in the 1970s-through the 1990s.
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