The first, which I wished to share with you today, is a design for Saint Mary Help of Christians in Aiken, South Carolina. This proposal was commissioned by Father Gregory Wilson, the pastor of the same.
McCrery comments that "this project is for an entirely new church building and gardens situated in the midst of the city of Aiken in western South Carolina... Its design is inspired by the great number of fine buildings in Aiken, by Renaissance architecture, and the churches of the very early Christian period."
Here are some of the watercolours of the proposed church:
Wonderfully, it would appear that a ciborium is planned. My one comment is that the altar itself (if the drawing is indicative of the parish's intent) is pushed toward the nave and thus to versus populum celebrations. My own suggestion would be to centre this altar beneath the ciborium, both for reasons of symbolism and symmetry related to altar and ciborium, and also to ensure the most ceremonial ease regardless of whether Mass is celebrated versus populum or ad orientem.
With more and more clergy opting to use both forms of the Roman liturgy, and with an increasing interest in our tradition of ad orientem, it would certainly seem very prudent and forward thinking to facilitate these potentialities and likelihoods.
That said, the design looks quite edifying. Yet another nice proposal from McCrery.
