I&C On the Road: Tryon, North Carolina

We’re back, after an eventful few days. On Friday, you might remember, I was to have driven a group of boys — the Holy Crusaders from our parish — to the U.S. Army Chaplain Museum in Columbia, South Carolina.

This plan did not materialize. I had lost my van’s registration (don’t ask), which I would have needed for admission to the army base housing the museum; another mother’s brake lights refused to work; then I managed to lose my keys. If you’re forming an impression of my level of competence here, well, there’s not much I can say about that. Things disappear, and I’m sure it’s my fault. Actually, I’ve been praying for help in cultivating the virtue of humility, which might have had something to do with the state of affairs Friday morning. Never, ever, ever pray for humility while planning a road trip. Ever.

So we didn’t go to Columbia to see the army chaplains. Instead — once the church janitor found my keys, which I’d left in a humility-inducingly obvious place — we wound up going to Tryon, North Carolina, to view the renovations at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church.

My own photos were too dark to be worth posting, but you can view before and after shots at New Liturgical Movement. The conversation there regarding the renovations is worth reading, and I’d be interested in hearing what our own readers have to say about the ongoing transformation of this church.

I will say that since these photos were taken, back in April, the church has added a background of gorgeous cherry paneling above the altar, which warms that space immeasurably and harmonizes a little better with the blue trim at the top. All the wood detailing is the work of a young man who grew up in the parish and is now a furniture-design student at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, and it is impressive. I’ll see if I can’t dig up some more up-to-date pictures of it. As I say, mine are really not worth the effort of posting. They’ve also since installed stained glass in the windows, which darkens the space atmospherically. You enter, from the ordinary white daylight, into a place that glows like a jewel. The difference between the “after” photo at NLM and the current “after” is astounding. It’s a different church yet again.

At any rate, St. John’s deserves a shot at Best Renovation in the ongoing I&C Church Challenge. Kudos to Fr. Winslow and his team as they continue to reclaim this space for the sacred.