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Marking 150 years, a makeover with eye to tradition
New altar caps celebration at St. Joseph's Church in Morganza
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JAY FRIESS
Parishioners of St. Joseph's Church in Morganza stand near the new altar, which caps a five-year restoration of the church's interior in time for the building's 150th anniversary. Pictured are Karen Adams, left, Dale Lloyd, Deacon Joseph Lloyd, Carolyn Nelson and Sylvia Thompson Brown.
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The faint, sweet smell of incense still hung in the air Sunday afternoon as St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Morganza opened its doors to the general public to celebrate the church building's 150th anniversary and display its new altar.
Just a few hours earlier, Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington had burned the incense in a ceremony consecrating the altar and marking the beginning of Pentecost, the traditional period of the ecclesiastical calendar celebrating the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the end of the Easter season.
The Rev. Keith A. Woods, whose tenure at St. Joseph's has coincided with the restoration of the church's interior, said the spirit of his congregation's 650 families is what gives the building its significance.
"What makes the building beautiful is not the art and the architecture, it's the people in the pews," Woods said. Sunday's service, he said, "has really made it a powerful experience for everybody. It's a Pentecost like we've never had."
The five-year restoration of the 1860 building has included the repainting of the Stations of the Cross carvings lining the walls and the return of a trompe l'oeil, clouded sky in the half-dome above the high altar. The building's large stained glass windows have been restored to their original clarity and rich color.
The pulpit was replaced to match the high altar's marbled look and neoclassical styling, and Sunday's replacement of the lower altar capped the restoration effort.
Woods said that the restoration was a gradual process completed with an eye to the confines of the congregation's purse and tolerance for change. St. Joseph's was founded in 1700, so every change carries the weight of 310 years of tradition.
"We've worked slowly, a little bit at a time, to have the walls painted and the art restored," Woods said.
The changes were aimed at restoration, not modernization. "This [altar] was built specifically for this church," he said. "We wanted the new altar and new pulpit to look like they've always been here."
Whatever their misgivings along the way, the parishioners now embrace the church's new look.
"I think it's magnificent, myself," said Karen Adams of Oakville, who has attended St. Joseph's for the last 40 years.
"I think it's beautiful," said Sylvia Thompson Brown of Loveville, who has attended St. Joseph's all of her life and whose great-grandfather helped build it. Of the new altar, she said, "When you look at it, it looks like part of the original church."
Brown said she has traveled to many churches across the country, but remains impressed with St. Joseph's beauty. "In a rural area, this is one of the most magnificent churches I've seen," Brown said.
Deacon Joseph Lloyd said that two of his great uncles installed the church's high altar in 1915, and, on Friday, he was given the task of performing a homily for the arrival of the new altar before a gathering of St. Mary's County's Catholic clergy.
"I was very much honored," Lloyd said. "I think the accomplishment is in the faith of the people. … I can't take any credit."
