Renewed Salisbury church, altar consecrated
A radiant symbol of hope for the Jubilee Year
CLICK HERE to see a gallery of photos from this event.
For some, the roadway to heaven is paved with stones.
Rough-cut stones, quarried from a Chariton County farm 120 years ago, dragged by horses and formed into a house for the Almighty.
“My brothers and sisters, although the people are the true Church of God, this physical structure is a necessary means of evangelization,” Bishop W. Shawn McKnight told the people of St. Joseph Parish in Salisbury Feb. 23.
“In a very real sense, this church building speaks loudly of our faith, especially its beauty and as a place of quiet prayer and devotion,” he said.
The aroma of freshly baked cinnamon rolls from the nearby kitchen melded with fragrant oil and incense as Bishop McKnight consecrated the 1905-vintage church and its new altar during Mass on Feb. 23.
The celebration marked the completion of extensive repairs and renovations to the building, known for its soaring, vaulted arches, dramatic stained-glass windows and resilient acoustics.
Concelebrating priests at the Mass included: Father Jeremy Secrist, pastor of the Salisbury, Wien and Brunswick parishes; Father Benjamin Armentrout, who grew up in St. Joseph Parish; Father Gregory Oligschlaeger, dean of the Central Deanery; Father Boniface Nzabonimpa, former pastor of St. Joseph Parish; and Father Louis Nelen, Father Joseph Luzindana and Father Joshua Duncan, pastors of nearby parishes.
The sanctuary of the church includes a newly built altar, an intricate, antique pulpit, an equally historical table for the tabernacle, and a restored crucifix.
Jay Thompson of Glasgow, who was commissioned to construct the new altar, also built and donated the new, larger cross for the crucifix.
Artisans from Autenrieb Church Painting, who redecorated the walls and ceiling, repaired and repainted the antique image of Christ on the crucifix.
“Every time I look up at it, I’m reminded of the bleeding wounds of parishioners that can only be healed in and through the cross and the wounds of our Savior,” said Fr. Secrist.
Bishop McKnight pointed in his homily to Jesus’s message in John 12 that when God’s Son would be lifted up from the earth, he would draw all people to himself.
“For us Catholics, therefore, the crucifix is an essential image for our place of worship,” the bishop proclaimed. “Only through the death and resurrection of our Lord do we have access to the Father and are given the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
“We are not a church of the ‘gospel of prosperity,’ but disciples of the Suffering Servant,” the bishop insisted. “We are not afraid to make sacrifices for our good and the good of others.”
The newly acquired pulpit and tabernacle stand, came from out-of-state churches that had closed.
The new altar of sacrifice, where the Eucharist is celebrated, is fashioned of oak, topped with polished granite.
The front of it is adorned with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, eluding to Jesus’s words in Revelation 22: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Train whistles echoed in the distance as Bishop McKnight blessed the sanctuary fixtures, reverently placed relics of St. James the Greater, one of the Twelve Apostles, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a 19th-century contemplative mystic, under the altar stone.
He lavishly anointed the new altar with Sacred Chrism, the consecrated oil that is used in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation and to anoint priests and bishops at their ordination.
The bishop prayed: “May the Lord by his power sanctify this altar and this house, which by our ministry we anoint, so that as visible signs they may express the mystery of Christ and the Church.”
Fr. Secrist and Fr. Oligschlaeger anointed the walls with Chrism, tracing the shape of a cross under the candle sconces on facing walls in the front and back of the church.
In prayer, Bishop McKnight beseeched the Lord to “graciously pour forth from heaven your sanctifying power upon this church and upon this altar, to make this forever a holy place with a table always prepared for the Sacrifice of Christ.”
He placed a large quantity of incense into a brazier with burning charcoal on the altar, filling the church with aromatic smoke.
“Let our prayer rise, O Lord, like incense in your sight,” the bishop prayed, “and as this house is filled with a pleasing fragrance, so let your Church be fragrant with the aroma of Christ.”
Fr. Secrist and Fr. Oligschlaeger then incensed the people and the walls of the church.
Theresa Armentrout and Shelley Meissen, whose sons are priests who grew up in the parish, reverently wiped down the altar and set the new altar linens in place.
Priests and altar servers lit all the candles in the church for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
After Holy Communion, everyone knelt down as the Most Blessed Sacrament was placed in the tabernacle and the vigil lamp was lit, indicating Christ’s abiding presence.
The people adjourned to the parish hall after Mass for a soup and chili cook-off, featuring more than 30 recipes.
“If it be asked”
The mural depicting Christ and the Seven Sacraments on the gothic arch above the sanctuary was created in 2000.
The church was built in 1905 under the leadership of Father Joseph Lubeley.
Joseph Conradi, a nationally-renowned architect from St. Louis, designed the church and convinced the parishioners to build it of stone, rather than brick.
He envisioned a 110-by-40-foot gothic edifice with seating for 300 people and a spire as high as the building is long.
Each Sunday, parishioners went to Mass in their old church, then spent all afternoon hauling stones that had been quarried on a farm south of the construction site.
Bishop Maurice F. Burke of the former Diocese of St. Joseph presided at the Dedication Mass.
Archbishop John J. Glennon of St. Louis preached the homily in English.
“If it be asked, ‘Why is this temple reared?’” the archbishop proclaimed from the pulpit, “let the cross, pointing heavenward, be the answer. It stands as the emblem of peace and hope. Beneath it every tribe and race may gather, every word of God shall stand, and only truth as taught by Jesus is to be the object of the teaching from this sacred altar.”
Out of exile
Over the decades, heat and moisture seeping in through the church’s roof and stones had damaged the ceiling and the plaster on the walls.
The building was no longer safe.
Masses were offered in the school gym while the parish worked with Brad Copeland, diocesan director of buildings and properties, on options for repairing and restoring the church.
Fr. Secrist became pastor of the Salisbury, Brunswick and Wien parishes in September 2023.
One of the readings at Mass shortly after he arrived was about the Israelites returning home after their 70-year captivity in Babylon.
“The rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple was only part of the equation,” Fr. Secrist noted. “The big part was rebuilding that sense of purpose for the Lord’s people.”
The reading had a familiar feel.
“One thing we were hoping and praying for was to be able to get back into our church,” he said.
On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ last June, parishioners took part in a procession of the Most Blessed Sacrament from the gym back to the church.
“There were no altar or pews,” Fr. Secrist recalled. “But, as we were entering the church and singing, I could tell in that acoustic, in the amplification of all their voices and how they were responding to it, that this is where we need to be.”
It was a moment of great hope — “that sense that we have to see past the current challenges to the promises God has made and which he will fulfill if we are faithful,” the priest said.
A series of unexpected gifts and providential occurrences throughout the planning and restoration reinforced that point again and again.
“I am fully aware that St. Thérèse of Lisieux has come through for us and that the saints have been providing intercession for this whole endeavor,” said Fr. Secrist.
The work continues, with portions the 1905-vintage Pfeffer organ case being restored and enlarged, repainted and re-gilded, with pipes being prepared to be installed by the Christopher Soer Pipe Organ Co. of Union, Mo.
“One on hand, we are preserving a visual connection to the past, but having it speak with a renewed voice,” the priest stated.
“Tangible signs”
At the Rededication Mass, Bishop McKnight described the Liturgy as “a dance between the Incarnate Word of God and our earthly, human reality.”
“The sacramental character of our Catholic faith is built upon our belief that God can and does interact with us, even now, through tangible signs to convey invisible realities of grace,” he said.
That is why it is necessary for Catholics to have a sacred place, a consecrated edifice, set aside from profane use for the interactions between God and Man.
Furthermore, the bishop noted, God wants to use the people of St. Joseph Parish to bless other people in their community.
“What we are celebrating today is not simply the blessing of a physical structure, but OUR renewal of dedication to God through our belief in the teachings of the Catholic Church, through our charitable works, and through our sacramental life,” he said.
