A Virtual Tour of the Church of the Resurrection

(click on bold text links for pictures)

No one looking at the Church to-day from the outside, and its neighbourhood, would imagine that it was founded as a missionary venture to the wrong side of the tracks. But such is the truth: for in its first four years, the Church was on the “wrong” side of the Park Avenue tracks of the New York Central Railroad, before they were covered over. Even now, of course, one can occasionally feel the trains going beneath Park Avenue. Once the tracks were covered, the fashionable neighbourhood extended to the Third Avenue “El” which in turn then formed the boundary.

To the right of the Church you will see the Bishop Albert Chambers Parish House, built in 1913. It was built as a lying-in hospital, and was used as such, and later as an eye and ear hospital operated by Dr Lempert, until 1961, when the hospital closed and the building was purchased by the Church in a Herculean effort led by Father Chambers. It gave the Church the space it needed for proper offices, clergy accommodation and, eventually, for its own school. The Church and School offices are on the ground floor, classrooms on the second and third floors, apartments used by school staff on the fourth floor, the organist on the fifth, and the Rectory on the sixth.

The Church is made of rough ashlar stone in pointed Gothic style with free stone trimmings. It was built in 1868. The architect was James Renwick Jnr who had drawn the plans which won the competition for Grace Church, Lower Broadway, when only twenty-three years old. He later achieved recognition for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and for Calvary Church at Fourth Avenue and 20^th Street, here in New York. His most famous work is probably the Roman Catholic Cathedral here in the city. Resurrection is very like an English country church, its roof supported by timbers, and hammer beams, tie beams, king posts and criss-crossed braces form a pattern overhead. It really is an oasis of calm from the heaving city outside its doors. In 1905, the short square topped tower was added.

Walking in the front door, you will see in the vestibule and stairway three colour drawings made by Ralph Adams Cram of proposed alterations and decoration to the Church in 1926. The drawings would have placed Resurrection in the Cram idea of the Gothic revival, and did not find favour with the Vestry.

Walking into the Church you will see at once the stone altar, high above the nave floor, unchanged since the beginning. Above it is a carved, stone-gabled canopy supported by two rose marble columns, each surmounted by a stone angel. The sculptured reredos depicts in heavy relief one of the most moving scenes of the New Testament: St Mary Magdalene’s meeting with the Risen Lord outside the Holy Sepulchre. The subject was chosen as the original dedication of the Church (until 1907) was the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is no less appropriate to-day in the Church of the Resurrection. The moment chosen is the exact one when St Mary Magdalene, supposing Our Lord to have been the gardener, hears Him speak her name and with that knows that He has risen as He said.

Originally there were twenty rows of pews. One was removed in 1902, and two more in 1943 when the former Lady Altar was installed. More were removed in the 1970s. Allowing eight to a pew, 240 can be seated in the nave.

If you begin at the rear of the Church you will see the Holy Water stoup, crafted of silver and a real sea shell in Spain. The three cherubs support the sea shell, which contains Holy Water. Taking holy water and making with it the Sign of the Cross is an ancient Christian custom.

The Font is original to the Church as far as we know, and is crafted of white Caen marble supported by four legs. Fonts are usually located in the west of a church near the door, to signify that Baptism is the gate to the other six Sacraments.

Above the Font are three stained glass windows each on a different level. The bottom one, almost certainly a Tiffany creation, is of Easter lilies on a blue-green background. Above it is a large purple and green window of a slightly earlier style. High atop both is a small roundel with a charming crown. Dates and provenance of the top two are uncertain. They were uncovered in 1991, during an extensive restoration, as was the window over the High Altar. A plaque now in the east vestibule of the Church suggests that the large middle window was given as a memorial to Capt. Lindsay Richardson, of Company K, the 7^th Regiment. Because of Tiffany’s known work for the Seventh Regiment Armory, it has long been thought probable that the window was of his design.

The stained glass windows in the Nave are by the Philadelphia studio of Duncan Terry and were the last commission executed by him, in 1991. Each is of clear glass with a roundel shield depicting an attribute of each of the Twelve Apostles. The great puzzle is the windmill for St James the Less, which we have not seen elsewhere mentioned as a symbol of that Apostle.

The pulpit is the original one placed in the Church in 1868, as can be seen by the legend at its base. It was originally on the other side of the Church, but was exchanged with the Lady Altar in 1950 by Father Chambers so that the pulpit would be, correctly, on the Gospel side.

The Shrine of the Sacred Heart is next to the pulpit. This shrine was installed in 2004, and the statue of Our Lord, candlesticks, and hanging lamp were all crafted in Spain for this shrine. This is the National Shrine of the Guild of All Souls, a devotional society of prayer for the dead, and the Guild’s prayer are said here daily.

Banners are often placed in the Church at festive seasons, and among them you may notice the banner of the Resurrection with its highly embroidered grey silk, a product of the famous studio of Sir Ninian Comper. It was designed by him in the 1920s, and produced by the Sisters of Bethany in their workrooms in England. A funeral pall was provided from the same source at that time. The banner of the Blessed Sacrament on red velvet (from a French studio c. 1920) will be seen on the opposite side of the altar.

The altar rails were brought forward in the restoration which introduced the westward facing choir altar. That altar has now been removed permanently, but the rails remain below, which assists the infirm in approaching the Blessed Sacrament.

The hanging rood, a thank offering for the fifth anniversary of Father Gordon B. Wadhams’ rectorate in 1940 was the work of Dutch sculptor Joep Nicholas, then living as a refugee in this country. The window over the High Altar was then filled in, as it was thought to detract from the rood. It remained covered for fifty years.

The Alston Memorial Organ by the McManis Organ Company of Kansas City, installed in 1962, was a munificent gift at the time but has, alas, not fared well. The organ is no longer in working condition, and the task before our parish is to provide for a new pipe organ for the twenty-first century. Can you help?

The polychrome Holy Oil aumbry was installed during the tenure of Father Bourne (1920-1935) and was originally intended to be an aumbry for the Blessed Sacrament. Father Wadhams installed a proper tabernacle on the altar, and with that, the aumbry was converted to its correct use for the storage of the three Holy Oils used in the sacred liturgy: Oil of the Catchumens, Oil of the Sick, and Holy Chrism. It is the product of the Robbins studio of New York.

A magnificent Paschal Candle stand also by Robbins would be standing on the pavement before the Gospel horn of the altar during the forty days of Easter. This enormous stand befits the importance of the Paschal Candle and Eastertide itself. The stand seems to have been supplied toward the end of Father Wadhams’ time, which came in 1949, with his submission to the Roman Catholic Church.

The Stations of the Cross are framed in gold-leaf frames and are Italian naïf paintings.

A large collection of frontals and vestments is in constant use at the Resurrection, including altar frontals according to season, most with matching tabernacle veils. There are white, gold, red, violet, black, rose and green high mass sets, each complete with chasuble, dalmatic, tunicle, stoles, maniples, chalice veil, burse, and humeral veils. They are worn according to season. Resurrection is one of few churches still using humeral veils during the mass for the subdeacon. There are also several copes in use for processions, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, at High mass on Sundays during the Asperges or Vidi Aquam and at Absolution of the Dead.

To the right of the High Altar on the Epistle side of the Church is the Shrine of Our Lady of Joy. The statue of Our Lady, holding her Child, both standing, was once at the centre of the altar of Our Lady formerly at the head of the aisle. In the middle 1960s, this altar was removed to the Oratory, outside the Church body, and the shrine was re-fitted as it is now. The candles burning before the Shrine testify to Our Lady’s regular clients here. On a Sunday in May, this statue is crowned during the May Festival with a small but glittering crown. A silver hanging lamp burns before this Shrine.

At the head of the aisle is hung the large icon of Our Lady of Smolensk, a 1972 gift of Mrs Murray Bernays, in memory of her husband. The icon is 17^th century Russian, and is a very large example of its kind.

Smaller shrines are in the side aisles, including one of St Benedict, founder of the Benedictine Order, St Michael the Archangel, a 19^th century statue of the Holy Child Jesus with crown, orb and sceptre, and one of Our Lady of Sorrows with St John, both weeping.

At the west end of the Church is the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. This devotion began in Norfolk in England in 1061 when Our Lady appeared to Richeldis de Faversham and asked her to build a replica of the Holy House of Nazareth. A worldwide cult of Our Lady of Walsingham now thrives throughout the Anglican Communion.

Outside the Church, the Oratory contains the former Lady Altar, and the confessional in use at present. The altar, its tabernacle, candlesticks and crucifix are all en suite creations of the Robbins studio.

Resurrection is privileged to have several relics of saints and holy objects. Each of the three altars has relics of martyrs embedded in the altar stones, and four relics of saints regularly adorn the altar, St Valentine, St John Nepomucene, St John Vianney, St Agnes, St Pius V, and St Sebastian. A relic of the Holy Cross, once the property of the chapel of an Italian princely family, is one of our most prized possessions.