Before and After: St. Joseph's Church in Shanghai, China

Many of our 'before and after' series have come from parts of North America and Europe, but today we are pleased to present another edition of that series coming, this time, from Shanghai, China; specifically, St. Joseph's Church which was built in the 1860's.

As with so many of these restorations, they involve the reclamation of a more traditional sanctuary ordering -- which, in this case, includes the reclamation of a traditional 'Eastward' altar and its accompanying reredos.

Left: Before    Right: After

In addition to this, readers will also note that the sanctuary carpeting has been removed -- thus making the sanctuary both more aesthetically as well as acoustically pleasing.

The restored sanctuary arrangement brings the church black closer to its origins, seen here in this historical photo from sometime in the late 19th or earlier part of the 20th century:

While it is not a total restoration, it certainly restores the sanctuary of this church to its more traditional and noble form.