The Cathedral Close

The Oberammergau Cross and Saint Alban's Altar

The Oberammergau Cross

In 2007, Mr. William Howe of Saint Alban’s Anglican Church in Pennsylvania learned that his boyhood church in the tiny mining town of Karthaus, PA would be permanently closed. The parent church, Saint Mary’s, Frenchville, asked Bill if his company would use its heavy equipment to remove the bell from the mission and transport it to the main parish. Concerned over the potential loss of other church items, particularly the mission’s unique carved Cross, Bill arranged for their transfer to The Very Reverend Canon Charles H. Nalls in the hope that one day they could be put to use in an Anglo-Catholic setting. Subsequently, the pews have been given to Saint Columba’s (ACC) in Warrenton, VA and the altar has been at the center of St. Cyprian’s Chapel in Baltimore, Maryland.

During a snowstorm in the winter of 2007, Canon Nalls traveled to Karthaus to retrieve the Oberammergau Cross from the shuttered church. The Cross had been commissioned by a group of men from Karthaus who had made a pilgrimage to Oberammergau just after the Second World War. They returned home to Karthaus carrying the Cross, which is hand carved from local wood around Oberammergau and installed it in the mission church where it remained for a half-century. In turn, Canon Nalls presented the Cross to the Vestry of Saint Alban’s following his institution as Rector and Dean.
We express our deep thanks to those who had this unique work commissioned to the honor and glory of God, to Mr. Bill Howe for his preservation of a treasure of the Church, and to Messrs. Chuck Robinson and Michael Mazza for their care and work in installing the Oberammergau Cross over the high altar of Saint Alban’s Pro-Cathedral.