St. Alban’s Chapel Refitting, March 2023

 The Cathedral has been the recipient of a wonderful gift by the The Very Rev. Gary Kriss, D.D., the seventeenth dean of the Cathedral of All Saints and a former dean of Nashotah House Theological Seminary. In his retirement he has been the Rector of St. Paul's Church in Salem, New York and hence has taken for himself the title, The priest of Salem. The priest of Salem you will remember was Melchizedek who blessed Abraham. 

Dean Kriss has continued his love of and service to the Cathedral of All Saints and often celebrates the daily Mass on the current Dean's day off. Dean Kriss was responsible for the original design of the St. Alban's Chapel which is located on the Elk Street side of the Cathedral near the Song School. This room was in his time a room filled with radio transmitting equipment for the radio broadcasting of the Sunday services. When the technology became obsolete Dean Kriss designed and furnished the St. Albany Chapel and for many years that was the location of the daily services at the Cathedral. The chapel is still in use for prayer and meditation and services and especially when scheduling in the Nave makes a quiet service otherwise impossible. Some will remember that the early Sunday service was there while the Cathedral floors were being redone. If you haven't seen this Chapel I encourage you to go there and say a prayer. The Chapel is reached through the ambulatory which connects the Lady Chapel with the Song School. 

Dean Kriss has helped us find the original altar and sedalia designed for that chapel and has added a beautiful reredos for the altar which he commissioned from the well known New Mexican artist Santero Nicolas Otero. Otero is one of the leading figures in a maturing generation of artists who work in various media in the Spanish Colonial tradition. He regularly wins awards at the annual Spanish Market in Santa Fe and his work hangs in museums and churches. The reredos is in honor of Our Lady of Peace and includes a figure of St. Alban. In addition Dean Kriss has contributed a striking 19th century Spanish crucifix. We are very grateful to Dean Kriss for these wonderful additions to the beauty and reverence of the St. Alban chapel. 

— Dean Harding +