Scaffolding still obscures the entrance of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and inside craftsmen are busy manning miter saws and layering ceiling plaster and floor tiles.
But a sneak peek inside the Gothic downtown church suggests a glorious restoration, once the $7 million project is completed this fall.
It has been a long three years for the 4,200 members of the congregation, who have worshipped and wed inside the adjacent Averyt Hall in the Trinity Center for Missions and Ministry during the absence from the cathedral.
The completion of the mammoth project comes at a difficult moment for the congregation. The cathedral’s longtime dean, the Very Rev. Philip C. Linder, was suspended July 14 by Bishop W. Andrew Waldo, the new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina. The cause of the action has not been publicized.