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Instead, on Sundays, he worshipped in the narthex at the back of Camden First United Methodist Church, separated from the rest of the congregation, with his family at his side in folding chairs.

“This cross is going to sit right where you walk in, in the narthex of the church. It’s where I, as a 15-year-old, poured concrete,” he said.

Damage can be seen on the bottom of a column of precious Aquitaine marble in the narthex.

The entrance, which is also framed by the same angles of the tower shapes, feels both grand and humanly scaled, and functions a bit like the narthex of a cathedral.

Last summer, the church dedicated a special altar in the narthex for people to pray.