Churches care for window wonders
Behind any church door are the stories of its congregation and its buildings. And a church's stained glass windows exemplify cooperation, collaboration, vision and faith.
For example, once there were three Lutheran churches in the Chicora area.
The St. Paul Lutheran Church and the First Lutheran Church, both built in the mid-1800s, were across the street from each other. Mount Pleasant Lutheran Church, built in 1888 in Sugarcreek Township, Armstrong County, was about five miles away.
On Jan. 1, 1988, the three congregations united as Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, dedicating their new church building at 2217 Chicora Road, Chicora, on May 2, 1993.
“The windows we have are old windows,” said Esther Stahlman, the congregation administrator.
“We have seven windows in our sanctuary and they are all from St. Paul,” she said.
The “Good Shepherd Room” at Holy Trinity, named for its window, is used for meetings and for visitations before funerals. The window is a portion of a window from First Lutheran.
Stahlman said, “It's a wonderful visual to have in a room where you're doing church business. It's so inspirational.”
A round window showing an open Bible is from the Mount Pleasant church and graces the entryway of the new church.
“No matter where you had worshiped, you had something from your building,” said Stahlman. “There is such love attached to the stuff where you grew up.”
She said the former pastor, the Rev. James Higgins, was very good at bringing people together.
“He helped us mold into a church family,” said Stahlman. “There is lots of cooperation, and there are lots of good leaders.”When the congregation of Cabot United Methodist Church, 707 Winfield Road, outgrew its building and moved to the former Winfield Elementary School, its members took the church windows and the church bell with them.“We had to have them professionally removed and crated for storage,” said its pastor, Rev. Matt Judd. “We've been storing them for the past 10 years.”Construction for the new sanctuary at the old school is in progress and should be finished in December. Recently the windows went to a company for restoration and refurbishing.“We're going to put in three main windows in the fall,” said Judd. Side windows will be refurbished and installed later.“They are part of the history of the church, and our desire was to retain the connection with the history,” Judd said. “We hold on to what God has done and what He will continue to do.“We've tried to incorporate both traditional and contemporary elements,” he said. “We'll have stained glass windows and the bell from 1921. We'll have state-of-the-art video and technology. The worship space will have a community feel with a little of an auditorium look but a church look and a high vaulted ceiling to go with that.”Today's congregation at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church, 128 N. McKean St., is giving a gift to the church's future worshipers: beautifully restored windows.In October 2010, the first group of windows were sent for restoration to Hunt Stained Glass Studio in Pittsburgh.Prioritized by urgency of repair needs, additional groups of windows left for restoration in June 2012 and March 2013. Many more windows will make the trip as funds are available.“We're doing it little by little,” said the Rev. Harry Bielewicz, pastor of three Roman Catholic parishes in Butler: St. Paul, St. Peter and St. Michael the Archangel.“It is expensive. We've had different campaigns for that purpose, and people have been generous,” Bielewicz said.“It's a good thing,” he said. “The church is 100 years old and the lead was 100 years old.”
When the leading between sections of a stained glass window deteriorates from oxidation and exposure to the elements, there is nothing to support the glass, and it may break or fall out.Hunt office manager Debra Brahler said the restorers take the windows apart piece by piece, carefully clean the glass and delicately repair broken glass. New leading joins the pieces back together again.Before starting the work on a window, restorers cover it with brown craft paper and make rubbings with a crayon. The rubbing becomes a pattern to reassemble the window accurately.St. Ferdinand Roman Catholic Church at 2535 Rochester Road in Cranberry Township did not have old windows to use when it was built.“We were part of St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church in Wexford,” said Joe Lutz, business manager at St. Ferdinand. “As people began moving to the Criders Corners area, the bishop decided that they should put another church or parish out here.“Our former pastor, the Rev. Ken Oldenski, involved people from the building committee, the liturgy committee and the pastoral council to decide on the windows for the new worship site,” Lutz said.Nicholas Parrendo, artist and owner of the Hunt studio, created original window designs for the building. Two semicircular windows were among the 15 stained glass windows selected.People of varied backgrounds depicted in the windows include St. Ferdinand, the king of Spain in the 1300s who freed Christians from Moorish oppression.“It takes about nine months to do a series of windows for a building — as long as it takes to birth a child,” Parrendo said.When the windows are ready, it takes several weeks to put them into place.Parrendo said, “Everything is broken down into sections of at least 12 square feet. We have to make sure the window doesn't buckle.”The St. Ferdinand Church was dedicated on Dec. 23, 1990.Parrendo started making windows when he was 22. Now in his 80s, he still works six days a week and the work he enjoys graces churches nationwide.“You stay centered in God, said Parrendo. “We try to let the glass do the singing.”
