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Community Corner

Simsbury United Methodist Church Gets a Stained Glass Makeover

Congregation donates intricate new windows.

In many ways, the has much to be thankful for. Over the 100-plus years the church has stood, members of its congregation have not only donated funds to allow for the day-to-day operations of the church, but members have also given the church generous gifts such as a pipe organ and a carillon — an elaborate set of bells in the church’s tower. So when the some of the church’s windows began to buckle, it was of little surprise that several members of the congregation stepped forward and donated a number of stained glass windows.

Parishioners were given the option to donate either half a window, known as a lancet, for $9,000 or an entire window for $18,000. Each lancet features images relating to a story from the Book of Psalms and imagery honoring a lost loved one to whom the window is dedicated as well as a few words in honor of that person.

Since the project started in 2006, four windows have been completed. A fifth window should be completed by Thanksgiving according to Pastor Woody Eddins. The church’s stained glass commission has worked and continues to work with parishioners to not only choose a Psalm to depict, but also to help decide what imagery and wording will appear on the window in honor of their loved ones.

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Although the process of replacing the stained glass windows has been somewhat costly and time consuming, according to Eddins, the parishioners have been very supportive of the project.

“At first it was moving quite slowly,” Eddins said. “But once we got our first window replaced and people saw how beautiful it was and what a nice memorial it could be, the progress really picked up and the whole church has become very enthusiastic.”

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On the church’s east and west side, large and intricate Tiffany stained glass windows have been in place since the 1940s, while many of the church’s “art glass” windows — plain panels of geometric shapes — have buckled with time and stress, the Tiffany windows, according to a recent inspection, have maintained well because of the quality of the workmanship that went into them.

Another large stained glass window, destined for the church’s south side has recently been commissioned and is in the process of being made by Lyn Hovey Studio, Inc. of Boston, Mass. The window, which will cost approximately $100,000 should be completed by the winter of 2012, according to Eddins.

Because patrons are able to have a say in the design of the windows in order to memorialize loved ones, some of the windows feature modern images which one wouldn’t typically expect to see on a stained glass window. Among the modern images are men wearing slacks and jeans, Canadian geese and angels of varying ethnic backgrounds.

Although it is difficult to argue that the stained glass windows add to the aesthetic beautify of the red-brick church, the cost and effort may seem unnecessary or wasteful to some, a concern which Pastor Eddins has taken into consideration. 

“People might ask, ‘Why would you spend all this money on windows — on decoration? Why don’t you spend the money on people in the world who are starving?’” Eddins said. “But I would say that we can do both. I think it’s meaningful to have a beautiful place to worship. And the better we can worship, the more we can help.”

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