Fishers Of Men

A couple of weeks ago I was called by a woman whose husband passed away and she wanted to do something memorable with the money given to her after his death.  Although their church is quite old and very beautiful, it did not have any stained glass.  So, she approached her church to see if they would allow her to have a stained glass window put into the church in his honor.

LaVada along with myself and the church committee met at the church to discuss what they are looking for.  They liked the look of a design drawn by Pamela Shapiro and created by myself a few years back.  But, they wanted it to be their own design and include significant remembrances.  There were to be two hearts signifying the love between herself and her husband.  He loved to fish, they wanted to include a fish net representing the story of Jesus and the fishermen, and the sky should be oranges, yellows and reds.  This is still a preliminary drawing but I like the direction it is going in.

As often happens, the money they had set aside for this project and the cost did not match.  I will be working with LaVada and the church to work out possible solutions.  My approach when working with churches or any customer for that matter, is to come up with a design that fits their budget if possible.  From there, I will continue designing until I come up with a design I am really happy with.  Sometimes I can do that within their price range and sometimes I can't.  For this project, the drawing shown here will be beyond their financial abilities at this time.  My suggestion to them will be to consider the simpler design that may not exactly fit their vision, or choose the design they really like and do the project in steps.

What it will require to make this work is for a carpenter to remove the existing woodwork behind the altar, create a door on hinges that will allow the church to change light bulbs as needed, and create a framework that will allow the stained glass to be installed in sections that will give the longest life to the stained glass.

The glass I will be recommending is Youghiogheny Stipple glass.  I love this glass because it looks beautiful with or without light.  If the church does not have the money to backlight the window at this time, the windows will still be very beautiful with the existing lighting in the church.  Money for the lighting can be collected and the project finished when they are able to afford it.  Generally speaking, there are always options... changing the kind of glass used, changing the intricacy of the design, adding elements as money becomes available.

One thing I know for sure, after my trip to Europe, I repeatedly had overwhelming feelings of serenity by visiting the numerous churches I visited.  The artwork told the stories of people who lived, struggled, prayed, celebrated, and died before me.  It drew me into a variety of churches where I was able to then experience the goodness of the people that kept each of the churches alive.  For that, I am very grateful.


Pat Deere 

LINKS:  When researching photos to help me draw a boat that would look like one that may have been used during Jesus time, I found these three web sites.  Two of them have information about an ancient boat that was pulled from the mud along the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee in 1986.
Sea Of Gallilee
Sacred Destinations, Jesus Boat Museum
Be Fishers Of Men

An Important Email I Got From A Friend...

(Although this is not a stained glass issue... it affects all of us.)

Dear Friends,

I have received a letter from Great Lakes Geophysical, Inc. in collaboration with the

Patrick Petroleum and West Bay Exploration companies to seek permission to cross my land in search of gas and or oil reserves via seismic testing. I assume

that the residents in my subdivision are also being approached to fill out the survey. 

My home, along with the rest of the residents in the subdivision, is surrounded by

three lakes. I shutter at the consequence of this request.

The area in which I live and to a greater extent, the Irish Hills, is being drilled

for oil now. I drive down Wampler's Road and see constant flaring, 24/7, of the natural 

gas the companies are not interested tapping into, at this time. The last three

words are italicized, because it is inevitable that the flaring of the untapped gas will 

be of great interest, in the future.  

Families already under contract for the leasing of their mineral rights are aware of

the wording that states any means of extracting gas/oil is admissible. However, at the

time of their signing, it was not common knowledge of the controversial oil/gas extraction

method called hydraulic fracturing. Fracking will be used in our area when the situation

is warranted and that will present huge environmental challenges.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fracking

With the numerous oil/gas disasters, large and small, from the Gulf of Mexico; to the

Kalamazoo River; to Napoleon Township, just miles from my home, where they are still

dealing with the contamination of many private wells from a gasoline spill that happened over

20 years ago-- the list goes on. It doesn't matter where it is, what size it is, or what contaminate

was involved, environments are direly affected. Man included.

Community dialoge must take place to better understand the risks involving all aspects of

oil/gas extraction-- from the toxic biocides used in the well bore to kill living organisms; to the

toxic chemicals and vast volumes of water used in the fracking and stimulation of the wells;

to the carcinogens emitted from flaring into the air; to the disposal of the contaminated fluids.

Adding to this needed dialogue is the use of seismic testing, to uncover the oil reserves.

Communities are becoming acutely aware of the adverse impact seismic testing has on wildlife

and the ecosystems around the testing sites.

http://www.wildlandscpr.org/biblio-notes/shake-rattle-roll-understanding-seismic-testing

Guidelines for seismic testing on DEC administered state land - New York- have stipulated

that 'no holes will be drilled in any road, trail picnic areas or other locations where the public

tends to congregate, nor will they be drilled in any wetland, unique natural community or area

of special concern.'  http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/sfseismic.pdf

Canada's native population is embroiled in legal battles to stop seismic testing on the ocean floor

 because of the stress and ultimate destruction of the marine life.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/09/15/nl-seismis-animals-915.html

http://article.wn.com/view/2010/09/15/Seismic_testing_harms_wildlife_environmentalists/

All communities will face the same issues. It doesn't matter if it involves wetland, ground or ocean,

seismic testing is affecting fragile ecosystems across the board.

What I see happening in my own back yard is a community known for its abundant natural resources

allowing oil and gas companies to transform its identity for corporate gain. Resources that make up

the land we are living on, farming on, playing on are being extracted for corporate profit. 

Yes, this is capitalism. But when a community's health, quality of life and well-being could be compromised, 

wouldn't it make sense to be asking the right questions before the irreversible has taken place?

Serious questions for serious times.

Pam

St. Patricks Church, Providence Ohio

What a thrill today.  My friend Pam and I were looking for a place to take our first kayak trip of the season, once the weather breaks and the ice turns into water that can be navigated.  Actually, I should back up a bit and say we started at 7am by serving breakfast at the Salvation Army in Adrian.  From there, we were looking for a church in Toledo on Locust Street that we never found that has a Latin mass on Sunday mornings.  Neither one of us speaks Latin, but we wanted to experience that.

 

After finding a really fun looking place to launch our boats in the spring, we were reading about the historical significance of this particular area along the Maumee River.  One of the three original buildings left was St. Patricks Church.  Our luck had us drive right by it on the way home and find people in the church removing their Christmas decorations.   We were talking to some of the parishioners of the church and as we left they were nice enough to bring us a couple of historical books about the church.  One was from their 100th year anniversary and the other from the 150th.  The plaque on the outside of the church and the books refer to land donated by Peter Manor, 40,000 bricks made in a nearby kiln, and 5,000 feet of black walnut lumber to help with the building project.  The foundation of the church measured 30'x50', although what we saw was greatly expanded.

The stained glass in the main body of the church was simple but colorful. According to the records I was given, the windows were installed in 1894 and donated by a number of people.  Reference to the artist and origin of the windows is not given. The glass used was pastel and let a lot of light in, which would have been important back in 1845 when the church was first used.

I was personally intrigued by the stained glass window shown at the bottom.  Make note of the reflection of the glass on the windowsill and bible and the closeup of the stained glass.  Although a simple idea, what appears to be a rolled rag method of painting around the border adds a lot of character to the piece.

The words at the bottom of the plaque outside the church read:  "Through the grace of God, this little church stands today, the oldest in continuous use in the Toledo Diocese.  It survived the town fire of 1846 and the cholera plague of the 1850's that eventually caused the demise of Providence, Ohio."


If you get the opportunity, take the time to stop by this great little historical church.  A link to them is below.


Pat Deere

LINK:  St. Patrick's Church, Providence, OH

Voting

Going to vote!  Getting out early before the crowds.

Too many to detail... but Mont St. Michel France Today

Although we do have internet, the signal is very low.  So... a few comments about where I have been and I'll post pictures and details when I get home.

This is part of the Abbey at Mont St. Michel.  It is on an island where the tide comes and goes quickly, surrounding the island.  This picture is one of my favorites taken within the interior of a set of columns.

Yesterday started out church at Notre Dame in Paris.  Yesterday afternoon and today we visited many more churches.  Great bunch of pictures, lots of time to pray and reflect, and it feels good to put my feet up for a while.

Pat Deere

Churches while in Paris

It's already midnight and we are getting up to go to 8:30am mass at Notre-Dame de Paris.  Super exctited about that. If we are late, we will make it to the 10:00am mass.

Churches we saw today that I will blog about when more time and better technology permits...
Notre-Dame de Paris (batteries ran out of my camera... will take more pictures tomorrow).
St. Eustache ... wonderful old church we caught the end of their service on this evening.
St. Merri ... another beautiful church I would like to spend more time in.

Today I was able to spend some quite time at Notre-Dame, light a candle and pray for the people I love and all that I am thankful for, reflect on all of the many artists whose labor of love has gone into the church buildings we visited today.

Much more to come,

Pat Deere

St. Mary le Bow Church, Cheapside, London

And the European church and chapel hunt begins. Today we were lucky enough to stumble upon St. Mary le Bow Church. Tomorrow I am going to buy a tripod for my camera, but for today I have posted a couple of photos from within the church.

Working on this internet system is not like working on my own system so for now, this is all I will post about this church.  But, their link is below and when I am able to work on a keyboard I am familiar with and not on a timed internet card, I plan to add more information about this beautiful church.

Links:  St. Mary le Bow Web Site

Pat Deere

Tomorrow... off to Westminster Abbey.