First Presbyterian completes glass project

SKYE POURNAZARI/THE FORUM
Corey Goll and Corey Hager (no relation) with Maryville Glass & Lock, complete a longtime project the First Presbyterian Church has been working to finish.

MARYVILLE, Mo. — With four final pieces of exterior glass installed over the four stained glass pieces on its bell tower, the First Presbyterian Church recently completed a project to make safe the 137-year-old historic pieces of art and close up the building to weather.

Pastor Joel Whiteside told The Forum earlier this week that the four vertically arranged stained glass pieces, which he referenced as “The Beauty of The Cross,” contain a floral design, a large dark cross, and three important words for Christian faith taken from a familiar quote from 1 Corinthians 13:13: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”

He said since beginning its capital campaign before 2019, the congregation — which he said has waned over the years and no longer has the resources it used to — raised $20,000 to clean and refurbish the stained glass throughout the church. Much of the repair work was accomplished by December 2019, however, these four pieces were covered in faded and yellowed plexiglass, blocking the vibrant colors of the stained glass.

Corey Hager and Corey Goll, with Maryville Glass & Lock, made the final installation noting the bell tower window got an “all new aluminum system.”

That new system of aluminum and glass will help stop the water infiltration, Whiteside said. It also allows a much clearer view of the four pieces, which Whiteside said are a part of the church’s history.

The original church on the site — which had been constructed for $10,850 in 1887 — had its share of ups and downs with a 1934 tornado causing a crack in the wall in the southwest part of the building. By the 1970s, the building’s foundation became unstable, causing the stained glass windows to deteriorate and crack. Later in that decade, the congregation began working toward constructing a new building and insisted the pipe organ and stained glass windows be a part of the new construction.

In 1978, the windows were removed, restored and placed into the new building. At that time, a company out of Minnesota was providing the glass renovation and, at no cost to the church, used colored glass from the church school building to create the piece visible now through the clear glass exterior.

In 2019, longtime congregation members Jeff Funston and Brock Pfost told The Forum that the project had been a big one.

“It’s a really pretty church and it’s better when you get a little sun in on either side,” Pfost said at the time.

He said at the time, there was probably a 20 or 30 percent increase in light into the sanctuary following the exterior plastic removal and glass installation. “These windows are a link to our past as a congregation while providing confidence to face the challenges of a new day,” Whiteside said. “… The design is meaningful. It features the cross, the symbol of our faith and the beauty around it.”

He noted that because it is a dark cross, it signifies human suffering and “reflects the beauty of our salvation.”

Together with the floral designs, Whiteside said it proclaims the beauty of faith, provided through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the nature of which is expressed in 1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

To view the newly renewed pieces, the First Presbyterian Church is located at 211 S. Main St.

SKYE POURNAZARI/THE FORUM
Maryville Glass & Lock employees Corey Hager and Corey Goll, hold a piece of glass cut to fit an aluminum system placed over stained glass on the bell tower of the First Presbyterian Church earlier this month. The church project is now complete.

SKYE POURNAZARI/THE FORUM
Running the length of the bell tower at the First Presbyterian Church is a long piece of stained glass, which after the completed new glass work by Maryville Glass & Lock, can be seen much more easily