Stained glass windows on Display here
SCRANTON, Pa. — Although the century-old St. John the Baptist Church met its demise in 2017, six of its ornate stained-glass windows live on 1,100 miles away in Hartington’s Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
“The part that I believe in personally is preserving the patrimony,” Holy Trinity pastor Owen Korte told the Scanton, Pa., Times-Tribune.
“The people of that parish, years ago, sacrificed to put these windows in ... and I would hope that they feel another part of them lives on,” Korte said.
When the 111-year-old church in Throop, Pa., consolidated with three other parishes to form the Blessed Sacrament Parish in 2009, it worked with a vendor to sell the windows, said Msgr, Michael Delaney, pastor of Blessed Sacrament. The church was demolished in October 2017.
Holy Trinity purchased the windows for $67,000, spending about $100,000 more to renovate and install the stained glass, Korte said.
“When the sun really does hit them at the right angle, they’re just gorgeous,” he said.
Holy Trinity originally had a “hodgepodge” of geometric-shaped stained glass, but after encountering problems with the colored windows, the parish temporarily switched to regular, clear ones, he said.
Korte discussed the idea of purchasing stained-glass windows with parishioners, and they eventually flooded the church with offers to sponsor the ornamental glass, he said.
The pastor knew he wanted antique-style windows with common Catholic themes, so he reached out to King Richard’s Liturgical Design and Contracting, the vendor that acquired the windows from St. John the Baptist Church. He told King Richard’s what the church was looking for and the dimensions it needed.
“These turned out to be absolutely perfect,” Korte said.
The windows include scenes of Jesus with children, his birth, his baptism and his crucifixion, Korte said. Installation has been taking place over the past two years and the last windows will be installed before mid-November.
“The common line I’m hearing is that our church finally looks like a church,” he said.
Delaney hopes the windows’ new home will comfort former parishioners of St. John, explaining that there’s a sense of sadness and grieving surrounding the closure of a church.
“It’s an amazing thing to think that seeds of faith that were planted 125 years ago in Throop are going to bear fruit for people so far (away), and there’s something very special about that for us,” he said.
The windows will be dedicated by Archbishop George Lucas during 10:30 a.m. Mass, Sunday, followed by Brunch with the ArchBishop at the Historic Hartington Hotel. Reservations are requested.
— Frank Lesnefsky,
(Scranton, Pa., Times-Tribune