For more than 50 years, the barrier island’s Christ by the Sea United Methodist Church has been providing spiritual nourishment for its parishioners. So it was shocking when, on three separate occasions during Holy Week, rocks were thrown through six of the beautiful stained-glass windows made by the Conrad Pickel Studio for the church 30 years ago.
After the damaged panels were removed by Paul Pickel, son of the late painter, stained glass artist and sculptor, the church had several hundred shards of glass from the shattered windows. But what to do with them?
The answer came from a retired bishop friend of Rev. Clifford Melvin. “She said we should use the glass as a way to create new life.” Rev. Melvin decided they would make a sculpture with the shards.
A few days before Easter, Rev. Melvin asked parishioner and wood carver Ray Lancaster if he could make a cross in time for the Easter service.
Lancaster went home that night and got to work. “I had a piece of oak I picked up when a neighbor was cutting down some trees. I just had a feeling that I might need it sometime,” he recalls.
Once he had a plan, Lancaster got busy. He cut the sides off the log, leaving a stump on the bottom to create a natural base that gave it a sturdy, tree-like appearance and he milled down the pieces he’d already trimmed off to create the arms of the cross.
“No matter what I do I try to put my heart and soul into it and only make things with a purpose. I’m no artist, but I do have a passion for doing things for people. It’s rewarding to know that there is a different feeling in the church now than there was immediately following the vandalism,” Lancaster says.
Lancaster has only been carving for about a year. When he expressed an interest in learning the art form, fellow parishioner and accomplished woodworker Al Gustave took him under his wing.
“He’s inspired me to work with wood,” says Lancaster. “Of course, Al works on a much bigger scale than I do and he’s an incredible artist.”
Several of the projects Lancaster has completed reside in the Sunday school classroom. He carved a nativity scene and manger from a piece of wood he found while on vacation. The set holds special meaning for Lancaster as it was carved from the wood of a sycamore fig tree. That’s the same tree Zacchaeus climbed so that he might be able to see Jesus when he came to town.
Someone brought a piece of charred wood from fire-ravaged California. He cleaned it, stained it and carved the Fruit of the Holy Spirit all over the branches from Galatians. Lancaster also carves hand crosses for those struggling and in need of prayers.
Once the wooden cross was completed, Lancaster took it to the church. There, along with other parishioners and guests, he glued a shard of the stained glass to the cross. “It makes me feel good that I can contribute something to the church,” said Lancaster of the completed sculpture. “The congregation was brought together as everybody put a piece of glass on the cross.”
“What a beautiful idea,” says Pickel. “All those multifaceted edges will sparkle as the light passes through or reflects. It’s a great way to make something good out of a senseless act of destruction and what a waste of art.”
Lancaster provided the foundation and the congregation built upon it, creating a sense of unity and being part of a bigger whole through the healing power of art. Today, the cross sits on the altar as a reminder of forgiveness. It will stay there until the windows are repaired.
“It’s difficult to have somebody break into your church and ruin beautiful stained-glass windows. But to have it happen Easter week was just such a horrible feeling to your heart,” says parishioner Barbara Butts. “When I heard what was going to happen (with the shards), I thought it was such a great idea.”
Butts says it reminded her of the Dr. Seuss story about the people of tiny Whoville who woke up Christmas morning to find their presents gone from under the tree – all stolen by the Grinch. “There was nothing left, but they all stood around their houses holding hands and singing.”
“It was a way to redeem some of the situation,” explains Rev. Melvin. “I think that our folks here found that to be one of the ways to deal with their grief and anger over what had happened. We found it to be a very helpful tool in dealing with everything.”
As for the stained-glass windows, Pickel took the broken panels back to his studio for repair. Once the insurance company approves the repairs, Pickel says they will start taking the panel apart and making new pieces. Each section of glass will have to be painted, fired, re-leaded and re-cemented before it can be re-installed. The process will take more than a month to complete.
“There wasn’t enough overall damage to replace the entire window, so we felt like the repair was the best option for us. They were one-of-a-kind pieces. Thankfully they can be repaired, and the Pickel family is still here to bring them back to their former glory,” says Rev. Melvin.
The process and materials have changed little since Pickel’s father did the original designs. It will take some work to match the color and glass due to variations in the color pattern from age and exposure to sunlight. As in the original design, all the glass is mouth-blown and antique glass made in Germany and France from the same glass studios the Pickels have been using for years.
Once the glass has been replaced, Rev. Melvin hopes to hold a blessing ceremony. At that time the congregation will retire the sculpture from the altar to a place of prominence in the church.
The collaborative sculpture helped change a story of vandalism and anger to one of new beginnings and forgiveness, piece by broken piece.
“It was cleansing to take all those shards of glass and make something beautiful out of them,” says Butts. “It helped us forgive the person who did this to our church.”
