Week 28 - November 5-11 More thoughts

As I looked at the stain glass window in the Cedar City temple, it reminded me of two other temples I had visited.

What does the Provo City Center, Cedar City and Star Valley Wyoming temples have in common?

These three temple share restored antique stain glass windows from the First Presbyterian Church of Astoria in New York.

These beautiful windows were commissioned by local member for their new church building in the early 1900's and put in the historic 1920 property.  The church had six windows portrayed Christ in different Biblical scenes.  The First Presbyterian Church of Astoria in New York had to sell their historic 1920 property in 2008 because of stacking debt and low attendance.

Tom Holdman of Holdman Studios in Orem, Utah writes "Many years ago I was approached by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an art donor with the possibly of healing and resurrecting antique art glass windows of the depictions of Christ.  

The three  panels were rescued by Anthony's Antiques from a Presbyterian Church in New York that has since been demolished.  

As we studied them carefully, we found that there was incredible wear, poor restoration attempts and hundreds of broken pieces and damage from the removal of the windows.  The art donor, LDS church, and Holdman Studios, along with a bit of trepidation, agreed to move forward with hope.  We felt we could honor the original artists and make the windows testify even greater of a higher power.  We accepted the monumental challenge.

The openings that had been set aside for such pieces in various temples were drastically different from the window sizes.  Each window was also in three sections and needed to be merged into one.  We knew this meant changing many pieces that were not broken in order to lace the seams.  We even rescued glass from the Provo Tabernacle fire for replacement pieces."  -The Story of the Stained Glass Windows in three temples-posted November 14, 2017 in Temple Facts

Provo City Center Temple announced 

1 October 2011 received the window of

 Christ as a shepherd.

It is in the temple's entry 

behind the recommend desk.

The Star Valley Temple announced 

1 October 2011, received the second window.

It depicts Christ knocking at the door.

It is housed in the entryway of the 

Star Valley Wyoming temple.

The Cedar City temple was announced 6 April 2013. 

It is the home of the third glass window.

This is a beautiful depiction of 

Christ in a field of lilies.

The window is also behind the recommend desk.

This past week as Elder Koberstein and I entered this temple.  It reminded me of the two other temple's windows.  I then did research to find out if this window was also from the same collections.  I am grateful for a church that appreciates beautiful antique art.  I love these windows and the temples they are in.