The Good Shepherd Church Stain Glass Committee was commissioned January 2019. The members of the committee are Diane Benjamin, Teresa Casselman, Carin Henson, Marv Huth, Ron Kwasny, Herb Renken, and Renee Pinson. The committee’s purpose was to look into the possibility of getting stain glass windows installed in the upper four windows in the sanctuary. The committee was not given a set timeline for this project because of all of the unknowns regarding what all is involved in this endeavor.
The committee made contact with numerous companies that design, build and install stain glass windows and received bids from several of these companies. The prices ranges from $20,000 to $58,000 for traditional stain glass windows. During these interactions the committee learned that the best way to install stain glass windows is to install them as inserts inside of the existing exterior windows. This protects the stain glass from the elements and guarantees they last longer.
The committee notified the church trustees of the plans to install stain glass windows in the upper four windows of the sanctuary and suggested they have the current windows checked for any possible maintenance that may be needed to the exterior windows prior to the stain glass window inserts being installed. We were informed that the wooden window frames had deteriorated and the trustees were getting bids to replace the exterior windows in the sanctuary. Crawford & Brinkman Door and Window Company out of Peoria was hired to do the exterior window replacement.
Based on samples of their workmanship, staff size and price the committee decided to work with a stain glass studio in Jacksonville, Illinois. Jacksonville Stained Glass is a full service stained glass studio. Their bid to do the work is $31,500.
The committee decided that the stain glass scenes in the four windows should depict events from the life of Christ. The four scenes will be the birth of Christ, the baptism of Christ, the Last Supper, and the resurrection of Christ.
The final stain glass window designs for the four windows are posted on the church website. These are just the artist’s mockups. Details such as faces and hands on the actual stain glass will be much sharper than they are in these mock ups. The non-essential business shutdown due to the virus will have an impact on the time line for getting this work completed. Hopefully the new exterior windows will be installed sometime this summer/fall and the stain glass windows can be installed by Christmas.
Click here to see the designs.
