Stained Glass Windows at Paw Creek Presbyterian Church
In this place – on any given Sunday – or any other day, glance and look around you and you will visually see what brings us here. The stained glass windows give us a biblical history of Christ in a timeframe of this earthly mission.
Passages in our Bible refer to Jesus Christ as the light of the world. His ministry was transparent to those believers who dispelled the opaqueness of doubt with clear vision. The windows in our sanctuary, prior to the year 1967, were of opaque glass giving cloudy and dull light to the eye. The light restraining windows served well enough and represented the feasibility of an earlier time and were duly appreciated by church members of that era.
Today, we will review the eight window medallions here in the sanctuary as they are projected on the screen. (A medallion is an oval or circular shaped design or portrait used as a decorative form.) The sequence of order starts on your right front facing the choir – four on the right – then continues on your left – starting at the back and proceeding toward the front. Those in the choir will note starting on the left and continuing on their right.
- Nativity – Luke Chapter 2 – Joseph and Mary traveled 100 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem complying with a Roman decree. There being no room at the lodging place – Mary gave birth to the child in an area used for animals, thereby a feed tray was used as a cradle.
- Jesus at age 10 in the temple – Luke Chapter 2 – Teachers and Scribes were amazed at his understanding and answer of questions of the day.
- Sermon on the mount – Luke Chapter 6 – Taking a position above the crowd, Jesus delivers the beatitudes which give a matchless set of rules to live by.
- Blessing little children – Mark Chapter 10 – Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it, and he took them in his arms and blessed them laying his hands upon them.
- Gethsemane- in the garden of Gethsemane – Mark Chapter 14 – Jesus separated himself from the disciples and fell on the ground to pray. “Father, all things are possible to thee, remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.”
- Crucifixion – John Chapter 19 – Pilate handed Jesus over to the Chief Priests and officers saying take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him. Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross; it read “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
- Resurrection – Mark Chapter 16 – Early on the third day – two women named Mary went to the tomb to complete the rites of burial. The tomb was open and a stranger dressed in white said to them “You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here. Go and tell his disciples.”
- Christ knocking on the door – Revelations Chapter 3 – “Behold I stand at the door and knock – if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.”
In addition to the eight windows reviewed on the screen there are two front windows that depict the two sacraments instituted by our Lord. The large window above the balcony and seen from the front entrance contains the Presbyterian seal as it was represented when the windows were installed.
For sometime, leading up to the year 1967, the vision and hope for stained windows had been an objective of the congregation. The opportunity to do this came when a fixed amount of money was appropriated from the King Memorial Fund and was agreed upon by his family that this would be a fitting memorial to their father.
A committee was charged to work with The Laws Stained Glass Studios in Statesville, North Carolina. The design and cost was approved and windows were installed in June and July 1967. The total cost was $3,240.09 of which a congregational offering amounted to $1,116.75. The balance of $2,123.34 came from the King Fund. On Sunday, August 20, 1967, the dedication service entitled “The Windows Speak” was held at the eleven o’clock service.
This memory moment singles out two key persons who walked the project through, signing off on the concept and details of what we see today. Robert James, our minister at the time, and Neil Moore, an officer of the church on the session, followed the wishes of our congregation and thereby adding beauty, dignity and worshipfulness to the sanctuary.
