The "Taking on a New Glow!" Story

It was an ordinary day. Checking out the postcard I got in the mail today from church. Church would be St. James Episcopal at the corner of Duke and Orange Streets in downtown Lancaster, PA. The postcard showed the Orange Street side of the church with the interior illuminated and a ramp for handicapped individuals leading into the church. The temporary ramp was added since the entrance on the Duke Street side is closed indefinitely for additions to the cloister. There was a story in the Lancaster papers about two months ago that talked about the lighting inside the church. On March 20th of this year, after darkness fell, a switch was flipped that brought a glow that showed through the beautiful stained glass windows of the historic church. The project cost $85,000 and was the start of a $2 million renovation, the remainder being spent on the cloister project. The new lights, which are LED lights of varying colors, are intended to highlight the colors of the stained glass windows along the Orange and Duke Street sides of the church. Windows overlooking the churchyard to the east and the cloister courtyard to the north also show the illumination. The current church building dates back to 1820 when the church was about attraction, not advertising. The new lights will help bring the attraction back to the church again. One of the walls bordering the cloister courtyard dates back to 1744 when the original church was constructed. This wall will receive reinforcement during the ongoing renovations. The extra lighting is to help illuminate the outside of the church and make it look as if there is something going on inside the church. But, just the opposite is true. The lighting makes the interior so bright that the lights have to be dimmed for services in the church. The renovations that are taking place coincide with the 50th anniversary of the addition of the chapel and cloister in 1962, which was the last major renovation to the church. I remember well the problems with that renovation. As they were digging for the chapel's foundation, they found skeletons from graves that no one knew were there. They had to be removed and placed in the rear graveyard at that time. In 1967 the windows by the west side of the chapel, facing the cloister were the subject of a few photographs. My wife, Carol, posed in front of them on June 17th in her wedding gown. Happened to be the date we were married at beautiful historic St. James Church. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Photos from the top are: Orange Street side of St. James, east side of the church showing the newly illuminated lights in the churchyard, and Carol in front of the stained glass windows on the west side of the chapel.