Before plans were developed for the new St. Philip church, parishioners were invited to express their wishes and desires for the new building in early “roundtable” discussions. One of the most requested features was stained-glass windows. The church was accordingly planned with special window frames for future stained glass, and parish leadership has looked for ways to bring this dream to a reality while prioritizing the immediate needs of building our campus.
Earlier this year, St. Philip’s made the exciting discovery of a rare set of 14 antique Mayer windows, matching the size specifications of our church. After careful evaluation of their condition and quality, the set was purchased for our church. Originally created in the 1920s for a Connecticut parish (St. Peter, Hartford), these windows will receive a new life and inspire a new generation of the faithful at St. Philip’s. Each one represents a scene from the lives of Jesus and Mary, and all have the beautiful artistry, rich detail, and luminous colors for which the Mayer of Munich company has been famed for generations. With the help of advance donors, the project to restore these incredible windows for our church has begun, and we are excited to announce that the first of the windows is planned to arrive in Spring 2024.
10 of the 14 stained-glass windows from the Mayer set will be restored and placed in the window frames of our Phase I church. The remaining 4 window scenes will be installed as part of the church expansion in a later phase.
The below interactive diagram shows the planned locations for Phase I windows; click the numbers to view images of each window.
As commemorative donations are received for windows, they will be marked "Reserved."
Photo: Fr. McDaniel reviews the windows with Quint Foster at the workshop of Foster Stained Glass in Bryan, Texas.
Although they are a close fit for the frames in our church, the Mayer windows will need some adjustments to completely fill the space, as well as cleaning, releading, and spot repairs.
Quint Foster and the team at Foster Stained Glass have been entrusted with this incredible effort. Their expertise in adaptive reuse of antique windows is well-known to our parish already in the stained-glass windows we have installed so far: for example, the massive front window of our church was created from an original antique, to which Foster's added about seven feet of perfectly matched new glass.
The window project helps our parish move “Forward in Faith” in two senses: they offer a truly unique praise of the glorious truths of our Faith for our devotion and lend their vibrant beauty to the House of God; but the stained-glass window project is also helping our Forward in Faith Campaign to expand our campus. As commemorative donations are received, the net proceeds after the restored window costs have been covered will go towards the building project.