Sermon on the Murphy windows

My church, Church Street United Methodist, is doing a month-long series of sermons and celebrations on the stained glass windows in the church. In the 1940s, the church congregation turned its attention to filling the sanctuary with beautiful stained glass windows. The windows were designed and crafted by  Charles Connick Studio of Boston, which closed in 1986 but is memorialized by the Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation.

Alvin R. Murphy, Sr. and his wife, Jane Rule Murphy, sponsored two of the windows at the front of the north side of the church. My great grandfather traveled to Boston at least once to work with Mr. Connick on the design of these windows, which are a bit different than the other windows in the church. The lower portions of the window depict a story that Alvin and Jane wanted to tell, with medallions related to science, industry, and engineering. A unique depiction is that of a chlorinator. Great-grandpa, and later my grandfather, worked for Wallace and Tiernan, which was founded by the two men who invented the chlorinator in 1913. In World War I, my great-grandfather was in the army and spent several years in Europe installing chlorinators to treat drinking water for the troops there.

Rev. Andy Ferguson based his sermon on the Alvin and Jane Murphy windows, particularly on John 2:1-11. The sermon text is available on the church blog here.

I really enjoyed the sermon and the interpretation of my great-grandparents' windows today. There are also some other Murphy windows at Church Street - one for Robert M. Murphy Sr. (Alvin Sr.'s brother), who with his wife Pearl founded the Murphy Builders Sunday School class. There's also a small window for my grandparents, Alvin R. Murphy Jr. and Joan Perry Murphy.

It was also neat to drive from the house that my great-grandparents lived in, to the church that they attend, to sit next to windows they designed, and then to come back to their house. My home.

Album with more pictures from today.