Besides the major stained glass at the front of the chapel, there is also glass on many of the doors. These also came from the original building. These are the doors to the chapel:
But I was very surprised when I entered the chapel itself:
I was under the impression that the stained glass would be visible at the front of the chapel, but it's not. There's no way to see the stained glass from the inside. This is a real shame, because the window is really beautiful. In the words of Joyce Janetski, "[The] large pipe organ, though impressive, has cost the ward more than money; the members have sacrificed a great percentage of their inheritance...where much is given, surprisingly little is really expected; this congregation seems to have gone to great lengths to hide the beauty of the old Murray Ward's stained glass" (A History, Analysis, and Registry of Mormon Architectural Art Glass in Utah).
I have since been able to visit the chapel at night, when the window is lit from behind. Those pictures will be posted shortly.
There is a reason the stained glass in this building is not visible from the interior and it has nothing to do with the congregations of the meetinghouse. In actuality, it is due to these congregations that both the window and the pipe organ from the old Murray 1st and 12th ward are still in use in the new chapel today. In the mid 70's it was announced the church would build a new facility to house both wards. Plans were underway and fund raising was in process when the church announced a new policy for meetinghouse construction. Due to the rising costs of maintaining stained glass and pipe organs, along with growth in church membership increasing the need to build more chapels, the church deemed it prudent to institute a policy to no longer include them in new construction going forward, including buildings currently in design phases. Both congregations was painfully aware that because of the new policy they would lose their unique and much loved stain glass window and their beautiful and greatly treasured pipe organ. Both were revered not as objects to worship themselves, but as a means to inspire worshipping God through reflection and music. The members of both wards worked together to seek permission from church leadership to preserve both the window and the organ. The petitions of the congregation were eventually honored when the church decided to include buildings that were already announced and in some stage of the construction process before the new policy was announced. However, the stipulations given were that the stained glass windows would not be visible from the interior of the chapel, but instead would be backlit on the exterior. This also happened to a stain glass window in the Millcreek area around the same time. As for the pipe organ, which had a beautiful array of pipes displayed in the old chapel, only a few pipes would be visible in the new. A majority of the organ pipes were to be encased in a wood box behind horizontal wooden panels serving as a system of dampers designed to open and close when the loud/soft organ pedal was engaged by an organist. This preservation was a bittersweet for the members of both congregations. Yes, the beloved window and treasured organ would continue to be of service when many others were not; the window to shine in glory by night, but obscured by day and the organs glorious sound still to resonate, yet its pipes mostly hidden from view. No longer would the stunning window grace the back of the chapel and shine in glory as the sun set in the west or bathe the chapel and congregation with rainbow colors during an evening sacrament meeting; nor would the organ pipes at the front of the chapel hold their commanding place high upon the walls above the congregation or continue to serve as a focal point for congregations drawing worshipful eyes upward while singing praises to the Lord.
ReplyDeleteI reread and see I published with a few grammatical errors, and one factual error. I wish I could edit. Since I can not, I apologize for the grammatical errors. The factual error is that the wood panel dampers for the organ pipes in this chapel is vertical. In the building I attend today they are horizontal, but unfortunately all the pipes are hidden.
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