Grand Lake Stream church gets new view

GRAND LAKE STREAM – The white clapboard church is on a hill overlooking the town. It’s been there nearly 100 years.

As the centennial of Union Congregational Church neared, the tiny congregation commissioned Mark Wren of Robbinston, an artist and carpenter, to design and install stained-glass windows.

The congregation selected a rainbow for its main theme. Wren installed the first window in July. It is a montage of color that begins with a white dove at the top of the glass with a fantail rainbow around it. The rainbow continues on down the glass to a small square panel that says 2004.

It was the idea of the late Anna Cataldo, a member of the congregation, to replace the building’s plate-glass windows with stained glass. She contacted Wren, and together they and others designed the window. “They were determined to have a window commissioned for the church to commemorate their 2004 anniversary,” Wren said.

Wren said spent last winter creating the 7-foot-high piece.

Members of the congregation then commissioned Wren to build a second large window and two smaller windows that will be located behind the altar. The larger window will be across from the one Wren installed this year. The new window will have a moose on it, along with a stream. “This one has an angel in the top … as well as an eagle,” he said.

The congregation is small, but loyal. The handful of parishioners has kept the church going. “Right now it’s about two dozen,” Bailey said. The numbers swell in the summer when tourists come to the area.

The church broke ground for its building in 1904 and finished it in September 1905. It was dedicated on Aug. 15, 1906.

Inside the building are tin walls and ceilings and an altar. Gaslights are present but aren’t used anymore. The church bell with a long rope hangs from the belfry that the congregation rings every Sunday.

“We usually count and ring it 40 times about 20 minutes to one, because services start at 1 p.m.,” Bailey said. “Some of the older ones say that it should be heard nicely throughout the town. Give people a chance to get here.”