By MADDY VITALE
Magnificent stained-glass windows depicting the story of Christ from birth to resurrection are an integral part of the Sea Isle City United Methodist Church.
But a closer look over the past month at the windows revealed that some of them are in desperate need of repair.
“We want to preserve them because they are so beautiful. We also want to invite people to see them,” said Pastor Melissa Doyle-Waid, who heads the church. “They are a treasure for people to enjoy.”
It will cost an estimated $100,000 to repair eight of the 18 windows in the church. The windows date to 1958, when the building was constructed, and are an important part of the church, Doyle-Waid said.
But the amount of money it will take to repair them is too much for the small church to afford.
Doyle-Waid is appealing to the community for donations. The windows are a big part of the city’s history, she said.
“A lot of local families donated to the windows initially in memory or in honor of people who have been a part of Sea Isle,” she pointed out. “The colors are unique. They are beautiful pieces of artwork and we need to preserve them.”
Some of the bottoms of the windows won’t close all the way and they are “old and weather-beaten,” she said.
“The glass needs some repairs and soldering needs to be touched up in some areas,” Doyle-Waid added.
The church is in the midst of a multiyear fundraising effort to improve the appearance of the building and the parsonage.
In the past year and a half the parsonage was re-sided, thanks in part to the generosity of the community.
The next step was to redo the church exterior, which has not been updated since it was built. So far, the church has raised $115,000 for that project. The total cost to re-side it will be around $300,000, Doyle-Waid said.
Now, on top of that comes the monumental need for repairs to some of the windows.
“When we were looking at doing the siding, we had the windows reevaluated and we found we needed approximately $100,000 worth of work on them,” she said of the windows.
While the window repairs are needed and the church needs re-siding, Doyle-Waid said that her top priority “is always the food cupboard,” which is within the church building and feeds individuals and families from the city and surrounding areas.
“I don’t want to do anything that takes away from the food ministry,” she said, stressing that feeding families is more important than any beautification to the church.
The latest development of the need to repair some of the windows pushes back any plan to re-side the church.
First, the windows must be fixed.
Now, the church has to look to ways to raise funds for the remaining cost for the siding and also nearly $100,000 for the windows.
“We don’t want to do the siding and pull the windows out,” Doyle-Waid explained. “We are trying to figure out how we can do it. We are looking into grants.”
Fundraisers are also being discussed, she said.
Doyle-Waid said the Sea Isle community has always been very generous.
Last year, a baggo tournament hosted by local businessman Jimmy Bennett, who owns the Oar House Pub near the church, was a key part of the fundraising campaign, she noted.
Money raised during the tournament went toward the beautification fund to re-side the church and the parsonage.
Among many reasons why it would be nice to have the church re-sided and the windows repaired has to do with its location, she said.
The church overlooks John F. Kennedy Boulevard, the main entryway into town. Doyle-Waid said that the church does not match the aesthetically pleasing looks of the surrounding buildings.
“Everything else on JFK is new and shiny and the church, it is God’s house, it is right at the gateway of the community and you want it to look nice,” she said. “We want people to feel welcome here. When you walk up to something and it looks pretty, you want to go in.”
Doyle-Waid continues to be grateful to the community for its support of the church and its food ministry.
“People are always giving to the food cupboard and taking care of their neighbors,” she said. “We know this is important, and I don’t want to minimize the food ministry. We want to honor God’s house.”
For anyone who would like to donate to the church for the windows or siding, contact Pastor Melissa Doyle-Waid at 609-231-4929. To learn more, visit https://seaislemethodist.org/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/UnitedMethodistChurchOfSeaIsleCity.
