Middletown transcript., 1919-09-27
CHURCH RENOVATED
St. Anne. Re-opened Sunday For
First Time in Several Tears
LIGHTING SYSTEM IMPROVED

Meanwhile our Episcopalian friends
have been worshipping all these weeks
past, in their venerated Old st. Anne's
sanctuary, mile out of town amid
the venerable oaks, their town Church
home has been beautifully renovated
inside and out. Last Sunday goodly
congreg alton. members and visitors
gathered therein for the first time in
several weeks. A detailed account OF
these betterments IS given herewith.
| Three coats of duo-tin paint have
been given the walls and ceiling of the
church interior. The roof trusses, the
. pews and the wainscoting have all been
stained darker color, while the floor
has been painted and waxed. The
Chancel furniture, has been vanished.
and through the kindness of q parish
ioner who donated the material, the
Sanctuary Chairs and Litany Desk have
been recovered with suitable material.
Another parishioner furnished the
brass pew plates or numbered markers.
Many parishioiers have ordered their
own kneeling cushions, a.number pay
ing for several of their pews.
The material for, the covering of the
swinging vestibule doors was donated
by another parishioner, who also took
the pains to cover the doors with the
material, DUPONT Fabricoid. Still an
other member is the doner of the min
eral or tile flooring which is to be placed
IN the vestibule of the church.
In memory of our late Senior Warden
and his wife, a daughter has presented
as a memorial the two silver aims
basins, which were used for the first
time last, Sunday. -.sgs
The Church is indebted to the Parish
Guild for the interior painting of the
church and pews, also for the beauti-
full carpet which adorns the sanctuary
and the aisles, and the eight electoliers,
hanging in the nave of the church and
in the vestry room and vestibule of the
church and also for the arch of lights
in the sanctuary and the rug in the
vestry room, and the special lights over
organ and lecturn. Also for the re-
pairing of the organ, which has had an
entire mechanical overhauling by an
organ builder of experience. Through
a friend the Rector was enabled to
place in the pews fifty combined prayer
books and hymnals.
The vestry of the Parish was obliged
to have the exterior stone work of the
church repointed; the caves required all
new wood work and then covering with
tin; about thirty states were renewed
in the roof, and the fence around the
side of the church replaced.
One feature in especial of the new
auditorium is commendable-the much
improved illumination afforded by the
new e:ectoliers at once larger and more
numerous. This ''dim religious light"
as Gray phrases it in his famed Elegy
n Country Churchyard, "belongs to
The Medieval age, and is more poetical
han practical, if indeed, not less
;ruly devotional ''God is light
His own word declares and Himself said
Let there be light" This idea of
larkened churches is relic of monkish
lays, copy of the mode in heather
;emples whose unclean worship could
lily bear the light of day; it is more
'uited to the nameless orgies of the
Slusinian mysteries or the vile thau-
practices in Egyptian and
'ther idolatrous temples.