BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – A very large and elaborate stained-glass window, known as “The Parable of the Sower,” which was rescued from the old and now demolished Methodist meeting house two years ago, is now being moved from its current location at the Bellows Falls train station. Two years ago, the window, which is 14 feet tall and 8 feet wide, was removed from the building at 66 Atkinson Street and stored at the local train station facility.
This came after a group of local citizens organized a GoFundMe campaign to raise the funds necessary to pay the local Basin Farm to remove and relocate the large and heavy window.
In October, Rockingham resident Charlie Jarras was awarded the window at an auction hosted by the local Sustainable Valley Group. However, after it was learned that the window cannot reside in a town-owned building, and that restoration costs of the elaborate creation will exceed $60,000, retaining the window was simply not feasible for the group.
Additionally, there was also the threat of a lawsuit from a Washington, D. C. organization called Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU). Founded in 1948, AU is a nonprofit organization designed to advocate for the disassociation of religion and religious organizations from government. AU also describes itself as officially nonsectarian and nonpartisan.
The stained-glass window, which weighs over 1,000 pounds and features a Jesus-like figure and the scripture “The Parable of the Sower of Seeds,” dates back to the 1880s, when the Methodist church underwent an expansion and several stained-glass windows were installed. When the building was demolished two years ago, the town took ownership of the window due to delinquent taxes against the building.
However, according to a letter sent to town officials by AU, the organization claims that because the train station is going to be town owned, it is against the constitution for an religious object to be located in a town building.
The town is currently working to receive over $1 million in federal grants to start the process of restoring the train station, and does not want a potential lawsuit to derail receiving grant money for the project. The owner, Jarras, who also owns Rockingham Hill Farm, had been previously unsuccessful in his search of finding someone to move the large and fragile window.