Pastor’s Perspective: Church’s trauma from broken stained-glass windows relieved by community support

Early on the Saturday morning after Easter I got a call from the Newport Beach Police Department informing me that our church had been vandalized during the night. A young man had taken a baseball bat and smashed our stained-glass windows. I was stunned by this news. I asked myself, “How could anyone do such a terrible thing? And why would anyone do such a thing to us?” When I arrived at the church and saw the extent of the damage that had been done, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were pieces of shattered glass everywhere, not only on the floor but also in the pews and on top of Bibles and hymnals in the pew racks. Within a few hours as the news spread that our sanctuary had been desecrated, a dozen volunteers showed up at the church with brooms and other cleaning supplies in hand. We worked for hours until all the broken glass was cleaned up so that we could worship there the next morning. I admired the resolve of our members not to let this senseless act of violence interrupt our church’s mission to worship God and to be of service to all people.

That next morning as I thought about what I would say from the pulpit, I realized that I couldn’t deliver the sermon that I had written earlier that week before the vandalism occurred. I needed to let the members of our church speak about how they felt. I made the right decision. As one person after another came forward to share what was on their hearts and minds, we found ourselves working through the shock and disbelief as well as the grief and sorrow that we all felt. Some spoke with tears in their eyes and with trembling voices. Others expressed genuine concern for the misguided young man who wreaked such havoc on our congregation. This event was a trauma for our little church. We never expected random violence, which has become so prevalent in our society, to touch us. We knew, however, that it could have been much worse. Someone could have entered our sanctuary with a gun during worship and started shooting. After all, windows can be repaired, but dead people cannot be brought back to life.

I went to court five times to represent our church in the legal proceedings. Although the young man confessed to the crime when the police arrested him, the district attorney informed me that he probably won’t be able to stand trial since he is severely mentally ill. She also explained our church could not expect to receive any financial restitution since the defendant has no monetary resources of his own. I wondered what would become of this young man, whom I saw only once in court. The detective overseeing our case lamented that our society sorely lacks adequate mental-health care that people like the defendant so desperately need. Our church would gladly forego the restoration of our windows if only this troubled young man could get the help he needs to live as a happy and productive member of society.

Christ Church by the Sea rededicated its stained glass-windows after they were repaired.

(File Photo)

The windows were more than beautiful works of art. They were religious symbols, depicting scenes from the life of Jesus and other biblical figures. Moreover, the windows had been given by beloved former members of our church, now deceased, in memory of someone they loved and wanted to honor. The cost of repairing our windows was $60,000, which is a lot of money for a small church like ours. But we were able to raise this money and within six months our windows were restored. A great deal of the money we raised came from people in the wider community who are not members of our congregation. We were deeply touched by this outpouring of support from strangers.

A few months after our church was vandalized, another Methodist church was burned to the ground by the devastating fires that engulfed the island of Maui in Hawaii. The members of this congregation were not the victims of violence resulting from the actions of a misguided human being as we were. Their sanctuary was destroyed by the violent forces of nature that can sometimes be as random and senseless as the violence perpetrated by human beings. But their loss was far worse than ours. They have no sanctuary left to repair. They will have to rebuild from the ground up.

Out of gratitude for all the financial assistance given to us when we were in need, we have decided to collect a special offering at our Christmas Eve service and to donate the proceeds to Lahaina United Methodist Church in Maui for the purpose of rebuilding its sanctuary. As we celebrate the birth of Christ in our sanctuary with our restored stained-glass windows, we will pray for the people of Lahaina who will be celebrating Christmas without a sanctuary of their own to pray in. Since ours is a story of grief, healing, restoration and gratitude, we hope our gift will encourage them as we were encouraged by the generosity of others.

This Christmas we will give thanks for the restoration of our windows, we will hope for the rebuilding of the church of Lahaina, and we will pray for the young man in jail who has lost his way in life and needs help finding it again.

Rev. Paul E. Capetz is the pastor of Christ Church by the Sea (United Methodist) in Newport Beach.