Matthew 5:16

WEBSTER CITY – In the dimly lit Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Barbara Flowerday Golberg has let her light shine by literally letting light shine into the church.

She did this through the use of her talents in designing stained glass windows.

The project began with an octagonal window in the front of the church above the altar; it progressed to the design of a cross-shaped window on the church’s opposite end. Then she designed six more rectangular memorial windows along the east and west sides of the church.

-Messenger photo by David Borer

Golberg first became interested in working with stained glass back in the late 1980s when a friend asked her to try a class in stained glass. That led to more classes.

Back then, she said, there were many studios where you could take very “hands on” classes.

The first window Golberg designed was the window above the altar.

“It’s the Jan Marvel window, which was donated by Tom and Judy McLaughlin and they picked out the symbol and shape, so they wanted an octagon.” she said.

Marvel, who was Judy McLaughlin’s mother, died in 2009. The window was completed and installed in May 2010.

“The second window was this 10-foot cross in 2012 after my husband, Lynn, and Mark Whaley died,” Golberg said. “Mark Whaley died in December of 2010 and Lynn died in May of 2011. And so this is a memorial window to them. And both of these windows were cut into the church.”

This one,” she said, indicating the cross window, “replaced the cross. It was cut into the church by Loran Seiser, who actually put in all these windows.

“I wanted the windows to match because they were right across from each other, but our cross was in the way. So Loran said, ‘Why don’t you just make a cross with the middle being the same as that one (the window above the altar).’ So that’s how that came about.”

After the two initial windows were finished, Golberg recalls looking around while at church and thinking that glass was needed.

Richard Mason, who was on the vestry at the time, asked her to design all the windows before she started creating them in case something happened to Golberg that would prevent her from completing the project.

Also, in the creation of the windows Golberg used double-strength clear glass, knowing that this would allow more light into the church than traditional multi-colored stained glass.

The first of the six memorial windows to be completed was the Good Shepherd window in 2017, in memory of Barbara Ann Hosack. The border colors are red and blue; those are the colors of the Episcopal Church. Some of the symbols are the Bible, the Word of God, the Episcopal Shield, a shell with drops of water symbolizing baptism and, while unrelated to symbols of the faith, there is a hat that was added due to Hosack’s love for wearing hats. Another interesting feature is the center rectangle with no symbols. The clear rectangle lines up perfectly so that if you look straight out you will see the church’s statue of the Good Shepherd.

The Christmas and Epiphany window was completed in 2018. It was purchased anonymously and dedicated to the glory of God and all the children. Its borders are white with gold trim for Christmas and green trim for Epiphany.

The third memorial window is the Easter and Pentecost window, created in 2019 and given by the Haberman family. Its border is white with gold trim for Easter and red for Pentecost.

Next came the Lenten window installed in 2020 and given to the church by the McLaughlin family. The borders are purple for Lent, red for Holy Week and black for Good Friday.

The fifth memorial window was installed in 2022 and represents Ordinary Time, that time where Jesus and his apostles taught and spread the teachings of Christ. The main feature of this window are the apostolic shields, with etchings in the glass representative of each of the apostles.

These first five memorial windows are seven feet long.

Due to the entrance to the church, the sixth and last window is shorter. This newest and final window is called the Advent window, which was given by Deb Leksell. It was installed during the first week of December. The border colors are purple and blue. It represents the Advent season or the four Sundays before Christmas, anticipating the birth of Jesus.

The windows were labors of love.

“Every time I finish one and put it in, it’s my favorite,” Golberg said, “and I wasn’t really sure about that one (the Advent window), because to me it seems plain. And then when I got it in here, I thought, Oh, it just completes the whole church’ … I’m real happy with it.”