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MISSIONARY INDEPENDENT SPIRITUAL CHURCH

Newsletter Vol. 2 No. 2

03-30-07

Missionary-Independent-Spiritual-Church-ceiling-chandelier

CEILING CHANDELIER AT MISSIONARY INDEPENDENT SPIRITUAL CHURCH

DOORS AND WINDOWS

The weather is warmer and both Roger, our carpenter, and Don, our stone-mason and painter, are back at work. The building is virtually complete and has received its first coats of paint -- joss house red, hunter green, and cheerful gold, with a pale aqua-blue ceiling inside -- and the finishing touches are being made to the interior mouldings and closures.

When this building was a private school-bus stop, it had no door or windows, so it took some planning to design and install a properly Victorianesque closure system. Roger took an old closet door from our house (donated by nagasiva, who prefers and open closet in his home office, as the closet space houses bookcases, not clothing) and rabetted it down the middle to make it into a double-door. The hardware fittings are all brass -- antique American Eastlake spire hinges and Indonesian reproduction Dutch Colonial door and window pulls in the form of Sunflowers -- which fortunitously happen to be a fairly common symbol found in Spiritual Churches.

The circular window-vents have been installed as well -- they are the green glass covers from old-fashioned traffic signal "Go" lights that were discarded by the City of Berkeley (my home town) when they installed green LED lights.

THE CANDLE ALTARS

Roger has begun work on a wonderful oak wood altar. The church can seat two people at old oak chairs, and the altar is made to match those old chairs. This alatr in turn covers a moveable altar-table that can be stowed underneath or pulled out and set at right angles to the altar -- forming a "T" shape -- and used as a table for card or palm readers or as a staging place for working on candle services.

The wrought iron candle altars are also in progress -- and they are gorgeous. I designed them with the help of Aurelio the Old World Iron Worker -- an Italian blacksmith ans sculptor who lives in the nearby town of Petaluma. There are four triangular altars, and they fit into the four corners of the church, starting at about waist height. Each one holds 16 glass encased vigil lights, making a total of 64 candles that can be lit in the church at any one time.

In addition to the four main altars, Aurelio has made us 15 extra portable candle altars, each of which holds four lights -- for a total of 60 more candle spaces. These portable holders and made of heavy wrough iron, and they will be positioned out in the side-chapels, as needed. In addition, at least 8 of them will be housed in the Lucky Mojo Curio Co. shop next door to the church, while building in the church is underway.

Right now, the push is underway to get everything finished -- the carpentry, painting, stone walkways, and candle altars -- and installed in time for Consecration Day -- May 12, 2007.

Wish us luck!

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