Unique stained glass adorns Maryland church

From Maryland-

It is the most unlikely of places to find a plump, silky, hungry muskrat.

Yet there he is, all but nibbling the leather soles of the Rev. Thomas Bray’s shoes in a stained glass window at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church. On the other side of the sanctuary, filled with art in glass images of Jesus, St. John the Baptist, St. Philip and the three wise men, is a transom panel sporting a white chicken. The oven-stuffer candidate stands proudly in the center of a cornucopia that includes crabs, a peach, corn, butterflies, peppers and a Baltimore Oriole.

“We have something in our church that you won’t find in any other church in the world: a stained glass window with a muskrat,” said a smiling and proud Father Nathaniel Pierce. “About 60 years ago, a Roman Catholic bishop in Wilmington said it was OK to eat muskrat during Lent, so annual muskrat dinners were held here to raise money for churches.”

Though the Rev. Bray was only in Maryland for a few months in the early 1700s to organize the Anglican church, his legacy of literacy and books remains, captured for posterity in the window. Whether he even saw a muskrat up close and personal is a mystery.

For decades, the annual muskrat dinner at the church drew thousands of visitors to this Wicomico County village. Generations of some parishioners were also trappers.


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http://ottumwacourier.com/local/x2026365568/Unique-stained-glass-adorns-Maryland-church