Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Catholic Church Near NASA Has Hubble Images In Stained Glass



In this Houston Chronicle story Lunar Bible up for sale in NASA auction I saw this neat fact.


.....Many of the pioneering astronauts were Christians whose faith inspired them to explore the heavens. John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin, Jerry Carr, Charlie Bassett and Roger Chaffee attended Webster Presbyterian Church, called the “church of the astronauts.”
Astronauts were also members of Catholic parishes near Johnson Space Center, like St. Paul the Apostle in Nassau Bay, which depicts Hubble images in its stained glass.


That pic above is the best I have found so far. The Houston paper ran a story on this recently here.


Of interest is this 2009 story too. See Cardinal to dedicate new St. Paul Catholic complex from the Galveston newspaper :


But the real draw for any lover of architecture or art could be the stained-glass windows. St. Paul has become the first Catholic Church to incorporate images from outer space into its worship space. The windows were delivered to Texas from a special production plant in Germany. The new worship complex, 18223 Point Lookout Drive, will be dedicated today by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.“Our theme was ‘The heavens declare the glory of God,’” building co-chair Kim Noto said. “The pictures from space fit into that theme perfectly. ”The windows include vistas from the Hubble Telescope — the Orion and the Omega-Swan nebulas — as well as those inspired by the Anders’ Apollo 8 Mission.The Hubble tie-in comes from another astronaut and parishioner, Michael T. Good, who did repairs on the 24,500-pound orbiting observatory during the space shuttle’s visit earlier this year.While Good spacewalked, the Space Shuttle Atlantis carried symbols from the church as it orbited the Earth. The symbols included Eucharistic items and an official Vatican flag. Both tokens are now in the new facility.

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