Boston chaplain, photographer brighten Christmas for troops overseas

Published: 2004-12-20

BOSTON (CNS) -- Two men living a world apart who have never met face to face helped brighten this Christmas season for troops worldwide. Father Timothy Butler, a priest of the Boston Archdiocese and U.S. Air Force chaplain currently serving a four-month tour of duty on Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan, collaborated with stained-glass window photographer P. Neil Ralley to develop a system to enliven the stark worship spaces normally used by troops overseas. The system will allow more than 100 images of stained-glass windows to be projected onto the wall of tents, hangars, ship's chapels -- virtually any facility in which troops will celebrate Christmas services. "With Neil's great images and technical know-how and my field experience and connections, we were a perfect match for the project," said Father Butler in an e-mail interview with The Pilot, Boston archdiocesan newspaper. "The idea for the visual presentation was entirely Father Butler's," said Ralley, speaking via telephone from his home in Verona, N.J. "He was certainly the one with the vision of what this project was to be."

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