Holy recycling: Furnishings from closed churches find new homes

Published: 2006-06-27

HAMPTON, N.J. (CNS) -- When Father Michael C. Saharic, pastor of St. Ann Parish in Hampton, began the project of restoring his church, he turned to an unlikely source -- the Internet. Through online searches, the pastor was able to find displaced religious articles and furnishings from closed churches and give them a new home. Inside St. Ann's, everything from pews to lights were from Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian and Catholic churches and chapels from all over the country. The transformation started about four years ago when some parishioners volunteered to paint the church interior. The new paint job only pointed to the need for other improvements and sent Father Saharic to the parish archives where he found depictions of the original church with furnishings from the late 1860s. "Basically nothing from that era had survived except for the four walls," the priest told The Catholic Spirit, diocesan newspaper of Metuchen. His first step was to contact an art company to restore the Victorian stenciling on the original walls. "That is when I decided to begin to replace some of the additional pieces that didn't belong there or didn't match," he said.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .