LIVING HISTORY
three days and telephone poles strategically placed in front of
the structure, the building was pulled to its present location.
Holy Apostles was home.
PEOPLE MAKE THE CHURCH
The story of the church that floated up the river on a barge
and its honest, simple beauty are inspiring, but not as much as
its congregation.
“The real beauty and the real inspiration of this place is not
a building or a story, but rather the people who call this church
their home,” the Rev. Todd Schmidtetter said of Holy Apostles.
Agnes Wichmann and her family joined Holy Apostles in
1964, at a time when about half of the congregation was military
personnel. She remembers sermons from many a sizzling summer
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Sunday when the opaque glass windows were flung open
to try and gather any sea breezes. Air conditioning was a dream.
“I used to hold my son by the seat of his pants as he hung
out the window,” the Satellite Beach resident said.
Long accustomed to finding inventive — and inexpensive
— ways to circumvent problems, the congregation developed
a DIY formula for bringing stained glass back to the church
without incurring too many costs.
Charter member Carleton Emery enlisted the help of his
son, stained glass master John Emery of Preston Studios
in Melbourne.
“He came over here and we taught him the basic of how to
score and cut glass,” John Emery said. “Dad got himself a little
shed behind his house and that was where he worked producing
those windows. He discovered the process of using glue
and grout on his own and thought it state of the art. It was the
fashionable new age technique of the moment.” >>
MARIA SONNENBERG PHOTOS
Agnes Wichmann remembers helping to assemble the homemade
stained glass windows that decorate Holy Apostles.
Working in a small shed behind his home, Emery created this colorful triptych, a three-paneled work
of art, for the windows that are behind the altar of Holy Apostles Episcopal Church.
Learning the art of stained glass from his son,
Carleton Emery then taught fellow parishioners.