Mary, Queen of the Apostles Adorns Church

Front of Church after trees cut down

After cutting down trees in front of his Church, Fr. Jim Stenger called Henninger's for ideas to make his brick A-frame building look "more like a Church" from the street while honoring Mary, the patron of his Church.  Fr. Stenger's Church was the result of a merger of Assumption of Mary Church and St. Peter the Apostle Church and the new Church had been named Mary, Queen of the Apostles Church.  So Henninger's set out on some ideas for including Mary while including the Apostles while keeping costs in check.  Complicating the matter, the new design needed to be able to make it through the weather in Cleveland, meaning that wood, plaster, or anything else that would be affected by rain, snow, or any other possible weather.

The first thought was to incorporate a mosaic on the front of the building, but the size needed for the mosaic to be noticed from the street would have resulted in the creation of nearly 54 square feet of mosaic, which would then have to be installed on the exterior of the Church, causing the cost to become prohibitive.

Henninger's then approached Fr. Stenger about a fiberglass statue of Mary, holding the Christ Child and wearing a crown, that was available in a bronze finish.  The statue was available in an 8' size and the bronze powder that was used when the fiberglass casting was made would age like real bronze, allowing it to stand out from the brick facade nicely.  However, because the statue was cast in fiberglass, weight was not the issue that it would have been with a cast bronze piece.

In approaching the Apostles, Henninger's found steel stars that could be configured around the statue on Mary on the front of the building, with 12 stars representing each of the Apostles.  With the design finalized, Henninger's arranged for the statue to be made in Italy by the Demetz Art Studio and sent to Cleveland.  Upon arrival, the statue was uncrated and prepared for installation, with the size of the statue and the beauty of the statue amazing everyone who saw the stunning statue.

After readying the site and installing a limestone shelf upon which the 250 lb. statue would sit, Henninger's crew went to work on scaffolding to install the statue, then the stars around the statue on the front of the building.

The result of the design work and installation led Fr. Stenger to remark that the front of the Church looked "better than he could have imagined" with Mary and the Apostles honored on the facade of the Church and a complete transformation for the look of the Church.

A "New" Church in the City

"Old" Church

With a growing congregation and an eye towards the future, Fr. Bob Marva contacted Henninger's to assist him in his ambitious idea replace his current Church at St. Agnes-Our Lady of Fatima on Cleveland's East Side with a brand-new structure.  Fr. Marva wanted to create a larger, more open space for the community and create a worship space that incorporated not only components of the "old" Church, but also utilize items from other closed parishes from the Diocese of Cleveland.

Tabernacle in wall

In visiting the Church, the first step was determining what to use and what to design as new pieces for the planned worship space.  Fr. Marva asked about his tabernacle, which was the original tabernacle from St. Agnes Church in Cleveland, which was torn down in 1975.  When the tabernacle was salvaged from St. Agnes however, it was recessed into the wall, meaning that Fr. Marva was unsure what the majority of the tabernacle looked like and whether it would be usable in the still-to-be-built Church.

Henninger's removed the tabernacle from the wall and formulated a plan with Fr. Marva to have the tabernacle refinished to its original beauty, also fabricating a new dome for the top with a finial that was similar in style to the original dome, which had been lost decades before.

St. Lawrence Altar

The next step in the design process was to determine how to utilize items that were already in use by the Church and integrate them into designing the sanctuary furniture and liturgical appointments, ideally utilizing available pieces from other closed Churches from the Diocese of Cleveland.  In reviewing what was available, Fr. Marva decided that the Altar of Sacrifice that had graced the sanctuary at the since-closed St. Lawrence Church in Cleveland would work very well in terms of the amount of marble contained within the Altar - to make multiple "new" pieces of furniture from one Altar - as well as the colors and design within the marble Altar of Sacrifice to adorn the still-to-be-built new Church for St. Agnes-Our Lady of Fatima.

Candlestick Style

In addition to the Altar of Sacrifice from St. Lawrence, Fr. Marva had a particular style of candlesticks that were currently in use at the Church that he wanted to incorporate into the new furniture, combining wood in the style of the candlesticks with the marble from the St. Lawrence Altar to create a new Altar of Sacrifice, Altar of Repose, and Ambo.  Because of the size of the mensa from the St. Lawrence Altar and the desired sizes of the new pieces to fit the new Church, Henninger's was able to come up with a plan to cut and re-purpose the mensa from the St. Lawrence Altar to present renderings to Fr. Marva.
 

Altar of Repose Rendering

Altar of Sacrifice Rendering

 

Ambo Rendering

With the designs approved and with the ground-breaking for the new Church about to begin, Henninger's went to work to re-purpose the marble from the old Altar of Sacrifice from St. Lawrence while creating the new wood components of the furniture.  Additionally, a Nigerian symbol that served as an emblem for the largely African-American community of St. Agnes-Our Lady of Fatima, was carved out of wood to adorn the front of the base of the newly-created Altar of Sacrifice and would serve as a complement to the Lamb of God symbol that would adorn the base of the newly-created Altar of Repose.

Additionally, the tabernacle refinishing was completed, with a newly-created dome and the decision was made to marbleize a band of wood that would go around the newly-refinished tabernacle in colors that would match and complement the marble components of the furniture.

As work continued on site for the new Church, Henninger's readied the components of the new furniture in preparation for their installation at the new Church.  Working in concert with the general contractor and the other trades, Henninger's arrived on site to install the three newly-created pieces of sanctuary as well as the newly-refinished tabernacle.

In addition to the new Sanctuary furniture, Henninger's worked with Fr. Marva to design a pew style that would fit in with the new open space and coordinated the arrival and installation of the pews for the dedication of the worship space by Bishop Richard Lennon on the night before Thanksgiving, 2015.  With the new pews and the flexible seating of the chairs that Henninger's provided for the Church, the new seating capacity of 325 nearly doubled the previous seating capacity.

As the dedication neared, the triumph of a new Church being built on Cleveland's near East Side had been accomplished, through the leadership and dedication of Fr. Marva.  A community that had grown from 150 families to nearly 400 families needed a new, larger worship space and - in keeping with the community's history as a merged parish between St. Agnes Church and Our Lady of Fatima Church in 1980 - the new building brought together the old and the new.  In utilizing the available marble from the St. Lawrence Altar and working to come up with designs that would fit into the new worship space, the process resulted in a beautiful success story of growth and rebirth.