In 2008, St. Peter's Cathedral in Muenster was in danger of falling into disrepair when a small committee of parishioners decided to take action.Nearly four years after the seed was sown for a project of restoration, work on the cathedral has come full circle and the final stages of the upgrades and renovation are now being completed.After extensive exterior and interior restoration of the building, the last of the new windows are being installed. Glass artist Elaina Adams from Prairie Glass in Humboldt, who was commissioned to make the windows, confirmed that all the sponsored windows are now complete.The story of the new stained glass windows that now adorn the main body of the cathedral began as a fundraising project. To do the work that needed to be done on the exterior and interior of the church, they would need to finance it. Three women from the parish - Glenda Rueve, Christy Waldner, and Teresa Wasserman - put their heads together and came up with the Stained Glass Window Project."A few of us were talking after church one day," Rueve said, thinking back to that day, "and we realized we needed to do something. We started thinking about the windows, that if people were interested in sponsoring a window, that could be a fundraiser."They decided to put a price of $15,000 on each big window that would eventually replace each of the existing windows in the nave of the church. Up until then, the large windows as well as the upper windows were of plain glass, and at one time had been covered with mac-tac to give them a stained glass appearance.In 13 months, all 12 of the large windows and all 10 of the small windows as well as the oval window over the front door had sponsors. Enough money was raised to complete the exterior work of the church without taking out a loan. The Stained Glass Window Project brought in a total of $241,000. Work began on the outside of the building in the fall of 2009, with parishioner Ralph Britz taking on the role of general contractor for the project. For Britz, it was the third time he had worked on renovations at the cathedral, having previously worked on restorations in 1971 and 1984. Rueve says everybody in the parish felt comfortable having the professional contractor take on the responsibility for overseeing the project one more time."Ralph volunteered his time to be general contractor for Phase I and II," said Rueve. "He was here all summer with the fellows that were doing the siding and the windows."Britz explains that Phase I and II included all the exterior work on the church that needed doing. Previously, the foundation had been repaired and new forced air furnaces installed. This time, the towers were being patched and all the leaks from the roof that had plagued any type of repair work in the past were finally repaired.
