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CNS Story:
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STAINED GLASS Dec-20-2004 (570 words) With photos. xxxn
Boston chaplain, photographer brighten Christmas for troops overseas
By Donis Tracy
Catholic News Service
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."
Father Butler said those at Manas Air Base, a strategic hub for U.S. military personnel and equipment flowing in and out of Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, live and work in tents. "Everything in our camp is tan and gray," he said.
As the Christmas season approached, the chaplain began to "think of a way to create a sense of sacred space" inside these "relatively bare" tents used for worship.
"Stained-glass windows are so colorful and ethereal. I figured these might work well," he said.
Working with little more than a digital video projector normally used to show recreational movies, he began to search the Internet for usable images of stained-glass windows. He stumbled across Ralley's Web site, www.stainedglassphotography.com.
"Of all the Web sites I came across, (Ralley's) had the best selection and quality of images," said Father Butler.
He first downloaded one image as a trial. Impressed by the beauty of the image, but not wanting to infringe on any copyrights, he contacted Ralley and asked to use the pictures in creating a slide show of the stained-glass windows to "set a mood" for troops entering Christmas midnight Mass. Father Butler hoped he might also be able to use a single image as a continuously projected background throughout the Mass.
Ralley not only gave permission for Father Butler to use any of the images on his Web site, he offered to create the slide show himself.
"He said it would be an honor to help make the Christmas liturgies more special for our troops over here," the chaplain said.
Father Butler began to realize many other chaplains throughout Iraq and Afghanistan might wish to use the stained-glass images. He said digital projectors such as the one he used are provided to chaplains assigned to bases and posts -- whether in tents or more permanent facilities -- as well as ships.
Consequently, Ralley posted a slide-show program containing the images on a limited-access section of his Web site for military chaplains anywhere in the world to download. For his part, Father Butler has spread access information to numerous chaplains throughout the Afghan and Iraqi theaters of operations.
Ralley hopes the show, which lasts approximately a half-hour, "will brighten up the otherwise Spartan places of worship for our soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen during Christmas services."
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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