Thanks to Owusu Ansah, one of Philadelphia’s few master stained glass artists, the windows at the city’s historic Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church have been restored to their original glory, writes Lynette Hazelton for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Ghana native and Germantown resident was invited by Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler to repair the damage after a vandal smashed three of the historic glass windows on the church dating back to 1889.

Ansah explained that working on stained glass windows requires both artistic talent, as well as technical and engineering skills.

“When you’re doing the restoration, it’s like waking up the dead,” he said.

The windows at the church were created using rectangular translucent tiles of a single green, blue, yellow, or orange color. But recreating them did not present a problem for Ansah.

“When I say it was not challenging, I mean it was simple cutting,” he said. “It was easy. There was no painting of images involved. That’s what made it basic.”

The challenge was in matching the new with the old while ensuring that the glass texture, color, and lead used to keep pieces in place maintained historic accuracy.

Read more about Mother Bethel AME Church and the master who help helped repair and restore its damaged windows in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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