St Joseph's Catholic Church, Oakham

Stained glass windows project St. Joseph’s Church

Our windows here in the church are badly in need of an upgrade, they are old and let in lots of cold air and need replacing. When this church was built by the hard fund raising of the parish, plain windows were the best that could be afforded. They have done a good job over the years but now is the time for change. Fr Stephen set up a small committee to look into the possibilities of having some stained glass windows to replace the old ones.

We have been working hard behind the scenes with Father Stephen with improvement in mind. We have taken a long time talking about finances and windows and artists. Jumped through hoops for the Churches Commission and had approval from them and from the PPC Committee. As you can imagine styles of windows like art styles are so many that it would be a tall order to please everyone. So we took the sensible step of trying to match the windows to the building. We also decided as this is St. Joseph’s then it was an obvious theme. Father Stephen was quick to tell us the symbol for St. Joseph is the lily and so it has been decided to go loosely with St. Joseph and the lily. It took a lot of research to find a glass artist who we felt was right for us.

The lady we have chosen is called Helen Whittaker she works from York with her business partner Keith Barley. Their pedigree is remarkable. Together they have designed and installed windows in many churches big and small. For example Ely Cathedral, Beverly Minster, and Westminster Cathedral. We asked for them to come and see the church and to give us a quote. Helen is a lovely warm lady who seemed to understand our concerns and I think she will be a pleasure to work with. She has already started on her designs for us. You can see examples of her work on her website helenwhittakerart.com We are planning to replace the four side windows and the three at the back of the church. The cost will be up to £20,000 but I'm sure that this amount is achievable with your help. We did get costs from other artists that were more than double this quote, so of course we have rejected them. Considering the calibre of our artist I think the costs of these windows are extremely reasonable. This does include the installation of them and triple glazing.

We have purchased a beautiful book which will be as a memorial to those we love and are no longer with us. This will help us towards the cost of the windows and they will be a beautiful memorial to them. We will be asking for donations per name put into the book. The amount donated will be up to you as much as you can afford. We don't want any one bereaved not to be able to afford to have their loved ones names in the book. Obviously we need to raise the money so any larger donations would be so gratefully accepted.

Our first major fund raising event was an Auction of Promises on the evening of Friday 3rd June. We had a professional auctioneer , who kindly gave her services free, for this and some fantastic lots on offer. We raised an amazing £1176.50, a good start towards our target.

An organ and choral concert was held on Sunday July 2nd , no result as yet as to how much was raised.

 Any donations may be made at any time and cheques should be made payable to St Joseph's Oakham RCP and write stained glass window fund on the back of cheque.If you are signed up for gift aid please indicate that the amount be gift aided. If donating cash this can also be gift aided in the same way. If you are not signed up for gift aid and would like to gift aid this donation please contact Peter Martin on 723767 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   Monies can be left in a sealed envelope clearly marked Stained Glass Windows. Please leave these offerings in the sacristy not in the church porch or can be posted to Fr Stephen at St Joseph's.

More details of designs of windows will be added as soon as we have the final choices.

Committee members

Fr Stephen

Monique Pryke

Mair O'Kane

Maureen Mildner

Fran Rhowbotham