Last month a Community Christmas Cantata was held under the musical direction of choir director Kathy Snyder to a packed audience at Salem Church on historic Covered Bridge Road, on a Sunday afternoon, a unique presentation of Oley area churches, whereby old timers would not have to drive home in the dark. But the most unique experience was not the talented veteran choir singers but the historic 1736 church in which this concert was carefully staged.
A French Huguenot congregation of native PA German families, Salem Church, like many other area churches, has stained glass windows with Biblical motifs is an elaborate brick church with a wooden carved balcony of the 19th Century with 19th Century Georgian architecture similar to the famed 1801 Fisher Mansion in Oley Township. However, since this church was built on land donated by American patriot, John Lesher of Spangsville, its French Huguenot heritage is significant to all ancestors of the PA German heritage.
But especially to French Huguenots who realize the FIeurdelis symbols incorporated in the large church windows with the purple stained Iris colored flowers, which are a French “Fleurdelis” folk symbol. But on this afternoon, the brilliance of the afternoon sun shown especially alive symbolizing the historic “Fleurdelis” as the community choir sang Christian carols and hymns.
?Ironically, most of our church members, who attend morning worship services, do not notice the Fleurdelis stained glass symbols on the church windows, because the morning sun is not that bright! But since the Cantata church service was planned during the vibrant sun lit afternoon, the powerful winter sun shown very strong as it lighted up the historic Salem stained glass Fleurdelis windows, making Cantata concert goers aware of the stained glass Fleurdelis symbols more vibrant as we celebrated Jesus Christ, the savior of the world.
They in turn are a French Christian symbol commemorating the first Calvinist King of France, a symbol much like the purple Iris flowers that bloom in PA Dutch gardens in the Oley Valley. This dramatic highlight of this Cantata Concert would not have occurred had the community held their concert in the evening! But coupled with the talented choir singers, and the speakers, the concert Cantata was an amazing extravaganza highlighted with the afternoon sun dramatizing the unique French Huguenot Fleurdelis in the historic church windows!
Richard H. Shaner is director of the American Folklife Institute in Kutztown.
