The Mystery of the Stained Glass Saints: The Near Death Experience of a Small Rural Church

THE MYSTERY OF THE STAINED GLASS SAINTS is a fictionalized account of a pastoral ministry in a mountain parish setting. The cast of characters includes “Anti-War Pastor”, “Biker Pastor”, “Pentecostal Mary”, “Father James”, “The Fainting Groom”, “The Drunken Mourner”, and numerous other unique characters that compose the matrix of the stained glass mystery. Pastor Joseph Dunning’s pastoral experiences include eating snake-steak, counseling a couple to shut their bedroom door, and ministering to a domestic abuse situation. His ministry includes singing the Mass at a Catholic mission, passing out cotton balls in a worship service, and performing a marriage in jail. Between freezing in a mountain stream baptism and confronting a hot-blooded church board, Pastor Joseph meets the personal and parish problems head-on as he makes decisions about whether to pull the plug on this near-death parish. Finally, after five years, the mystery of the stained glass saints is resolved in a distinctive manner.