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Article: These Walls: Grace Lutheran Church in Tulsa
- Article from:
- THE JOURNAL RECORD
- Article date:
- February 6, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 THE JOURNAL RECORD. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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As spreading flames threatened to engulf Grace Lutheran Church,
Tulsa firefighters warned Pastor Clarence Knippa they would soon
break the treasured stained-glass windows to battle the blaze.
Faced with losing one of Oklahoma's most brilliant Old English
structures, Knippa issued one of those phrases cut into history: "I
don't care if it burns to the ground. You are not to break those
windows!"
The Rev. Mason Beecroft can't help but smile when recalling that
tale from Jan. 18, 1968. It reveals not only the now 95-year-old
Knippa's appreciation for the rare mid-18th century German crystal,
which church members struggled for decades to install, but faith
that God would restore whatever the ...