Couple’s Talent in Stained Glass Blends Vivid Colors for Church

COURT HOUSE – There is tremendous talent in Cape May County.
Some talents are spent seeking the admiration and applause of crowds or fans. Other talents are seemingly hidden away and produce acts or works for private satisfaction or are expressions of gifts from God.
Flooding the interior of the First Baptist Church of Cape May with a rainbow of colors, numerous stained glass windows send down multi-spectral pools of light.
In a tradition that started years before, most of the stained glass windows are dedicated to past church parishioners. Most of the windows in the church were made decades, if not over 100 years ago.
Piece by piece, a modest and deeply gracious husband and wife team continue to install and fix the colorful panes.
Larry and Betsy Stiles, members of First Baptist since the 1970s, have been designing, crafting, and setting reproductions of older pieces or creating their original work for 13 years. 
Their artistic talents began with a promise. Before retiring, Betsy vowed that she would spend her free time learning and eventually doing stained glass work.
When she received lessons as a Christmas present in 2003, she and her husband attended the six-hour course and, in the words of Larry, “we were on our own ever since.”
Their first piece was a great blending of blues, gray and white depicting a dolphin dancing above the waves. From there, the couple did window insets, night lights, window ornaments, Christmas decorations, a billiard table light, and other works that were always given as private gifts. Larry and Betsy both affirmed that they charged nothing for their work and asked this reporter for no praise or advertising.
The Stiles did share generalities of their work process. Larry usually draws up the design and Betsy picks out the colored glass.
After the glass is cut, it is edged in copper foil and then the pieces are leaded together by Larry.
A piece measuring 24 inches by 34 inches usually takes about a month. All of this is done in the Stiles’ two-story garage in the spring, fall, and cooler days of summer.
The Stiles recently finished reproducing original windows and adding them to a hallway leading to the church sanctuary. 
The pieces were dedicated to Betty Irmler, Jane Stites, Ruth Stites, and Anne Brenner.
While the Stiles will not speak too much about what they do, the beauty and serenity of their windows speak volumes for them. The members of First Baptist are grateful for the gift of love from the Stiles as much as Larry and Betsy are equally grateful for the talent God has given them.
To contact Christopher Knoll, email cknoll@cmcherald.com.