The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has opened a new visitors’ center in Nauvoo.
The visitors’ center is designed to teach people about the church’s original Nauvoo temple, the rebuilt temple in Nauvoo, and about the LDS faith. The temple itself is open only to church members in good standing.
Those who come to the visitors’ center can do a self-guided tour of the building. There will also be missionaries on hand to answer questions.
The visitors’ center includes historical artifacts and replicas, an activity area for children, and other features. One of the highlights is a towering Tiffany art glass depiction of Jesus Christ that dates back to 1896.
‘Pieced together by hand by the Tiffany manufacturers’
You can’t miss the piece when you walk in the front doors. It’s straight ahead at the end of a long hallway.
“I love beautiful art, and this is definitely beautiful art,” said Susan Sims, the church’s Communication Director for Iowa and Western Illinois.
The art glass is illuminated from behind by 5,400 LED lights.
“We believe that Jesus Christ is the light of the world and this allows us to illustrate that with this piece,” Sims said.
The piece itself is nearly ten feet tall and about seven-and-a-half feet wide. The display case it’s mounted in makes it seem even larger.
Sims said the church is happy to have the piece in Nauvoo. She said it anchors their interpretation of the temple and helps them explain to visitors what the temple is about.
“It's all about Jesus Christ,” she said.
The artwork’s origins
Sims said church leaders don't know everything about the piece’s provenance. They do know it was commissioned by a church, but they don't know which one. They know it was purchased by a private collector sometime along the way, and then spent at least 50 years in storage.
Eventually that private collector put it up on auction at a specialty auction house that deals in art glass from Tiffany.
“This is not stained glass. This is art glass. This is leaded glass. Look at the folds in the drapery. This is 3D art pieced together by hand by the Tiffany manufacturers,” she said.
She said it is a specifically commissioned, one-of-a-kind artwork.
“You can't get this in Europe. You can't find this in New York. You're not going to see this in Chicago. It's nowhere else in the world but here,” Sims said.
The church believes it was originally titled “Christ walking on water in front of a field of lilies.”
They’ve renamed it "Come Unto Me."
‘Awe-inspiring’
Juanita Coleman, the Illinois Historic Sites Manager for the LDS church, said that like Sims, she considers the piece an amazing work of art.
She remembers the first time she saw it fully assembled.
“It kind of stopped you to a speechless point. It was just, it's awe-inspiring,” she said.
Coleman said as she watched the artwork being pieced together and restored in the visitors’ center, she thought about the meaning behind it.
“Lilies are a form of peace around the world and to have him stand in front of the lilies and in his white robes with his hands outstretched. You want to go to him,” she said.
Coleman said it’s a beautiful way for people who come into the visitors’ center to be greeted, even though it’s down a long hallway.
Concerns about the center’s location
Coleman said she’s always been interested in history, and that the visitors’ center is a place to connect history to the present day.
And similar to the past — when local residents clashed with church leaders in the 1840s — there was some tension in Nauvoo when the church announced plans to build the visitor’s center.
Some residents felt the church chose the wrong location for the visitors’ center. It’s just down the street from the rebuilt temple, and right across the street from Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church.
Opponents said that part of the small town is already congested.
While there was some initial pushback, Susan Sims said no one is out there protesting today. She said people in Nauvoo moved on.
“They're neighbors, they're friends. And I think they'll see that this can be a beautiful spot for them and be a good thing for the city,” she said.
“Whether it's smoothed over, if people still harbor some concerns, that's possible. But in general, the conversations that I've had with people in town, they are understanding and it's just time to move on.”
The five-story Nauvoo Temple is a replica of the temple built at that site by the church in the 1840s. The temple has deep historical and religious significance to the church.
June 27 in LDS history
Church leaders, including Elder Gerrit W. Gong, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held a dedication ceremony for the visitors’ center on June 27.
That’s a significant date in the church’s history.
Founder Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed in the nearby city of Carthage on June 27, 1844.
And the rebuilt Nauvoo Temple was dedicated on June 27, 2002.
Church leaders also used June 27 this year to dedicate the newly restored Brigham and Mary Ann Young home in Nauvoo. It was originally built by church leader Brigham Young in 1842.
According to Sims, the home was restored in the 1960s, but the brick used at that time had a different porosity than the original brick and trapped moisture in the brick walls. That eventually caused structural failure in each of the wings.
Now, each wing has been reconstructed as closely to the original as possible in both material and method, including a discovery of the recipe for the 1842 mortar, according to Sims.
Like the visitors’ center, the Brigham and Mary Ann Young home site is now open to the public.
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