What Brattleboro does or doesn't do is none of my cotton-pickin' beeswax, however I feel that the fate of the First Baptist Church Tiffany window is so important that I can't not-write.

I have to say that the community's disinterest in the window seems very, very strange. A Tiffany window is a very big deal. It is arguably the most valuable work of art on public view in Brattleboro, given by arguably the most prominent family in the business community that the town has thus far produced.

When the Reformer article first appeared I waited for the public reaction but it didn't come. One lone reader wrote, describing the success of other communities in rallying support for their historic churches, but no one followed up on her comments and the issue died.

On ibratt Chris's suggestion that a donor should buy it and leave it where it is produced some hand-wringing responses and then the topic withered away until the TAC meeting, where it was decided that representatives should meet with church representatives and try to come up with a rescue plan. This was followed by a comment from someone who wrote that, after living for several decades in Brattleboro, they didn't even know the window existed and that they thought it wasn't pretty anyway and wouldn't be missed. After that, no comments whatsoever.

In the meantime, as word of the window attracted AP attention it cyber-whirled out of obscurity. Where I live, my daily newspaper featured a front-page photo of the smiling Rev., posed in front of the window.

Here is the AP's story.

Inevitably it reached the New York Times, in an article carrying details which I don't recall reading in the Reformer report: 1) the church has a bank balance of $8,000, 2) the congregation's membership is down to 88, with 3) attendance at Sunday services down to 35. With a 2008 heating bill quoted at $34,000, it was clear that no matter what the window sold for, unless something drastic happens to shore up the building's economic outlook, the congregation will be forced to abandon it in a year or two.

Why there was such an information gap between the Reformer and the Times accounts is an interesting question, but I wonder if local Reformer readers are aware of how desperate the situation is.

The issue isn't just about the window slipping away, it's about the congregation itself dissolving -- and if the congregation dissolves, what happens to the shelter program for the homeless? What happens to the church's Estey organ -- for that matter, what happens to the organ museum's concerts performed in the church? What happens to the building itself? And beyond that, what happens to Brattleboro's credibility in its efforts to cultivate an arts-community image?

Aside from the lack of information there are probably several other reasons why the window's plight has elicited such a tepid response. It is a religious work and as such is toxic to church vs. state purists, the fact that the governor awards grants for church steeple and foundation repairs notwithstanding. I assume that the appropriateness of state funding for church repairs is justified on the grounds that the traditional steepled, white-clapboarded church is an iconic New English symbol. Although the First Baptist Church has the misfortune to be a building that doesn't conform to that image, it nevertheless contributes to the Victorian architecture in the Main Street historic district.

Readers need to understand the long-range implications of what is at stake if this sale goes through.