© CBCThe mysterious chancel ceiling at St. John's Anglican Church in Lunenburg, N.S., was reconstructed in 2004 after a fire three years earlier. While locals now know what the star pattern represents, they don't know who originally designed it, or how.
Parishioners at a one of Canada's oldest Anglican churches will be puzzled by an enduring enigma when they gaze heavenward this Christmas.
The chancel ceiling at St. John's Anglican Church in Lunenburg, N.S., has a special pattern of gilded stars on it, and while locals now know what it represents, they have yet to find out who originally designed it, or how.
The conundrum emerged after the church, built in 1754, burned on Halloween night in 2001 as a result of arson. The parish sought to reconstruct the building's interior as closely as possible, and it brought in parishioner Margaret Coolen in 2004 to re-create the ceiling over the altar.
But the church didn't have a complete set of photographs of the original star pattern, so Coolen, hoping the pattern reflected the actual alignment of heavenly bodies in the night sky, sought the help of astronomer David Turner of St. Mary's University in Halifax.