Lux Mundi Statue

     Lux Mundi is a replacement statue for the King of Kings statue at Solid Rock Church in Lebanon, Ohio. King of Kings was a sixty two feet tall, forty two feet wide statue of Jesus. It depicted Jesus from the chest up with his arms and head stretched up looking at the sky. Weighing sixteen thousand pounds, the statue was sat on an island at the head of the church surrounded by fountains and lit up by colored spotlights. The statue also has a forty foot cross on its base. It was designed by Brad Coriell, sculpted by James Lynch in Jacksonville, Florida, and assembled by Mark Mitten. King of Kings was tragically destroyed on June 15, 2010 when it was struck by lightening and because of this caught on fire and burned to the ground.

     In 2012, Tom Tsuchiya created a statue to replace the King of Kings statue called Lux Mundi which is Latin for Light of the World. It is a statue of Jesus stepping forward with welcoming, open arms, which caused people to begin giving it the nickname “Hug Me Jesus”. Tsuchiya used two themes, affectionate love and authority, drawn from Greek texts to create the stance of the statue. Lux Mundi faces the interstate I-75 and will stand on a fountain decorated by rocks with a water feature.

     On September 30, 2012 Lux Mundi was completed and stood fifty two feet tall. The statue was mainly fabricated by Display Dynamics of Clayton, Ohio and is made of polymer composite and steel. Due to the tragic destruction of the previous statue in nearly the same location, when they were planning on what to make the statue out of they decided to add a few modifications. The new statue, Lux Mundi, now has fire resistant materials and even has a lightning suppression system.