StainGlass

Beautifying Church:

A Look at Stained-Glass Windows

Around Our Presbytery

Over the next few weeks, as Spring fills our eyes and heads with the blossoming of flowers in beauty and scent, new birth following the resurrection of Jesus, we will pay tribute to some of the stained-glass (and other colored) windows in our Presbytery that honor Our Lord by their beauty and message.

Our first presentation is perhaps the newest: the window just unveiled at the opening April 28 of Sunnyvale Presbyterian's remodeled Sanctuary. Read about it (and enjoy its beauty) below.

If you want to nominate your church's stained-glass windows, please email Pat Plant at pat@sanjosepby.org!

Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church:

The story behind the window:

by Dave Downie

The quest for a new window to replace the existing balcony window at Sunnyvale Presbyterian began in 2005 when a committee began the process of developing a theme for the window.

We visited many other churches with stained glass and faceted-colored glass windows. After considerable deliberation, we decided upon the theme of the Holy Spirit "who goes with us in our lives" on a daily basis. The theme seemed appropriate because we have God the Father represented in our sanctuary's "creation windows" along the sides and God the Son represented in the cross at the front of the sanctuary above the chancel.

The window is colored, faceted glass, as opposed to a stained-glass window. It is composed of thick pieces of various colored glass which is made into the artist's rendering of the theme. The glass pieces are held together by a very durable resin poured into the spaces between the glass pieces. Once firmly fixed by the resin, some of the glass pieces are purposely chipped or faceted along their edges to give a jewel-like quality to the light coming through the window.

The window is a somewhat impressionistic rending of the Holy Spirit's part in our lives. We hope that this will allow each viewer to interpret the theme of the window individually, just as the Holy Spirit moves differently in each of our lives.