Stained Glass Windows
Giving
The Bicentennial Windows
2008 marks twenty years since the stained glass windows were installed in the ground floor of the Church. Sadly, Klaus Zimmer died at the end of 2007. He was the artist who created and installed this magnificent panorama of colour and story that will be an evocative adornment in St Michael’s for generations. In 2008, we will remember Klaus Zimmer and celebrate his remarkable work.
The windows tell of each person’s journey and the journey of humanity. From the experience of aloneness, alienation and questioning, they move along several pathways to the symbolic gateway of the New Jerusalem. Each window has an inscription as its foot, and combined with biblical references closely follows the poem Streams of Consciousness. The vertical blue line in each window represents the Life Force in everything, while the horizontal red line represents God’s Love that embraces the whole of the creation. The windows are numbered clockwise, starting at the rear left of the church, facing the pulpit. Windows 1 to 7 are on the left wall, 8 to 14 on the right and 15 to 19 are on the rear or south wall.
1: ELIJAH
Insignificant, frightened, alone, I breathe the wind of the stars
Psalm 8:3-6Exodus 33:18-23
2: THE WINDS OF GOD
Carried from my hiding place I feel the winds of God
Kings 19:10-13Job 19:21-27
3: THE COSMOS
Alien, yet citizen of the world, Guardian of the cosmos earthdust discovering the gift and power of a New Creation.
Ephesians 2:19Revelation 21:1-6Psalm 91:16John 10:1
Windows 4, 5 and 6
Windows 4, 5 and 6 are a trilogy representing the turbulence and hope of our journey.
4: THE BOAT
In this boat of fragile life, on uncertain seas, ambient intermittent darkness we strain to see through the winds of the storm
John 6:16-21,26
5: DREADNOUGHT
And hear the voice of hope and everyone who dares to say ‘It is I: be not afraid’
John 6:16-21, 26
6: THE ANCHOR
And the boat finds its haven and its peace
John 6:16-21,26
Windows 7, 8 and 9
7: THE CREATION
And, so the stream of life flows around us, beneath and over us, being and non-being of water, wind, and noise and people and pathways in the sky
Genesis 1:1-27
8: THE COVENANT
And, I lifted by the streams of new life to a new consciousness of who I am
Hebrews 13:10-16Genesis 9:11-14Genesis 11:1-9
9: THE KINGDOM
And what this life can be, of kingdoms here and the kingdom which we pray will come
Hebrews 10:13-16
Windows 10, 11 and 12
Windows 10, 11 and 12 are a trilogy on the Dance around the Golden Calf.
10: THE SEEKERS
And I a worker, leader, follower, a healer, a prophet, a buyer, a seller, with power of mind and heart, of pen and voice
Exodus 32:1-9
11: THE CITY
Of commerce and computer and heights and all the rush of day by day
Hebrews 13:14
12: OUR DREAMS
A victim of our dreams or others’ dreams and minds and eyesTunnelled turns and glazed
Revelation 3:5
13: ST MICHAEL’S
Until we, here then there, hear again the word, Lift up your heads
Peter 2:9-10
14: GOOD TIDINGS
How beautiful are the feet of him who brings good tidings
Isaiah 52:7-9
Windows 15 to 19
Windows 15 to 19 portray the Gateway to the New Jerusalem. We turn from the body of the Church to go out into the city.
15: LIGHT
A new consciousness of who we are
16: HOPE
What we and our children will become
Rev 21:2-12
17: TRIUMPH
Break forth together in shouts of triumph
Rev 21:21, 23, 27
18: LIBERATION
You who have longed for that liberation
Rev 21:21,23,27
