Ancient Art With a Modern Lure

In the 1950s, when most North Americans associated stained glass with cavernous, Gothic churches in Europe, the influential glass artist Henry Willet of Philadelphia often talked about the "lust and the lure and the love of stained glass." An increasing number of people today, both within and out- side the church, appreciate that allure-perhaps foremost among them the artists themselves.

Currently there are dozens of stained glass artists working full-time across Canada, including some like Sarah Hall and Stuart Reid who have international reputations. (Reid's window in St. James Cathedral, Toronto, was inaugurated with a plaque unveiled by the Queen.) There are hundreds of hobbyists as well. Stained glass is now visible in many forms, from "sun catchers" to lamps and wood-framed window panels, to serious architectural window projects in churches, schools, hospitals, libraries, government buildings and private residences.

"There has definitely been a resurgence in interest in stained glass," says Halifax architect and stained glass artist T. E. Smith-Lamothe. "It started back in the late 1960s, I think with the professionals, not the hobbyists. The professionals started doing enough interesting work that people took notice. It became popular as a hobby. It's a wonderful medium, and luxuriant. People will pay a high price for it." Stained glass has not always been popular since its debut in the 7th century. Perhaps the lowest point was during the 16th and 17th centuries, when Reformers and Puritans attempted to eradicate what they considered to be "idolatrous" images, smashing countless windows through- out England and Europe.

Appeal and Power

What, exactly, is the spiritual appeal and power of stained glass? Its artists will tell you it has to do with that most primeval of God's creations, light, and how natural light affects colour. "The light coming through the glass is more exciting than painting on canvas," says Toronto stained glass artist Rosalynd Sokolosky, an evangelical Anglican.

Smith-Lamothe elaborates on its mysterious effect. "In times past, we're told, stained glass was used to teach illiterate peasants about the Bible. That's true, but it was more than that. Many windows are 60 feet off the ground. The people weren't looking up at those just to learn the Bible stories. They were transported by the effect of the glass itself. Their lives were dull, brown. They ate colourless food, wore brown clothes, their houses had brown thatch. And suddenly on Sunday they're surrounded by primary colours! The windows made them take the leap into another realm." It's no wonder, then, that the motto of glaziers was lucent tuam da nobis Deus: "God, give us your light."

Dr. Nancy-Lou Patterson, professor emeritus of fine arts at the University of Waterloo, says stained glass "allows for the expression of joy and wonder" in a peculiar way. It creates an intense experience of light and colour. "It's so vivid!"

She recounts an incident from the 1960s, the era when she started designing stained glass. "A lot of people were taking psychotropic drugs then. I was walking in a garden in British Columbia. I was intrigued by a bed of red tulips. They were incandescent, luminous. The petals were like bowls; like drinking from the sacred Cup. I thought: who needs to take drugs? Isn't this the most vivid thing I've ever seen?" Patterson has tried to convey that vivid- ness in the windows she creates. "We're here to rejoice," she says. "The wonderfulness of everything is a gift."

Evangelical "Anomalies"

Among evangelicals that "lust" for glass that Willet talked of seems rare. There are few evangelical churches in Canada with stained glass, though some have coloured glass windows.

Nancy-Lou Patterson, an Anglican, has wondered about that. "It's impossible for me to understand how anybody can worship without something wonderful to look at," she states. Her work with stained glass is part of a career that has included writing popular children's novels, scholarly work on native, Mennonite and ethnic art, calligraphy, stitchery and weaving. Patterson concludes that the absence of stained glass among evangelicals flows from their different understanding of worship. "The [evangelical] sermon is vastly more important than the Eucharist. Talking is terribly important, besides the singing." In contrast, the Anglican, Catholic and Lutheran traditions place more emphasis on sensory experience in worship. "Evangelical worship is almost wholly an aural thing, and not visual. Evangelicals are also interested in ecstatic experiences, but they trigger them differently. They're seeking wonder and the reality of God through other means."

T. E. Smith-Lamothe has also thought about the dearth of stained glass among evangelicals. He grew up Roman Catholic in Louisiana and most of his commissions have been for main- line churches. He mentions the lasting repercussions of the Reformers' attempts to eradicate stained glass. "The more traditional denominations all have a strong contemplative or meditative history, and stained glass in their churches reinforces that calmness and repose of private prayer. The evangelicals seem to me to be more about. . . action and energy [as seen in their] music as well as the obvious energy of the preaching. "Stained glass inspires a kind of meditative atmosphere and, as the great British stained glass master Patrick Reyntiens once said, 'Our modem life is often too frenetic and rushed to allow for artwork which asks one to stop, rest and contemplate.' "

Two Major Evangelical Windows

Though most of Patterson's windows are in Anglican and United churches, she designed what she calls one of the stained glass "anomalies" in evangelical Canada. As early as 1964 she was commissioned to create the now well- known windows in the chapel of Conrad Grebel College, a Mennonite school attached to the University of Waterloo (see pages 32-33).

Patterson didn't know much about Mennonite history when she accepted that Grebel project. "They gave me a stack of books to read, much of it on pietism." Patterson read every one and developed "a visual understanding of their take on things." The resulting windows use symbols that evoke the theological and spiritual qualities of key events in Mennonite history.

Bas Degroot, a Dutch immigrant of Reformed background, designed another major set of windows for an evangelical institution: the windows at Crossroads Communications Centre in Burlington, Onto Degroot's windows are seen daily all over North America in broadcasts of the television program 100 Huntley Street, which is taped at Crossroads. Degroot works in stained glass, paints, and creates brick mosaic murals.

Faith Meets Art

Bas Degroot's faith is apparent in the writings on his web site and in his art. Art, he writes, "is a combination of workings of the Spirit: it teaches, preaches and prophesies." He says stained glass should still "preach" biblical teachings, but today it must counteract peculiarly modern "mind and spirit contamination" by using "new images-pure and inspired, at least as much as in former days."

When Roz Sokolosky was asked if her art expresses her faith, she replied, "Absolutely. I want to encourage people to see God with my work. I want to create a body of work which helps people do that."

Sarah Hall is a Quaker (Society of Friends). Their meetings involve much listening in silence. "I see my work as helping the congregation towards a realization of their spirituality in stained glass," she says. "Because Quakers recognize that there are many ways to understand God, I am able to work alongside each congregation in their own exploration and expression, not as a member but as a respectful listener [making sure at the same time that they also] arrive at a worthwhile artistic expression."

In pondering his work, Smith- Lamothe concludes, "I'm speaking to the spiritual nature of human beings. There's a spiritual side to me that gets expressed in stained glass. My first major was in psychology. I was fascinated with the Jungian universal archetypes. I don't feel I have to be Jewish, for example, when I do a synagogue in order to apply that to that part of the human soul that responds to spiritual things."

Whatever the style he's going to use, Smith-Lamothe first does careful research of his subject, "whether it's St. Norbert or The Last Supper:" Perhaps surprisingly, most churches don't have a theme in mind when they commission him. However, when a church does insist on a theme, things can sometimes get tricky. "Someone will say, 'My husband was a sailor; I want Jesus Calming the Sea,' " says Smith-Lamothe. A church did indeed want such a window, and sent him a card with a kind of children's story-Bible illustration.

"I couldn't do" that style, he says, because to him it would have entirely missed the spirit of the event. "Jesus was asleep. They woke him up. He was angry. 'I'm here, what are you worried about?' Jesus said. He was in command, and commanded the sea. He wasn't being mild. The church didn't like that. They wanted the milk and cookies version. I went to a special meeting with them, read the passage to them and explained what was going on there and was able to convince them."

Nancy-Lou Patterson incorporates abstraction in her work, but it "must always communicate with worshipers," she says. "[Totally] abstract works in churches are just decoration." On the other hand, "some churches have plain coloured glass; it's pretty but it doesn't communicate anything."