The Play of Light

The sanctuary in Laval House Chapel seemed to lack something: colour? warmth? something to take us beyond Calvary to Easter Sunday, to reach towards Pentecost and the showering of the Spirit?

We surveyed Jonathan Kearns' architecture and envisaged the possibilities: why not work with the clear glass windows already in place rather than add a rival piece of art? We were introduced to Sarah Hall, Toronto's internationally recognised stained glass artist whose work has received numerous awards. From design to final installation she took us through the composition of a window that felt right for our particular chapel and those who would assemble in it to pray and celebrate the liturgy.

In the course of our association she showed us prints and slides depicting her work in Canada and the United States - works of art that have brought beauty to many churches and synagogues. As we marvelled at her treasures a thought began to take shape. What if she would allow us to use her pictures in our upcoming calendar? A conversation at a Toronto exhibition led to our request and her immediate willingness to say yes. We are very grateful to her.

For a thousand years stained glass has lured into churches tourists who would not otherwise visit them and has provided an environment for believers to come in touch with their God through prayer and silent contemplation. One thinks of the rose windows in Notre Dame and Chartres, the walls of glass in the Sainte Chapelle, the beautiful windows of countless local churches ancient and modern.

The dark interiors of the 12th and 13th centuries called out for rich, saturated colours. Their interlacing of blues and rubies still compel even the most casual of visitors to pause and gaze. The play of light colouring these sombre spaces gives them a beauty and a warmth to balance the austere stone of walls, floor and pillars.

Renaissance art emphasized the human form. Stained glass became an alternative canvas on which its practitioners could paint. In so doing, it grew less and less transparent. The triumphant Christ of the Middle Ages gave way to the human Jesus, in particular the Man of Sorrows.

Elaborate Baroque churches with their heaven on earth motifs needed clear interior light to make visible their detailed beauty. Stained glass was out of place. It became a defeated rival banished to extinction for two hundred years.

Then came the revival architecture of the 19th century, especially the neo-Gothic reconstructions. Antique and mediaeval glass was rediscovered. A gentle, soft and sometimes sad Christ appealed to our Victorian predecessors.

20th century stained glass benefited from the techniques of modem technology. No longer easily classified, each artist had his or her approach - Harry Clarke and Evie Hone (Ireland), Marc Chagall (Russia) Georges Roualt, Le Corbusier and Henri Matisse (France), contemporary artists such as Sarah Hall. Their work is self-revealing and increasingly abstract. In Germany and England the necessary post-World War n rebuilding challenged artists to create a stained glass of and for its own time. In Coventry for example, John Piper's floor to ceiling Baptistry Window - hundreds of panels of blues and reds and greens surrounding a central diamond of gradually lightening yellow panels - summons outside light and bids it colour everything within.

"What is the point of making church windows that do not connect to something beyond themselves?" asks Sarah Hall. May the visual experience of this year's calendar draw you into the beauty of her contemporary stained glass. May its glory and transparence colour your world and nourish your spirit.