Redeemer's
Stained
Glass
All of the windows have been provided through the joyful and dedicated love of individuals. These individuals desire to gratefully remember God's saving blessings to loved ones. His gift of forgiveness makes a life of service to Him possible. Thanks be to Him who loved all men and is the Redeemer of all.
Stained Glass Windows
The stained glass windows created by the Willet Studios in Philadelphia were designed and executed for Redeemer. They tell the story of Jesus Christ and his ongoing Church in a chronological order. The format uses medallions and alternates red and blue backgrounds. There is one scene and one related symbol in each panel. The area between the medallions and borders was kept light so the church would not come too dark in the daytime. In this light area some decorative effects and secondary symbols were added in glass point. The method for fabricating the windows is similar to methods employed in medieval cathedrals in Europe. Windows from that era are some of the greatest masterpieces the world has ever produced.
The sixty-two original windows (not including the 100th anniversary "The Second Coming of Our Lord" window) that comprise the Redeemer collection are built around and supplementary to two windows which have illuminated the sanctuary for nearly three decades. These windows are the Nativity Rose Window and the Hemmeter Memorial Resurrection Window. In 1958 the Resurrection Window was moved from its original location at the east or chancel-end of the original nave, (now the west nave) to the north of the new main nave. Both windows were built by the Willet Studios in 1947.
The locations of these two windows dictated a specific pattern for the iconography, or subject matter, for the new windows. They also provided a lovely thematic setting.
The windows accentuate the life and work of the Redeemer. They begin with the Incarnation and end by showing His continuing influence on people in the world of today. The windows proceed in a clockwise manner from the west nave, reaching an appropriate climax in the Resurrection window. This leaves us looking to the Risen Redeemer Who will lead His church in the future as He has done in the past.
All of the windows have been provided through the joyful and dedicated love of individuals. These individuals desire to gratefully remember God's saving blessing to loved ones. His gift of forgiveness makes a life of service to Him who loved all men and is the Redeemer of all.
TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!
The information on this page and the gallery pages is taken from the "Redeemer Lutheran Church: The Savior Speaks Stained Glass Windows" booklet created by the Center for Liturgical Art, Concordia University, Nebraska. The original text was authored by Reverend M. J. Tassler.
The Story of Stained Glass
Reduced to its simplest form, the purpose of a stained glass window is to admit light while protecting the interior of the structure and its occupants from the elements. The glass may be colored and the light controlled, but the problem is always to be stated in terms of active light.
No other craft deals in light as brilliant or elemental. The broken, harmonious color of a stained glass window creates its own aesthetic atmosphere. This colorful harmony quickens the emotions through the warmth and beauty it spreads throughout an interior.
A stained glass window is a mosaic made up of morsels of colored glass held together by strips of grooved lead. These pieces are reinforced by iron bars securely anchored to the window frame. Features, folds of drapery, secondary symbols, and texture are painted on the glass with a dark pigment which is permanently fused into the window by intense heat. In composing a window the artist must not only have a fine sense of color harmony, but must also be aware of principles relating to light passing through color.
The color in this glass is in the substance itself. While the mass of colorless glass is still in its molten state, various chemicals are added to the pot. Copper oxide, under different conditions, produces ruby, blue and green, while cobalt is the principle base for fine, pure blues. Green is obtained from chromium and iron oxide. Golden glass is sometimes colored with uranium, cadmium sulfide, or titanium, and allows for fine celenium yellows as well as vermilions. Ruby is colored with the noble metal gold. This method of staining or dyeing glass is the same as that used in the Middle Ages. For this reason it is called antique glass or pot-metal relating to the pot in which it is made. The very imperfections of the glass are often a part of its glory.
A distinguished window, like any other work of art, cannot be valued in terms of its size. It is one way in which believers present their House of God with a crown of jewels.
-- Stained Glass Association of America