cafe stained glass window
The bombs of the last war, exploding close to this building, left this lovely window intact but age had cracked many pieces of the glass whilst the colours never faded. It seemed too much money to repair it and then someone said “God deserves the best! This used to be the original church and our forefathers and fore-mothers worked hard to make this a place of beauty – so we should renew the window too!”
Visits to the stained-glass artists in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter took us to Nick who was patient and professional, spending hours working with us to get just the right match of glass, understanding us with quiet courtesy when one of the group waxed lyrical about theology and symmetry and others approached it from a painter’s viewpoint whilst another was knowledgeable about glass and its properties, having worked with it all his life.
Visits to the stained-glass artists in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter took us to Nick who was patient and professional, spending hours working with us to get just the right match of glass, understanding us with quiet courtesy when one of the group waxed lyrical about theology and symmetry and others approached it from a painter’s viewpoint whilst another was knowledgeable about glass and its properties, having worked with it all his life.
The window is of the Rennie MacIntosh era and shows the Alpha and Omega – (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) emphasizing that Christ is the Beginning and the End – as well as the tree of life (Revelation 22:2) whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
There are triangles for the Trinity of the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and a symbol often seen on pulpit falls in Methodist chapels - IHS - which Methodists often say stands for “In His Service” (in reality more likely to be from the Greek for “Jesus Christ God’s Son”).
Now this lovingly-restored window stands over the Café kitchen, shedding its beauty and light, testament to those who have gone before us who had the foresight to build such chapels and churches. As people sip cappuccinos under it, they are aware of light spilling over them into the once dark entry corridor where the colours of this window are echoed in the lovely mural.
There are triangles for the Trinity of the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and a symbol often seen on pulpit falls in Methodist chapels - IHS - which Methodists often say stands for “In His Service” (in reality more likely to be from the Greek for “Jesus Christ God’s Son”).
Now this lovingly-restored window stands over the Café kitchen, shedding its beauty and light, testament to those who have gone before us who had the foresight to build such chapels and churches. As people sip cappuccinos under it, they are aware of light spilling over them into the once dark entry corridor where the colours of this window are echoed in the lovely mural.
