St Luke's Church, York
‘I am your Guiding Light’ – Children’s Chapel Three windows
(each 0.6m x 1.1m) 2020
I was commissioned to create three windows for the Children’s Chapel at Saint Luke’s Church, York, in memory of parishioner John Brown who was also a guide at York Minster.
The brief given was the Bible quotation Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is [1 John 3:2].
In the words of the vicar of St Luke’s, when we are children we have no idea about what we will become or what plans God has in store for us. God will lead us through His guiding light, His guiding way, His guiding love.
The design scheme has been inspired by the Bible quotation and by John Brown’s rôle as a guide at York Minster, mother church of the Diocese of York. The over-arching narrative is the ‘guiding way’ – in the wider sense of God as the eternal guide, helping and supporting us on our spiritual journey through life, in His image.
When read in sequence from the chapel entrance (from right to left, or West to East), the designs symbolise our journey as pilgrims through the Christian life on earth to entry into the Kingdom of God. They can also be read from East to West (left to right) as a message of God’s all-encompassing heavenly love guiding the daily lives of His people on earth.
GUIDING LIGHT
The first window contains a glowing lantern such as pilgrims might carry to show them the way, inspired by the lantern tower of York Minster. The lantern is open to reveal God’s light and to remind us of John 8:12 in which Jesus says of himself, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
The background to the lantern reveals the shape of the cross, linking the design with the architectural structure of the third window and drawing us along our journey towards the house of God.
GUIDING WAY
The second window shows a great doorway, slowly opening to allow pilgrims to enter and the welcoming light of God to pour out into the world. This portal, modelled on the west door of York Minster, represents Genesis 28:17, being …none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
At the base of the window the text Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared [1 John 3:2] appears as if carved into the steps of the doorway, leading us inwards to a place as yet unknown.
GUIDING LOVE
The third window depicts the glorious view looking up into the central tower of York Minster – the same tower we saw as a lantern in the window where our pilgrimage began. Above us is a ceiling patterned with bosses and tracery, like the vault of heaven fretted with stars.
From above pours the intense glow of God’s all-encompassing love, framed by the four great crossing arches of stone which hint at the shape of the cross. At the top of one pillar is a carving of an ox, the symbol of St Luke, dedicatee of this Church.