THE
WINDOWS AT GRANNY WHITE
By
Ernest Clevenger
More than fifty years ago, when the Granny White church building was
being designed, someone with skill and thought came up with a theme for the
beautiful stained glass windows in the auditorium.
From information available, it has been determined that the windows were
made, and possibly the cartoon (layout) designed, by a company in
Germany
whose specialty was a unique method of painting on clear pre-shaped glass.
The artists very carefully hand painted every piece of glass.
They used rare formulated pigments, stroking each little piece of glass
so perfectly that the color for each of the thousands of panes during the
annealing process came out just right. Each
individual section, with a precise amount of heat and time in the annealing
process, seems made to completely blend with the whole.
The processed panes were then assembled in the finished pattern using the
traditional lead and solder to hold the design together with strategically
placed steel bars and frames for reinforcement.
These sections were then shipped to
Nashville
, assembled on the grounds, and installed in the window frames, the results of
which we see in the exquisite stained glass we enjoy today.
Two special characteristics are noticeable about these windows.
They are designed so they will open to allow fresh air into the building.
The crank assembly is within the lower casing and the crankshaft is in the well
at the bottom of the frame. And,
each window has in it a special panel with a spiritual message for all ages and
for all time.
The Message of The
Windows
In the first window (and the message is repeated on each side of the
auditorium) is a unique panel containing a not quite opened beautiful white
lily. It foretells of greater beauty and majesty to come.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth.” John 1:1..14.
The light shinning through this pane gives reflections of the three years
Jesus the Son of God spent getting ready for the establishment of his kingdom,
the church.
The second window has a different pane, one that depicts the grandeur of
the passionflower. This flower was
probably chosen because through the years
it came
to represent the passion, or suffering of Christ.
How did the passionflower get its name?
When missionaries arrived in
South America
in the 16th century, they found a plant they felt was a good omen for their
mission. They called it the “passionflower” because to them it symbolized
the death of Christ. The five sepals and five petals of the flower, which are
similar in appearance, represent the disciples without Peter and Judas. The
double row of colored filaments, known as the corona, signifies the halo around
Christ's head, or the crown of thorns. The five stamens and the three spreading
styles with their flattened heads symbolize the wounds and the nails
respectively. The vines tendrils resemble the whips used to scourge Christ...
Giacomo Bosio, an Italian historian, went so
far as to interpret that the unopened, bell-shaped flowers, to the left of the
window pane, held these sacred symbols from the view of heathens who had not yet
been converted to Christianity. If that's not enough, the lobed leaves and long
green vines were further thought to represent the hands and whips of Christ's
prosecutors. Some Bible translations
pick up this idea by rendering Acts
1:3, "to whom he also showed himself alive after his passion."
This window is meant to remind us of the death of Christ on the cross.
The third windowpane depicts
how we are to weekly remember the price Jesus paid for the forgiv
eness
of our sins. The pane has a cluster
of grapes and three heads of wheat, or other grain visable.
Obviously, the Lord’s Supper is represented.
Mt. 26:26-28, “And as they were
eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and
said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink
from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which
is shed for many for the remission of sins.’”
The fourth windowpane has a lily in full bloom and would suggest the full
power of the resurrection of Christ as the divine lily of the valley, the bright
and morning star.
At Granny
White one may go up into the balcony and get the full view of this magnificent
pane, and being able to get very close to it, one may see the artistry, the
detail even to the brush strokes, and the way the glass is leaded together.
There is a
fifth window in the theme series. It
is the largest of all the windows and brings to a central point the story of the
Way of the cross from both sides of the auditorium.
This window has as its larger central pane the open Bible depicting the
one and only true and living way. This
magnificent pane may only be viewed from the area around the pulpit looking up
into the balcony, or best from the balcony itself, or even better from the cry
room in which the window is found where it may be seen up close.
The theme of the splendid stained glass windows at Granny White places
emphasis upon the role of Jesus as Savior, as the Way, as the Truth and as the
Life (John 14:6:
Jesus said to him,
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through Me”), and,
upon the necessity of relying upon the revealed will of God as found in the Old
and New Testaments.
Surrounded
by the beauty of the windows at Granny White, worshippers may see in them
regular reminders of the life of Christ, of his mission on earth as the Son of
God, of his death, burial and resurrection, and of his role in the establishment
and maintenance of the church, the kingdom of God on earth.
If you would like to download a copy of the Windows brochure just click on your
choice of MSWord or a PDF file. Both are arranged to print on legal paper
in color or black and white.
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MSWord File
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