Featured Windows, January 1998

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Window

Building: St. Luke's Episcopal Church

City: Kalamazoo

State: Michigan

This double lancet window pictures twelfth-century St. Thomas of Canterbury, chancellor of England who became its Archbishop during the reign of Henry II, and seventh-century St. Hilda of Whitby, founder and Abbess of Whitby Abbey, a double monastery for monks and nuns. St. Thomas is shown in his Archbishop's robes, holding his staff of office, with a model of Canterbury Cathedral beside him. The sword above him recalls his martyrdom at the cathedral's altar. St. Hilda holds a crosier with a crystal crook, a sign of her purity, and an open book with the text, "He is risen," indicating her acceptance of the date chosen for Easter by the Synod of Whitby in 664. Beside her is a model of Whitby Abbey. In the top of the window are three coats of arms, representing the two saints and the Collins family, donor of the window in memory of Jane Massey Collins.

St. Luke's Church was designed by architect Gordon W. Lloyd of Detroit and constructed in 1884/85. This window was made in 1983 by the Rambusch Studios of New York City, using simplified forms and a color scheme dominated by blues and reds. It was designed by Robert Rambusch and Richard Zimmerman, painted by Bruce Gutelius and leaded by Raymond Clagnan. A small red signature square below the model of Canterbury Cathedral lists the names of those involved in the work.

St. Luke's Episcopal Church of Kalamazoo was registered in the Michigan Stained Glass Census by Adelbert C. Farnsworth of Kalamazoo.

(MSGC 1996.0019)

Text by Betty MacDowell, Michigan Stained Glass Census, January , 1998.