Stained Glass banner image

Featured Window

Window of the Month
Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

Click any image to enlarge.




Window

Building Name: St. John Lutheran Church

Studio Name: City Glass Specialty Inc. of Fort Wayne, Ind.

City: Rochester

Window Shape: 2 (rectangle)

Date of Window: 1982

Subject/Title of Window: Saint John and Martin Luther

Brief Description of Subject: The north side entrance to the Church leads to this narthex window. It is composed of two lancets which together highlight that this Church is St. John Lutheran. 
 
The description of these lancets was taken from a Church booklet describing their windows made by City Glass Specialty.
 
"Symbolically flanking St. John is his eagle emblem and the number 3:16, bringing to remembrance the most familiar and important words of the Apostle's Gospel: 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.' The pascal lamb is shown resting on John's Book of Revelation with the seven seals. The ventilator represents the Star of Christmas, even Jesus Himself, who becomes the star of our life."
 
"The symbols in the Luther window include the open Bible and the lighted lamp of Christian learning. The 95 and the hammer remind us of the famous Theses Martin Luther nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Below them is the famous Luther Seal: The black cross within the red heart shows that salvation is found only through Christ, the crucified. The white rose is the promised rose of the Savior. The heart fixed upon the rose shows that faith causes joy, consolation and peace. The Castle Church and chapel door at Wittenberg is represented on the right ventilator."
 
The pen and ink sketches were submitted to the Church by the maker for final approval or any changes they may want before construction of the window. 

Height: 10’

Width: 3'4"

Saint John and Martin Luther
Saint John and Martin Luther
Saint John and Martin Luther outside
Saint John and Martin Luther outside
St. John sketch
St. John sketch
Martin Luther sketch
Martin Luther sketch

The MSGC is a constantly evolving database. Not all the data that has been collected by volunteers has been sorted and entered. Not every building has been completely documented.

All images in the Index are either born-digital photographs of windows or buildings or are scans of slides, prints, or other published sources. These images have been provided by volunteers and the quality of the material varies widely.

If you have any questions, additions or corrections, or think you can provide better images and are willing to share them, please contact donald20@msu.edu