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Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: All Saints Episcopal Church

Studio Name: Lamb (J. and R.) Co.

City: Detroit

Window Shape: 3 (arched)

Subject/Title of Window: History of the Church Part 4 Jamestown to Bishops of Detroit

Brief Description of Subject: Information from Charles J. Connick Associates worksheet 3401. Planning for four windows in the south nave began in 1952. The subject was to be the history of the Church from the Old Testament to the Michigan Diocese. In 1955 the Church was still trying to figure out what they wanted included on those windows. 

Sometime after this, the Church switched to the J.&R. Lamb Studios to design and make those windows. Each of the four windows contain eight scenes.

In the small roundel above the first scene is a rainbow, symbolizing God's love and mercy, and a lit torch, a symbol for Christ --- John 8:12, "I am the light of the world." Together this may be pointing to a vision of John's found in the Revelation. "Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one [Christ] sat on the throne ... and there was a rainbow about the throne." (Revelation 4:2-3 KJV).

Scene 2: The Virginia Company, who were members of the Church of England, were granted a charter by King James VI for a settlement in the New World. According to the Charter they were to "tend to the glory of the Divine Majesty in propagating of Christian religion to such people as yet in darkness." In 1607 they landed on the coast, forming a settlement they named "Jamestown." On June 21, 1607, the Reverend Hunt held the first Anglican communion service at Jamestown.

Scene 1: To escape disease and famine, some of the settlers left Jamestown and formed a new settlement at Hampton, Virginia. They constructed a church which they named "St. John's," and held the first service there in 1610.

Scene 3: Samuel Seabury (1729 - 1796) was the first Episcopal bishop to have been born in America. He was ordained as Bishop for the Church in Connecticut in 1784.

Scene 4: Bishop Kemper (1789 - 1870) was the first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in America. He evangelized in the Northwest Territory. Among many accomplishments, he founded the Racine College in Wisconsin and a Church of All Saints in Milwaukee.

Scene 5: The Detroit Stockade was built in 1796. The first Church of England service was performed there in 1802 by Rev. Richard Pollard.

Scene 6: Explanation by Valerie Kabat as it appeared in the Spring 2007 edition of the Ypsilanti Gleanings:

In a tiny birch-bark canoe one Sunday morning in 1802, a Church of England clergyman, the Rev. Richard Pollard, paddled across the Detroit River on his way from Sandwich, Ontario, to the small frontier trading post of Detroit. This, to many, was the beginning of the Episcopal Church in Michigan. For over 20 years, Rev. Pollard held services for some 20 families in the Indian Council House ... Thus his parish, St. John's Church, Sandwich, has often been referred to as "the Mother Church" of the Diocese of Michigan.

Scene 7: The Cathedral Church of St. Paul is flanked by symbols that refer to St. John's (the eagle) and All Saints (a cross with saint's crowns) churches in Detroit. St. Paul's was the first Episcopal parish in the Northwest. The All Saints Church was organized by vestrymen from St. John's.

Scene 8: Shield for the Diocese of Michigan flanked by the names of all of this organization's bishops starting with Samuel Allen McCoskry 1836 - 1878 and ending with Archie Henry Crowley 1954 -.

Under this window is a plaque that reads:

To the glory of God
A Thank Offering
Mary-Martha Guild 

Inscriptions: Service Since 1610 at Old St. John's
First Service at Jamestown 1607
Seabury Ordained Bishop
Bishop Kemper Arrives in the West 1820
1702 [sic] First Service in Stockade
Mr. Pollard Reaches Detroit in 1802
Bishops of the Diocese of Michigan


Height: 14' 7"

Width: 21"

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