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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: Connick (Charles J.), Ltd.

City: Pontiac

Window Shape: 6 (gothic arched, more than 2 vertical sections)

Date of Window: 1952

Subject/Title of Window: Jeremiah

Brief Description of Subject: Jeremiah preaced from 627-586 BC, the longest career of any of the prophets. Over so long a time, his message changed as world events changed and called forth new understandings of the work of God. It was a time of trouble for Judah and Jerusalem, ending with the destruction o f the city and the temple. Jeremiah continued the great themes of the earlier prophets, calling for true piety, social justice, and loyalty to God rather than trust in military alliances. His teaching deepened the idea of repentence, and he introduced the vision of a new covenant written on the heart. After 598, he began to preach of hope and new beginnings following at time of punishement.

The broken chain which he holds in his right hand is symbolic of the ancestral thought which he was forced to shatter before he could bring in that new consciousness of God which is uniquely his:
"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt...I will put my law within them, and I will write in on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (31:31-33).

A man of profound intelligence and world-wide vision, Jeremiah saw clearly that the inevitable doom which awaited his people was the result of their own blindness in seeking safety, not in righteousness, but in foreign alliances, the worship of idols, and lip-service worship of God. He saw that nothing short of a radical spiritual cleansing, could bring real safety to his people. This was the unpatriotic "word of God" to which the scroll in his left hand refers, and which caused him to become a "man of strife and contention" (15"10). At the bottom of this center lancet is his traditional symbol, the starry scepter, perhaps because of his teaching of the possibility of a direct knowledge of God:
"When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord (29:13-14)."

Jeremiah's direct personal call is depicted in them medallion in the left lancet by the Lord touching his mouth. (1:9) The medallion in the right lancet deals with his vision of the almond tree (1:11,12):
"The word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Jeremiah, what do you see?' And I said, 'I see a branch of an almond tree.' Then the Lord said to me, 'You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.."

The words for "almond" and "watching" in Hebrew sound alike: a typical prophetic pun meaning that God is aware of His people's actions and will judge them.

Inscriptions: In Loving Memory of Millicent Turner Ransom


Height: ~82"

Width: ~78"

Type of Glass and Technique: Lead Came

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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.

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