Featured Window

Our Lady of Grace, Dearborn Heights, Michigan

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MSGC : Collections : Window

Window

Building Name: St. Paul's Presbyterian Church

Studio Name: Willet Hauser Architectural Glass

City: Livonia

Window Shape: 2 (rectangle)

Date of Window: 1965

Subject/Title of Window: Scenes from Acts

Brief Description of Subject: Originally the west nave wall was designed for a two panel window, however after about 40 years, the entire wall was replaced with clear glass to let more light into the Church. No longer confined by the original architecture, the two panels of each of the original windows were separated and reinstalled singularly, evenly spaced out across the west nave. The lower section of each of the original windows were vented, on re-installation these lower sections were sealed.

This west window depicts three scenes from Acts and were designed by Marguerite Gaudin.

Upper Scene: Peter's Vision of the Sheets is covered in Acts 10:9 - 23. The very early Christians were all Jewish and still followed the Jewish laws. One prohibition was the avoidance of things that the Torah considered unclean, like certain foods and Gentiles. The story of Peter's Vision is part of the larger story of a centurion named Cornelius. Cornelius was a devout Gentile and God told him to send his servants to Joppa and bring back a man named Peter. As the servants neared Joppa, "Peter went up on the roof to pray ... He fell into a trance ... He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down by its corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the sun" (Verses 9 -12 NIV). A voice then told him to kill and eat these animals but Peter replied that he had never eaten anything impure or unclean. The voice then admonished him, "Do not call anything impure that God has made" (Verse 15 NIV). Then the Spirit told him that people were coming for him and he was to go with them. So when they arrived, Peter agreed to go with them to Cornelius' house. When Peter entered the house he found a crowd had gathered. He told the people, "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean" (Verse 28 NIV).

Middle Scene: Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Picture based on Acts 2:3 -4. On the Jewish feast of Pentecost the disciples were all together in one place. "They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit" (NIV). The Holy Spirit symbolized by a "descending dove" comes from Matthew 3:16 "... the Spirit of God descending like a dove."

Lower Scene: Philip and the Ethiopian found in Acts 8:26 - 40. An angel appeared to Philip and told him to get on the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza. On the way he met an Ethiopian eunuch who was an important official. The man had gone to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way home. He was traveling in a chariot and reading Isaiah 53:7 - 8. The Spirit told Philip to go to the chariot and stay with the man. Philip asked the man if he understood what he was reading. The man told him that he needed someone to explain it to him and invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Condition of Window: Good

Height: 88"

Width: 24"

Type of Glass and Technique: Opalescent Glass, Lead Came

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