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Featured Windows, March-April 2013
Flint Presbyterian Church
Building: First Presbyterian Church
City: Flint
State: Michigan
First Presbyterian Church, Flint, Michigan has been in existence since 1841, with the current sanctuary dating from 1885 with updating in 1929.
As growth continued, a large expansion with a 3 floor addition came in 1987-1990. This included a more intimate chapel with large windows on the west, north and east, waiting for stained glass. Willet/Hauser Studio, Winona, MI/Philadelphia, PA was selected to fabricate the stained glass windows for the chapel, and they worked with artist Ellen Miret who provided the actual designs. The West Bay of three lancets portrays God the Father. The story moves outward from the center, like ripples from a stone dropped in still water. The North Bay (also three lancets) portrays God the Son with “translucent” rather than transparent glass, as this three-lancet window looks out to the street with significant traffic passing by, where as there are trees and lawn outside the West and East Bays for which transparent glass was selected for both. The East Bay (here again, three lancets) portrays God the Holy Spirit. Here there are three historical character portrayed – St. Francis of Assisi; Frances Makemie, an Irish Bishop sent to the Thirteen Colonies and the organizer of American Presbyterianism; and William Tennent who opened a Log Cabin College to train clergy, which eventually became Princeton University. There are 12 inches of wall between each of the lancets, such that the artist could have had a different story/subject in each of the lancets, but instead, she treated each bay of three as a “whole”, with line, color and story bringing all lancets into one scheme. The use of glass paint is minimal, but very effective for the facial features. When asked, Ms. Miret commented she feels fewer features make the total design seem less crowded, if the church agrees. The main sanctuary of this church has three large Tiffany Studio windows, one of which will be featured for the May/June Window of the Month. MSGC 1998.0133 Census Coordinator:Wilma Thoms, 11/09/1994
Bibliography: Show Bibliography
(MSGC 1998.0133)
Text by Barbara Krueger, Michigan Stained Glass Census, March , 2013.
