A Trinity of Glass

There is an eternal mystery to glass: it is a form of matter that paradoxically has gas-, liquid- and solid-state properties. Glass is most like a cooled liquid. In fact, older glass slowly slides and becomes wider at the bottom of a pane. It captures and rearranges light and seems to glow from within. The ability of glass to modify and split light, notably, shaped even the history of science. One of Newton’s books was entitled Optiks. Glass is a jewel-like substance made from the most ordinary materials, sand, magically transformed by the artist’s flames. In antiquity, people learned to make glass and color it by folding in metallic salts and oxides.

 

Chi-Rho Side Window

Christian artistic expression begins and ends in Christ because, while he is one member of the Triune God, Christians claim we know God most intimately in Christ. The "Chi-Rho" (it looks like X-P) are the first two letters of "Christ" in Greek. Just above the Chi-Rho is a trinitarian fleur-de-lis which almost has faces. The bottom of the Chi-Rho seems immersed in water, perhaps a reference to the baptism of Jesus.

Notice the flame of the Spirit at the top and the chalice and bread of the Communion at the left and the right on the pedestals. The Episcopal Church is centered in the Eucharist. The warm hues of the bread almost enable us to smell its beckoning goodness.