The new East window
Seeing is believing
Our magnificent new East Window was dedicated in a joyful service of Choral Evensong on 9th February. The service was led by the Rt Revd Andrew Rumsey, Bishop of Ramsbury, and the window was dedicated by the Very Revd Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury, who also led the prayers. Around 250 people joined us to celebrate, including two former Rectors, the Rt Revd Jonathan Meyrick and the Rt Revd Humphrey Southern, and our most recent Parish Priest, the Revd Juliette Hulme. His Majesty the King was represented by the Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Dame Sarah Troughton.
“Most of my windows are in churches, and their themes are scriptural”
The new window was designed by the internationally acclaimed stained-glass artist and painter Thomas Denny. The many elements making up the window were subsequently fired and made by the Glazing Department at Salisbury Cathedral. The overall cost of £250,000 was achieved through grants and many donations, some made in memory of loved ones. A book is being prepared which will record the names of the donors and the wonderfully varied personal epitaphs that have been written. It will also include chapters on the history and making of the window
Thomas Denny has written::
The possibility of making a great east window for St John’s, Tisbury, is extraordinary.
Its position in the church is of course important; St Andrew’s Chapel, the former chancel, is also as perfect a site for a new work of art as could be found. The materials and techniques have largely been the same as those found in the church’s other Victorian windows, or indeed to be seen in 14th century glass: mouth blown hand made glass; glass paint; silver stain; leading.
The theme is “ Seeing ”.
Seeing the Glory of God; epiphanies in ordinary and extraordinary moments in life. This is expressed in the centre of the window in the story of the Transfiguration of Christ, divinity seen amongst us. Various other figures, and creatures, approach this central group: “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” [ Isaiah 52:10]. In the inner right hand light a couple also stands on the hill of transfiguration, looking both at what is happening near to them as well as out over a vast plain, and finding revelations there too. To the right, two further figures, a father and son, are themselves “in a mountain, seeing the land, what it is” [ Numbers 13: 17, 18]. Landscape recurs throughout the window, the continuous horizon suggestive of Salisbury Plain, scattered with clumps of trees and barrows. Elsewhere, two young women “lift up their eyes round about, and see” [ Isaiah 60: 4]. They see… long tailed tits in straggling bushes. Below, a crowd of butterflies, here, as in the medieval imagination, a symbol of resurrection.
In the lower part of the inner left hand light, a family draws near an ancient yew tree, contemplating the works of God: “I will set in the desert the fir tree, that they may see, and know” [Isaiah 41: 19.20]. Like the young Jesus in the temple [Luke 2:47] the child here seems to lead in understanding. Other embodiments, like the yew, of the layers of time in a place, are scattered on the ground [in this case, neolithic ritual axe heads, again of Wiltshire significance]. In the adjacent left hand light two figures stand transfixed by the mystery and meaning of their surroundings, looking into the sky, and towards a standing sarsen stone : “I will show wonders in the heavens, and in the earth….. your sons and your daughters shall prophesy… your young men shall see visions” [ from Joel 2].
At the bottom of the right hand light a group of children is seen by a river alders beyond; a familiar Tisbury landscape. They are looking at something found… a mere pebble from the stream?
In the 17th century, the priest and poet Thomas Traherne celebrated the holy clarity of a child’s vision: “the dust and the stones of the street were as precious as gold”. Or, in Matthew’s Gospel, [ 13:16] “blessed are your eyes, for they see”.
Renewal of sight, actual or metaphorical, is the subject of other scenes. In the central light, Jesus heals a blind man: “ receive thy sight” [ Luke 18:42]. The setting here is a slightly indeterminate street scape, although 13th century buttresses are indicated. And in the left hand light, a man is suddenly aware of “seeing out of obscurity” [ Isaiah 29:18].
In the tracery, a swarm of shapes of varying sizes, the theme moves into that of resurrection, of being changed, of “then knowing even as I am known” [l Corinthians 13:12], of seeing the risen Christ. Sleep; death; mourning; suffering. Then, disjointed figures struggle to realise their new form; others [ including, perhaps, a Stukeley, an Aubrey, a Herbert] approach someone with welcoming arms, in a kind of gateway at the summit of the window. “Trumpets” sound to the sides.
Many of the small shapes contain moths [the strange, unearthly plume moth], like the butterflies below a representation of being changed.
The former east window
Thomas Denny’s design
Thomas Denny examines two newly etched pieces of glass
