Welcome to the final post in our Windows Wednesday series! In this post we are examining West side of the South Façade window in the Sanctuary. This side of the window depicts the spread of Christianity after the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The story begins at Pentecost. We see here the Holy Spirit descending upon the Apostles in the form of flames in the uppermost panel.
Below that, we see Stephen, the deacon of Jerusalem and the first to be martyred for Christianity. We see Paul on the right, shown during his conversion. He then went on to author the Epistles of the New Testament, and as a Roman citizen, served a missionary to the gentiles. Continuing to the next panel down, we have Athenasius on the left, who suffered five separate exiles for his role in the Christian theological community, including his insistence that Christ and the Father were not separate entities but a single God. Francis founded several Catholic orders and served as a missionary in the Middle East. Both have been canonized by the Catholic Church for their contributions to Christianity. Below them are John Calvin and Martin Luther. Calvin is depicted here with the Scriptures, denoting his movement’s reliance on the Bible as the source of God’s revelation and the necessary focus of Christian devotional practice. On the right, Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
The next panel below shows two crucial figures in the Protestant movement. In the upper right corner, we see the martyr John Wycliffe, who was burned at the stake for translating the Bible from Latin into Middle English in 1384. In the lower corner, we see the founder of Methodist philosophy and missionary to the American colonies, John Wesley. And finally, at the base of the window, we see Francis Asbury on the left and Albert Schweitzer on the right. Between them is the silhouette of a circuit rider, itinerant preachers critical to spreading Methodism throughout America. At the bottom, we see the handshake between Bishop Reuben H. Mueller and Bishop Lloyd Christ Wicke that founded the United Methodist denomination from the Methodist Episcopal denomination and the Evangelical United Brethren.
This entire window can now be seen at KentMethodist.org/southwindow, where you can click on the separate panels to view the details explained in these final posts and close up images of the design. The site is easily viewed on mobile devices, and the address will be posted by the balcony if you wish to examine it in person any Sunday. Thank you for joining me for this journey through the beautiful windows of our church. If you have any questions about the windows or the history of our church building, please contact me directly at adamalderson@kentmethodist.org or send us a Facebook message or tweet.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:16–20
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