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Union Church of Bay Ridge
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A Congregation of the Presbyterian Church, USA - |
Union Church Windows
Tiffany Resurrection Window
I am the resurrection and the life
John 11:25
The large west window facing Ridge Boulevard was designed and installed by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, under the direction of Louis C. Tiffany. The original design, a triptych by Frederick Wilson, was part of the Tiffany exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. There are five known versions in existence in the United States, of which only one other is undivided.
This is the Resurrection in John 20:11-17. On this morning of the Resurrection, the sun is yet below the horizon, barely lighting the dark sky. The faint light reveals distant hills and a lake. Closer, a hillside is featureless in the morning's darkness, and mist shrouds the garden. Two angels, in luminous garments, have asked Mary Magdalene the reason for her weeping. Christ speaks to Mary. She recognizes Him and extends her right hand, hesitantly, almost imperceptibly, but she is admonished not to cling to him. He is majestic in Resurrection, and the white of His robe is starkly intense next to the angels. With the right hand, Christ rejects the tomb, and with the left, He points upward with the instruction to tell the brethren, "I ascend to my Father and your Father." His raised hand shows the wound. Christ is radiant; He is the Light in the Darkness. His radiance illuminates the face and hands of Mary but the shadows of her garment melt into the darkness. The radiance illuminates even the angels who are kneeling in reverence. The morning mist reflects His radiance, and the unopened buds by the lake echo His perfection yet to be completed.
Written by Terry Sherburn, an elder at Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Ohio
(home of a sister window) |
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Details of the Tiffany Resurrection Window
Tiffany signature and the memorial dedication in the Union Church west window, installed in 1896, the same year the original Union Church Sanctuary was built. The window is dedicated by the Van Brunt family to the memory of Rulef Van Brunt (1823-1883) on whose farmland Union Church stands. Legend has it that no one ever saw Mr. Van Brunt with less than 25 children aboard, whether on his wagon in the summer, or his sleigh in the winter. |
The Angel of the Resurrection
Fear not, for I know you seek Jesus, who was crucified; he is not here, for he is risen.
Matthew 28:5-6
The large east window in the chancel of the Union Church Sanctuary was the pride of its creator, Louis Lederle, who designed it as a triptych, with three Gothic-arched panels, and made it with his own hands. The window was made ten years before its first installation in the Union Church Sanctuary, and it was packed up and reinstalled as part of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis, Missouri, where it won the Special Crafts Award.
Mr. Lederle studied the art of glassmaking at Tiffany Studios, and later became a partner in the firm Spiers and Lederle.
The window was given to Union Church by Henry Rohlfs, in memory of Charlotte Pruchnow Rohlfs. The glass extending over and around Mr. Lederle's original window was added so that it would fit in its present aperture. (Note the different style of the green panels and blue roman arches, and the modification of the pointed Gothic arches.) This was the careful work of Rudolph Sickinger, a stained glass artist who also had family ties to Union Church. |
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Peter Wilhousky Memorial Window
"Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory"
Peter Wilhousky (1902-1978) was choral director under Arturo Toscanini, originator of the All City High School Chorus of New York City and Director of Music for New York City Public Schools, and taught at New Utrecht High School near Union Church for many years. His wife, Betty Gilkey Wilhousky, whose family were among the founding families of Union Church, gave this window in his memory, and it is installed in the north clerestory, on the wall the Sanctuary shares with the choir room.
Wilhousky is best known today for his choral arrangements, notably of the Carol of the Bells ("Hark, How the Bells") and of the Battle Hymn of the Republic ("Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory"). The window depicts a family (and a dove, lower right) lifting up their eyes and hearts to the light, the banner above reading "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory."
click here for a 1983 biography of Peter Wilhousky as published in The Carpatho-Rusyn American |
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Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
Revelation 3:20
One of the most popular images in nineteenth-century Protestant art, the representation of Jesus knocking at a closed door has many variations. In most of them, the door, which symbolizes the door to the human heart, has no handle on the outside, and must be opened from the inside. Note the Easter lilies on each side, and the beautiful sunny day that awaits outside the locked door. |
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South Aisle Diptych
King David as a Youth
Jesus with the Children
This window depicts, on the left, a young King David (as a shepherd) holding a lamb and subduing a lion, and on the right, Jesus ("son of David") welcoming the children. |
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Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane
Not my will, but Thine, be done.
Luke 22:42
Jesus prays in the garden called Gethsemane ("oil press"), on the Mount of Olives, after the Last Supper and before his arrest. On either side, note the palms of royalty, reminders of the tragic irony of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem earlier that week, and superimposed on the palms, the letters Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, which remind us that the story is not over. It is the victorious Lamb who says at the end of time: I am Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13) |
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Jesus Saving Peter on the Water
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North Aisle Diptych
The Stoning of Stephen
and the Conversion of Paul |
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Jesus, the Good Shepherd |
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This is the lamb in Revelation chapters 5-6.
Note the book, the seven seals, the cross with banner, and the cross in the lamb's halo. Medieval artists used the silver cross in the gold halo to help the faithful identify Jesus, the Christ, in paintings, sculptures, or as here, in stained glass windows.
Come, Christians, follow where our Savior trod,
the Lamb victorious, Christ, the Son of God;
Lift high the Cross, the love of Christ proclaim
Till all the world adore His sacred name.
George William Kitchin (1827-1912) |
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How to donate for restoration
If you would like to be part of the effort of Union Church to restore these beautiful stained glass windows, please contact the church and/or send a check to the Union Church Window Fund. Union Church is a registered not-for-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible as allowed under law.
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Copyright by Union
Church of Bay Ridge
All Rights Reserved |
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