Gloria Dei

These twenty-four architectural glass panels for the chancel façade of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls — 750 square feet rising over 36 feet in height — celebrate the magnificence of Creation, the life of Christ, and the life of the Church. Through colors, light, and artistic design, these windows give witness to the Glory of God.

“For great is the Glory of God.” — Psalm 138:5

The design and colors are suggestive of spiritual themes — veneration, contemplation, and praise — that allow worshipers to experience the windows in distinct ways each time the congregation gathers for worship. This experience is shaped by the liturgical season, the order of worship, scripture lessons, hymn selections, and each congregant’s own faith journey.

The five-part arc

The windows are organized around five movements: Incarnation and the Creation of all things through Christ; Redemption of all things through Christ; Resurrection of Christ — Gloria Dei; Empowerment through Christ and the Holy Spirit; and Communion with Christ, with the Sacraments, to unite everything in Christ.

Lutherans may not do everything well, but they begin every service with confession — an acknowledgment that we come to worship not as we wish we were, but as we are, and that grace meets us there. That grace is carried in the earthen green vertical band running through the design, suggesting mercy, forgiveness, and compassion for all of Creation.

These three broad movements carry the design: God of Endless Creation. God of Enduring Compassion. Spirit of Transformation.

The imagery

Seeds in the first column become plant forms in the second. Jesus said many times that the powerful reign of God is like seed — cast into all kinds of soil, persevering amid weeds, bearing flowers and fruit. The colors of Creation when flowers first appeared. The colors of an evening rainbow.

Yellow is always shown in stained glass as the color of God. The vertical yellow bands literally reach down from heaven to touch the earth below — an abstract gesture of how God can touch us in the midst of our lives. The circles radiating from the central cross signify holiness: the Alpha and Omega, with no beginning and no end.

The two sacraments of the Lutheran Church — Baptism and Communion — are each present in specific windows. Baptism is represented just above the Communion panel through traditional symbols of waters, shell, and egg, and to the right in the descending dove — which is also Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Paschal candle is present as a symbol of the Resurrection. The Eucharist — the body and blood of Christ — is present in the lower right panel. Corn tassels evoke a Midwestern cornbread, the body of Christ. The blood of Christ is carried in the color red. Across the other windows, seeds and plant forms evoke the parables of the kingdom: harvests, the sower, soil and weeds, and Christ feeding the crowds of thousands. Nine chalices carry the Fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The panels increase in transparency as you look upward — focusing the attention of worship and liturgy, and responding to the sky outside.

On the stars

Pastor Linda Henke, liturgical consultant, wrote of the windows:

“There are places where I see the suggestion of stars — the stars in the Genesis creation story, God’s promise to Abraham that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens, the psalmist’s exclamation of wonder in gazing at the heavens, the star that marked God’s coming to take on human flesh and become one with us, the star that led the sages to the Christ and then to carry news of his coming to all the world, the morning star that gives way to the rising sun, the night sky, the incredible Hubble telescope images that explode the boundaries of our perceptions of the universe.”

The making

Each panel was created using traditional and contemporary glass techniques — silver stain, acid-etching, sandblasting, and enameling — fabricated at Derix Glasstudios in Taunusstein, Germany, with master glass painter Olaf Hanweg, and with my participation. The panels were fired three to five times in production, and then again in the tempering process.