STAINED GLASS WINDOWS

The three stained glass windows in the Orinda Community Church main sanctuary were designed and built by the famous Wallis-Wiley Studio of Pasadena. Dr. John Wallis began working with fine stained glass in the 1920s, and participated in making the spectacular windows at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the Riverside Church in New York City.

Dr. Wallis’s design was influenced by the architecture of our sanctuary as he studied it during construction in 1958. An A-framed church such as ours is symbolically Trinitarian by virtue of its triangular structural basis. The three stained glass windows are each devoted to one aspect of the Triune God.

Dr. Wallis made full use of his renowned artistic imagination and deep background in Christian history and theology, to employ a strikingly evocative contemporary style, and the highest standard of manufacture in doing so. The dramatic water imagery that flows through all three windows is the unifying element - from seas of creation and floods of judgment, to streams of mercy and mission, storms of crisis and of inspiration, and baptismal waters of regeneration and new life.

WORK OF THE SPIRIT WINDOW

The eastern window, the one nearest the narthex, is devoted to the Holy Spirit, expressed by the calling of the Church, the sending forth of apostles, evangelists and missionaries, and the unceasing prayers of the faithful. Traditionally, the ever-present Holy Spirit is represented by the Dove, which is shown here filling the peak of the window. Directly beneath are the seven flames symbolizing the seven gifts of the Spirit: Wisdom, Knowledge, Discernment, Courage, Understanding, and Justice, and Hope. Below these are the “tongues of fire,” which came to the disciples as they were gathered together on the Day of Pentecost, the “birthday” of the Christian Church.

INCARNATION WINDOW

The center window is devoted to God the Son: the Christ, his Incarnation, his Ministry, Gospel, and his Resurrection. Toward the top of the window, the radiating form of the scallop shell – an ancient symbol for Baptism – is used as an all-encompassing symbol of the Christian faith, and in the peak of the window, the Resurrection is gloriously represented by the peacock, which is symbolic of the beauty and joy of eternal life through Jesus Christ. The fish, one of the earliest of all Christian symbols, appears in the lower area of the window. Here the fish is shown to represent the Incarnation.

CREATION WINDOW

The window nearest the chancel is devoted to God the Father, Creator and Sustainer. The giver of life and light is represented in the peak of the window by the sun and stars portrayed in glowing reds and golds, colors symbolic of divine love, creative power, and the goodness of God. The six days of creation are all depicted in the window: 1) the division of the light from the darkness; 2) the separation of the waters above the firmament from the waters beneath; 3) the dry land separated from the elemental waters of the earth and the appearance of vegetation; 4) the creation of the heavenly bodies in the firmament; 5) the appearance of creatures of the earth, and 6) human beings made in the image of God.