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| Built in 1967, The Christ Church sanctuary provides a beautiful setting for our common worship. The most arresting feature of our building is the stained glass window walls done by the French artist Gabriel Loire from Chartres. The pictures on this web site have been reduced in size to make them accessible over dial-up connections. Please come and visit us in order to appreciate the full impact of our windows. Clickable pictorial tour of our Church
About the WindowsThe four main windows, installed in 1986, are associated with the points on the compass, the seasons of the year, the seasons of human life, the unfolding of the biblical narrative from the Creation to the Resurrection of Christ, and Christ's life from the Annunciation to His Death and Burial. The Resurrection (and the return of Spring) is represented in the two lancet windows on either side of the cross. As you look at the windows, you'll find many trees. When Loire visited California to prepare to work on the windows, he was awed by the varieties of trees found here. There seven species of trees shown in the windows: palms, olives, sequoia, sycamore, camphor, apple, and grape vines. In addition, the East window depicts the tree of Jesse. Numbers also play a role in the windows. You'll find the numbers seven and twelve represented in a number of ways. Both of these numbers were highly significant to the authors of the scriptures.
About the Artists
In 1946, Loire founded his own studio, "La Clarté" (Clarity), in Lèves. He has composed and executed stained glass all over the world. Among his United States creations are the Presbyterian Church of Stamford, Connecticut; Grace Cathedral in San Francisco; churches in Allentown and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Tacoma Washington, and Massillon, Ohio. . While residing in Florida in 1966, Loire created a monumental mural for St. John Vianney's Seminary in Miami. In the years before his death on December 27, 1996, Loire designed a stained glass tower in Hakone, Japan, made windows for the Thanksgiving Chapel in Dallas, created windows for the Prisoners of Conscience Chapel in Salisbury Cathedral, England, the The Cathedral Church of St George the Martyr in Cape Town South Africa, the Catholic Cathedral in Casablanca, Morocco, and worked in Windsor, England on windows in St. George's Chapel dedicated to Lord Mountbatten. Jacques Loire followed in his father's footsteps in his quest for translating stained glass into inspiring beauty. Working with new materials and techniques, he has become a master in the art through his experience working at La Clarté. Father and son have worked together, Gabriel designing, and Jacques executing the actual glass work, bringing the design into reality. Jacques shows a sensitivity to environment and consciously evokes in his work a sense of vitality that releases one from the outside world, providing an atmosphere that is conducive to prayer and meditation. BibliographyPratt, Charles W., and Joan C. Pratt. GABRIEL LOIRE: LES VITRAUX/STAINED GLASS. Pomme Press, 66 Rowell Road, Brentwood, N.H. 03833. 1997 | |||||||||||||||||||
Start Here
The beautiful stained glass windows of
Christ Church are dedicated to the glory of God as an act of thanksgiving. These dalle
de verre panels ("slab glass") differ from
traditional leaded glass in that the epoxy and sand matrix can be equally as expressive as
the glass itself. In traditional stained glass, the lead is a constant width and rarely
contributes to the design. In contrast, the matrix in dalle de verre can be made
as wide as the artist needs and frequently play a part in the overall design.
Gabriel Loire was born in 1904 into a
family of tanners in the small French town of Pouance, in the northwest of France. He was
educated at Combrée College and the Catholic University of Angers. At the university he
met the stained glass masters of the cathedral and, at age 20, published his thesis on the
art of stained glass.
