Stained-glass scene about return of the Son cuts down glare from the sun

SHELTON

The beautiful new stained-glass window at St. Edward Church had its genesis in a practical concern.

“There is nothing quite as bright as the winter sun,” said St. Edward’s pastor, Father Ron Belisle, commenting on the way the low-lying sun would blind the celebrant and choir during Sunday morning Masses as it glared through a 26-by-14 window. “My colleague, Father Dick Parle, would actually have to turn his back on the congregation in order to finish the service,” he said in a news release.

“It was the year I celebrated my 50th anniversary of ordination,” Father Belisle said, “so I threw some gifts I had received into the pot, and that boomeranged into our commissioning the stained glass that we are now enjoying.”

Several all-parish consultations led to the stained-glass concept, by Renata Siegl, of two archangels announcing the judgment day with a blare of trumpets. Depictions of Mount Rainier and the Olympics on either side of the angels are meant to reinforce the reality of Christ’s second coming, and the idea that judgment takes place for each of us and in our own milieu.

Ray Coomber of Bristol, England, did the design, and Perry Studios of Issaquah made the windows. The coloration and cuts of the pieces were dictated by the 13 other stained-glass windows in the church.

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain will bless the window during evening prayer at 6 p.m. March 6. The service is open to the public.

March 4, 2014