Story of the Whittlesford Stained Glass Window

Back in January 2000, at an open village meeting held at the school, it was decided that we would commemorate our special 1000th year, 2022, with a permanent memorial in the form of a new Stained Glass Window in the Parish Church. Within months, we were deep in the first lock-down of the pandemic. So, when it came to suggesting a theme for the window, there was unanimous approval for Ant West’s suggestion of “caring”, to celebrate and give thanks for the care we saw throughout the village during the pandemic, caring professions and Christian compassion.

Sue Ginsberg, Sally Cassels, Helen Humphreys, Alasdair Coles and Mark Coleman, as the “window team”, interviewed three potential window artists and Ben Finn, an experienced stained glass window artist, was unanimously selected. To get the ball rolling on the design, pupils at William Westley school were invited to draw or paint an image of what they understood by “Caring”. Over 80 images were received and these were all passed on to Ben. His extraordinary creativity and sympathy for our project led to an iterative cascade of discussions, emails, texts, sketches and visits, to finally arrive at the window which you will now be able to see in the church. It is an extraordinary design, telling many interweaving stories of caring, both specific to Whittlesford and touching universal themes. We believe it is unique and certainly the first stained glass window to depict the pandemic.

Throughout the month of August 2021, we invited suggestions and votes, of suitable Bible passages to include in the window. We received responses on notes left in the church, by email or via the 2022 Facebook page. The winner was “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you”. It is our hope that this message – of human caring and God’s love – and the window itself, will be a source of encouragement and solace to people going through difficult times for many years to come.

None of this would have been possible without generous donations from many in the village, for which we are extremely grateful. One person living abroad, with a connection to the village, has been especially generous. The names of donors, who wish to be publicly acknowledged, are displayed in the church.

On Thursday 29th June, we are holding a “window party” at the church. We made a special effort to invite carers in the village, both those caring quietly for loved ones in their homes and professional carers (from MercyLink) and healthcare staff. On Monday 3rd July, we will dedicate the window at a Choral Evnsong led by Jesus College CHoir.  We are very pleased that the window will be in place for the special church service to commemorate the 300th anniversary of William Westley, at which the Bishop of Ely will be present, in one of his last appearances before moving to becoming Bishop of Lincoln.

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We are very grateful to all who donated to the window, who are named here.