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Click here for a larger picture
Stained glass in St.
Andrew's:
A Memorial to Mercy
Click
each small picture to see a larger image.
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The
theme of the right hand window in the south wall of the Lady
Chapel is self sacrificing acts of mercy. The cost of true
charity is shown at the top, by a pelican pecking at its breast,
and feeding its young with its own blood, as it was believed to
do. This was seen as symbolising Christ who shed His blood
to give life to His people. |
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The
main part of the window portrays six acts of mercy, each one
illustrated by a story from the Bible. 'Giving food and drink to
the needy' shows us the widow who gave her last scraping of meal
and oil to Elijah, at a time of severe drought and famine. |
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'Clothing the naked' shows us the work of Dorcas who was loved
and mourned because she had made garments for the poor. |
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'Visiting the prisoners' is based on the time when Jeremiah, who
is kneeling, was left to die at the bottom of the dungeon and
was saved by an Ethiopian who begged leave of the King to go and
rescue him. |
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'Entertaining strangers' shows Abraham with the three men to
whom he gave hospitality, which is the story referred to in the
New Testament when it tells us, 'Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares'. |
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'Visiting the sick' is illustrated by the familiar parable of
the Good Samaritan, who took time and trouble at considerable
risk to himself, to go to the aid of a wounded 'enemy alien'. |
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'Burying the dead' portrays 'devout men carrying Stephen to his
burial' after his martyrdom. |
The message of the window
could be summed up in the verse 'Bear ye one another's burdens and so
fulfil the law of Christ', and is a fitting memorial to a young nurse
who gave her life while caring for the wounded during the Boer War.
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