SERVICE OF HOPE
To Dedicate The Last Stained Glass Window
September 30, 2001

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The Suffering and Redemption Window
By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered you, O Zion
­Psalm 137

The iconography of the Cathedral's eighteen clerestory windows is based on nine themes from the Hebrew Scriptures identified in the early 1970s by Dr. Charles Matz, professor of medieval and renaissance literature, under commission from the Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre, Jr., Dean emeritus, and Canon Richard T. Feller, Clerk of the Works emeritus. These themes were Earth as Man's Shelter; God's Covenant with His People; Time and History Passage; Suffering and Redemption; Reform and Growth; Faith of the Hebrews; Prophecy, Religion and Righteousness; Salvation Foretold; and Peter and Paul.

"The nine themes are arranged in pairs on the north and south sides," explains Canon Feller. "In the case of the Suffering and Redemption theme, the window depicting Job on the south side is counterbalanced on the north in this Suffering and Redemption Window, Israel in Exile by the Waters of Babylon, depicting the suffering of the entire people of Israel." The window's four lancets (panels) depict in symbols the Israelites' despair in captivity in Babylon and their hope for redemption and return to Jerusalem.

The two center lancets portray figures weeping by the waters of the Euphrates. A male figure in the third lancet looks despondently at a harp he has placed in a nearby bush, reminiscent of the second verse of Psalm 137, "As for our harps, we hung them up on the trees in the midst of that land." Flanking the middle lancets are two prophets, one in a downcast pose of doom and despair, the other a figure of hope whose upraised hand points to the rainbow, the symbol of hope that resides in the prospect of the return to Jerusalem.

Dean Baxter explained that the stone, "so rich in the ancient heritage and traditions of the Holy City of Jerusalem, will serve as a symbol of hope for people of all faith traditions who will come to the Cathedral as pilgrims, visitors and worshippers for many years to come. This stone expresses the hope of the three Abrahamic faith traditions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, and for peace in the Holy City and peace in the world."