Susan Karen Hedahl. Stained glass windows. My first awareness of stained glass windows, as art work, was

The Women in the Windows: An Analysis of the Female Iconology of the Stained Glass Windows in the Chapel of the Abiding Presence, Gettysburg Lutheran ...
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The Women in the Windows: An Analysis of the Female Iconology of the Stained Glass Windows in the Chapel of the Abiding Presence, Gettysburg Lutheran Theological Seminary Susan Karen Hedahl

Introduction Stained glass windows. My first awareness of stained glass windows, as art work, was prompted by the demolition of the old Lutheran church in which I had spent most of my childhood in Willmar, Minnesota. In 1963 the congregation of Vinje Lutheran Church (ALC) moved into a new sanctuary on the western edge of the town. The new church, at the time, contained no stained glass. The hundred year old church was demolished. I have clear memories of my mother's concern about the church's stained glass windows, which were knocked out by the wrecking ball. Some members of the parish salvaged parts of the windows. Our own garage finally housed some now lost boxes of the fragments. My confirmation picture is the only remaining historical witness I have of some of these stained glass windows. Over the centuries stained glass windows have served many purposes. They are variously art work in sites both religious and secular; a religious instructional method for the illiterate; a means of illuminating dark interiors; focal points for meditation; memorials to wars, persons and other events; affirmations of Christian salvation history and monuments of transparent aesthetic beauty. Stained glass windows might be figural, abstract or symbolic in design. Their sizes range from a few feet to massive structures. Artists, both anonymous and

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world-famous, design stained glass. Some parishes are blessed with beautifully wrought Tiffany stained glass windows.1 Stained glass windows are also something else: they are political in nature. By this, I mean they offer a particular version of the priorities, dominant core beliefs and selected interpretations of the history of a religious community in a given setting. The political nature of stained glass windows first unfolded for me when I worked on my Master of Liturgical Studies thesis at St. John's School of Theology, in Collegeville, Minnesota.2 Depending on how it is measured, the stained glass window at the back of the Abbey Church is the largest in the United States. For my master's thesis I decided to explore how the Benedictine monastic community at St. John's made corporate aesthetic decisions. By way of example, I focused on the community's processes of deciding who would create the Abbey Church's window. I was immediately confronted with many questions. Why had the design of the window fallen to an unknown immigrant? This choice was in direct contradiction of the choice of the Abbey's famous architect, Marcel Breuer. He wanted Bauhaus artist, Joseph Albers, to design the window and Albers had already created a sample window for the community to view in the Abbot's private chapel. Why and how did the community decide on the final design and artist? Which members of the community made the final decisions? My questions landed me in a maelstrom of artistic and communal debate, which is detailed in my thesis. My work, excerpts of which were

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The stained glass window over the main altar at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, Hanover, Pennsylvania, is a genuine Tiffany window. 2

Susan Karen Hedahl, Ambiguity in Glass: A History of the North Wall Window in the Abbey Church of St. John the Baptist, Collegeville, Minnesota. Master's Thesis (Collegeville, Minnesota: Saint John's University), 1983.

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later published,3 helped me to understand what is at stake in deciding whose version of reality is portrayed artistically in any stained glass window. Given this personal history with stained glass, it has been an inevitable part of my thirteen years of teaching at Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary to wander often -- mentally and visually -- through the varied stained glass figures in the Church of the Abiding Presence.4 My question was and is: How are women represented in these windows? It is that question I will address in this article.5 When I served on the seminary's Fine Arts Council at one point, I recall the numerous discussions about the lack of inclusion of women and persons of color in the windows. Some suggestions for remedying that fact included banners and other forms of figural representation. Another effort to de-construct and re-construct the role of women in the windows occurred during the seminary's worship service at the November 1, 2000, celebration of the thirty-year anniversary of the ALC and LCA's decisions to ordain women. The spacious windowsills below the chapel's 10 main floor windows were filled with a variety of artifacts representing women's service, leadership and presence in the seminary and church with such material artifacts as the (now-retired) silver tea set of the seminary wives' group; a mirror with the attached sheet below reading, "You are the Church;" books written by Elsie Singmaster; a picture of teacher and lay person Bertha Paulsson, an iron and paraments representing the Altar Guilds of by-gone times and several other 'theme windows' constructed newly for the day. What could not be changed was the frozen-in-time depictions of women in the windows dating from the early 1940's.

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Amica Gomersall, "Architect versus Artist," Stained Glass Quarterly 83/2 (Summer, 1988): 102-131.

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I am indebted to Dr. Gerald Christianson for his brochure on the windows, "The Church of the Abiding Presence." No date given. The brochure is available in the narthex of the Chapel. 5

How persons of color are, or are not, represented is the topic for another essay.

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In order to answer the question of how the chapel windows represent women, I will note the frequency with which women are featured, the roles they represent, their varied postures, activities, dress and the relationship to other figures in a given window, particularly in terms of their actual size. Using the results of this survey, I will provide a summary look at the interpreted role of women in faith history -- biblical, historical and seminary-based -- as etched in the chapel windows over sixty years ago.

I. Basic Facts about the Women in the Windows Gerald Christianson's work on the stained glass windows relates primarily to those found in the balcony, main sanctuary, chancel, side chapel, and main entry. I have extended the analysis to include the four windows in the sacristy and north side entryway, as well as the three windows in the basement in what is known as the Music Office. The total number of stained glass windows in the chapel is 29. The windows differ from most stained glass in their semi-transparency. Christianson notes that the Rambusch Studios of New York, which made the glass, produced this special look in this way: … by combining two layers of glass, adding color to the top layer while in a molten state, and then etching off the excess color with hydrofluoric acid. The warm golden hue was produced by a solution of silver nitrate.6 When a single pane of glass was broken in a window-opening effort several years ago, it was discovered that replacing the glass with the same type made for the chapel was fruitless as this type of stained glass is no longer manufactured. For those who have not visited the chapel, the windows contain a mixture of Old Testament, New Testament, Church and Gettysburg Seminary historical and missional themes. 6

Christianson, p. 10

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The windows' designs include white glass, colored glass, floral designs, figures, buildings, landscapes, lettering, and material artifacts of the faith life such as Bibles, a catechism and musical instruments. Importance of subject matter and/or personage seems to be indicated by the size of the figures. Some of the figures are quite large while others merit only a single pane of glass, such as the Native American in one of the main floor windows. Between 1940 with the laying of the chapel's cornerstone and the 1942 dedication, these windows were installed.

II. A Window Walk The Chapel lies on an East-West orientation with the altar at the eastern end. The windows will be examined in this order. •

A. Entry/Narthex (on the western end of the building)



B. Main Sanctuary (on an east-west axis)



C. Chancel (eastern wall)



D. Sacristy, Prayer Chapel (on the north and south sides)



E. Balcony and Balcony Stairwells (on the west side)



F. Basement Music Office (on the south side)

A. Entry/Narthex Facing the western wall of the entryway, with the main door between them, are two windows. Window #1 on the left features an angel, sex indeterminate, playing a harp. Window #2 features one woman, with head covering, hands steepled together in prayer. At this point, it is useful to note that there are a number of angels featured in the windows. Well-known angels of the Bible have male names, while other assorted hosts, such as cherubim and seraphim, are called by type and not gender. In some instances the angels in the

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windows seem to be examples of “gender bending.” Female or male or some other state of sexual being? It is difficult to say. Another significant piece of visual artwork, while not a window, is tucked away in the left hand corner at the back of the main sanctuary as one faces west ward. This piece is called "Ascension" by the Polish-American artist, Jan de Rosen7. The feminine references in the picture are the three Marys on the upper right hand side. In this work, there is a small mouse painted into the folds of a robe near the bottom of the picture. Christianson notes that "The artist supposedly used this method to dedicate the painting to his mother whom he affectionately called "mouse."8

B. Sanctuary a. Left hand side, Northern side Windows on the main floor will be covered in clock-wise manner beginning with Window I, which is partially in the stair well on the northern side and also partially concealed by the narthex bathroom. Window I- no women; Window II features four women around the feet of Jesus; Window III includes the most women: at the top one woman is veiled with hands steepled in prayer; in the middle is a contemporary family of four (circa 1940). The mother stands hidden mostly by the father but the young teen-age girl is hatted, wears a quite short skirt and high heels! At the bottom of the window is an historical scene of a woman capped and holding a Bible. Is this a deaconess?

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See Christianson; also Geoffrey Thulin, unpublished paper: "On Jan de Rosen's Chancel Painting for the Church of the Abiding Presence," provides a fuller description of this work. 8

Christianson, p. 18.

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Window IV features a very small figure, an East Indian woman in a sari, head bared, seated at the feet of a male missionary. Window V features Death and Resurrection. At the top Mary is at the foot of the cross, blue haloed. In the center section three women are looking at a coffin which lid has been thrown off to reveal its emptiness by an angel looming over it. This grouping is interesting because the figures are so small; is it perhaps because death has been rendered "small" by the Resurrection of Christ? Finally, in the lower section, a woman is kneeling in a corner. This is Saint Clare, spiritual sister to Saint Francis, who is figured more largely above and to the right. Window VI has no women.

b. Right-hand side, Southern side Window VII, nearest the lectern at the front, has a small inset of a bonneted woman, bonneted small girl and a baby. Window VIII has no female figures; Window IX shows a seminary scene which includes figures holding symbols of the faith. A woman in a cloak holds a torch. In another small scene outside Old Dormitory, two male soldiers are bearing a stretcher and a woman who is dressed as a nurse is leaning over the stretcher. At the bottom of the window, a couple is going to church. The woman holds onto her husband's arm; this scene is of Lutheran colonial days in America. Window X has no women. Window XI shows a woman, with head covering and steepled hands.

C. Chancel The chancel features two windows. Because of the installation of large pipe organ against the eastern wall, these two windows are partially obscured. As the viewer faces the altar, the window on the left offers the themes of the Annunciation and the Nativity. We see the Birth

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of Jesus, the Incarnation. Mary stands over the manger. The window on the right-hand features Pentecost. In this window, three women are pictured.

D. Sacristy and Prayer Chapel (Inclusive of Side entry way Windows) The sacristy lies to the left of the altar on the north side of the church. The single window outside of it in the entry way has no women featured. In the sacristy, facing north and looking from left to right, one window is hidden in the bathroom area and features no women. Neither of the two windows in the sacristy proper feature women. The Prayer Chapel on the south side of the church features a window near the entry door, and this contains no female figures. Windows #1 and #2 from the altar back to the chapel door also feature no women. Window #3 nearest the door, however, features only Jesus and Mary in the garden. She is unveiled, wearing a blue/purple robe tinged with yellow highlights and her long, blonde hair falls down her back. She is on her knees before the Risen Jesus Christ who seems to be both repelling and inviting her outstretched hand.

E. Stairwells and Balcony There is only one window on the south side stairwell and that features no women. The window on the north side stairwell is part of a larger one which extends into the balcony and down to ground level and has already been discussed (Window I). In the balcony, one sees three windows. Facing the west and viewing from left to right, Window #1 features a woman asleep at the bottom of the frame and a stairwell of three angels ascending and three descending. These angels seem definitely female with their thin faces,

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flowing robes and long, tumbling down blonde hair. They also vaguely resemble the dance line in a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical revue. Windows #2 and 3 feature no women.

F. Basement Music Office In what is known to generations of singers as the choir room, the office off the choir room contains three windows. Moving from East to West, Window #1 presents another rendition of the birth of Jesus. Three angels in a feminine mode are also in this glass. Window #2 is perhaps the most clearly 'female' of all the chapel's windows. This features Miriam and two of her friends singing their song of triumph at Israel's deliverance. One woman is clapping, another blowing a horn and a third beating a drum. Window # 3 contains a full-sized angel.

III. Conclusion In the early months of World War II, what views of women were rendered into the Chapel windows in terms of the prevalent theology and history of this Lutheran seminary? The majority of the women is unnamed, and by their garb, from biblical times. Most of the biblical women hold their hands in a prayer posture and have their heads covered. This is even true of the contemporary family scene in Main Sanctuary,Window III). One of the few unveiled women is Mary Magdalene in the Side Chapel's Window #3. The roles of Mary, Mother of Our Lord, are reiterated in four of the windows (Chancel windows, Music Office window and Main Floor Window # V). She appears variously as a mourner at the foot of the Cross, as an expectant mother, visitor to the empty tomb/coffin and in two others as mother (Window #1 in the Chancel and Window #1 in the Music Office).

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There are no contemporary twentieth century roles for women featured other than the mother in the family setting in Window III. Eighteenth and nineteenth century roles, however, feature a deaconess, a Civil War nurse and a woman, perhaps a teacher, holding a torch outside the seminary. Given Gettysburg's history, it is remarkable that not a single African American person of either sex is portrayed in any of the windows. The only female person of color is an East Indian woman in a sari in Window IV, Sanctuary, who is being instructed in the Gospel. The women in the windows, who do not portray the biblical Marys or Miriam and her companions, are small in actual size compared to most of the male figures. The woman are generally learning, adoring, worshipping, making music or going to church and serving in adjunct roles such as nurse and deaconess. They are also witnesses to the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Pentecost and the Resurrection of Jesus. While the basement windows (which are in close proximity to the musical life of the seminary) all contain female figures, it is ironic that the sacristy, heavily associated with women's church work historically, has none. The windows containing the most substantial references to women are in the Chancel, the Prayer Chapel and the basement Music Office. By way of location, it should be noted that none of these windows is readily or frequently viewed by the worshipper and visitor. With the exception of Mary Magdalene in the Prayer Chapel and Miriam and her friends making music in the Music Office in the basement [window], women are portrayed generally as on-lookers or minor participants in Christian faith history in relationship to the work of men. The males in the window are depicted as missionizing, building, educating, colonizing, preaching, receiving the keys and commandments of the Kingdom, prophesying and speaking with Jesus.

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If the windows were refigured today, what iconography would we have?

Postscript By way of historical interest and for the purposes of comparison, it would be interesting to see the since-disappeared stained glass windows which were in Valentine Hall's Chapel. They have left the campus following one of the Hall's earlier renovations. Wherever they are, if they are still in existence, what did they portray about women and faith?

Susan Karen Hedahl is Professor of Homiletics at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg.

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