Art and Image: Other Windows and Art
Etched Glass Baptismal Doors and Window Panels
These window panels between the narthex and sanctuary were given by Evelyn Proehl and comprise a visual meditation on the theme of Carolina Sandell Berg’s originally Swedish-language hymn “Tryggare kan ingen vara”, which we sing here as “Children of the Heavenly Father” (ELW 781).
A member of the clergy holds an infant at the font during a baptismal liturgy as children look on. Lutheran Christians have traditionally affirmed infant baptism. The Sacrament of Holy Baptism our rite of entry into the fellowship of the Church and one of the two sacraments instituted by Christ. (Matthew 28:19-20) We see members of the congregation carrying out Christ’s great commission; care of the sick, feeding the hungry, etc. — all helping others in some way. The faces are not people of the congregation, but are people the artist saw in one of the towns outside of Seattle. (Matthew 25:31-46)
“Dove” Window
Given by children and family of Erv and Ruth Johnson, the thematic of this window in the north wall of the narthex celebrates the beauty of life in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Design: The etched glass panels in the narthex, including the blue-toned “Dove” window, as well as the window in the southwest corner, were designed by the Hill House studios, now of Anacortes, WA.
Technique: The Dove Window is made of two sheets of glass — one blue and one white — that have been fused together. The artist’s stencil is then laid over the blue glass and is sandblasted so that the white glass will show through with the picture.
Antique window
This space in the east gable of the sanctuary wall was created to contain the only surviving window from the earliest Bethany Lutheran Church building, constructed on this site between 1908 and 1912. It was likely one of those purchased through donations made by the church women’s organization in 1910. Pale colored glass is framed by decorative leaded liners, a typical hallmark of commercial leaded glass at the turn of the century.
Although the chancel window space of the present sanctuary was designed to house a large stained glass panel from the earlier building, the old window could not be salvaged. The other windows did not survive the demolition of the old sanctuary in 1954.
Statue of Christ
[painted and tinted plaster]. A plaster model after an image by German devotional artist Heinrich Hoffman, 1824-1911. Hoffman, known as painter of the often-reproduced “Christ in the Garden at Gethseman” (1890), created images that were widely popular in European and North American Protestant circles in the late nineteenth century.
This replica was given in 1930 as a gift to the congregation by Miss Ruth Lindstedt in memory of her parents. It was placed on the altar of the renovated church, framed by a carved gothic-style retable, flanked by two large plaster pedestals, also given by Miss Lindstedt. When the rebuilt sanctuary was finished in 1954, the old altar retable, altar mensa and statue were integrated into a chapel space, today occupied by the Augustana Room. Some time later, when the chapel was dismantled, the statue was placed on a low pedestal behind the choir area. During the subsequent pipe organ and chancel renovation in 1998, the statue was removed, restored and eventually secured by Dougie Dyer and Lee Bjorklund on a pedestal shelf to the north of the chancel.
This statue, the east window, a large silverplate wine flagon, two ornamental plaster pedestals (on the stage of the fellowship hall) and the altar mensa (currently in storage) are the oldest remaining heirlooms of the historic Bethany congregation.