By Lucy Chumbley June 05, 2003 ( Volume 72 , No. 4 )

 

In the beginning, there was glass, spread out in kaleidoscope fragments on the workbenches of the Takoma Park studio of Meredith Glass Specialties LLC.

But before that, at the dawn of the new millennium, there was an idea.

In early 2000, the congregation of St. Mary’s, Ridge – a white wooden chapel near the confluence of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay – looked at the windows and decided it was time to let in the light.

The chapel’s original pink-and-brown painted panes were shot out by vandals in the 1950s, said Mildred Fletcher, who has belonged to St. Mary’s since her baptism in 1925. They were replaced by “sort of a frosted glass, like shower doors,” she said.

Heavy blue-gray curtains hung behind the altar, partially obscuring three large windows, and the 119-year-old Victorian chapel was starting to show its age.

“We needed a facelift,” said parishioner Hattie Dunbar.

With the guidance of the Rev. John Ball, rector of Trinity, St. Mary’s City, a group of five women began to raise money for replacement windows and enlisted the services of Meredith Glass.

“It was kind of a difficult project to arrive at a design concept for,” said Jane Meredith, standing in her studio on a gray afternoon in March. “We certainly didn’t want to get heavy and visually weighted with it, because it wouldn’t have suited the church at all, but because of the age of the building it needed not to be contemporary as well.”

Meredith searched for a way to marry old and new that would please most of the congregation, and would also be true to the area’s aquatic character.

She found her inspiration in the Book of Genesis.

The finished windows will use around 150 different kinds of glass to show the spirit of God moving out over the sky and water at the world’s creation, Meredith said.

“It starts pale, like the first break of day on the front end, and goes to a strong sunrise feel on the back window,” she said.

The three windows over the altar have dark blue borders etched with stars. Rays of colored light radiate from a central cross and continue through the 10 casements in the body of the chapel, where they merge with the swirling stylized water.

High above the chapel door, a lighter triangular window will show the Spirit of God in the form of a dove, wings outstretched, she said.

As heavy drops of rain started to splatter on the studio windows, a small white van pulled up outside and the committee members scurried in to look at one of the partially completed panes, bursting into a chorus of appreciation.

“Isn’t it pretty?” “It’s so pretty.” “Isn’t it beautiful?” “Beautiful.” “I love this.” “I do, too,” they said, as Meredith held the half-finished window up to the light.

Two months later, on a sunny morning in May, they were even more admiring.

Jane and Jack Meredith and their business partner, Rudolph Waros, were at St. Mary’s Chapel to install four of the completed windows.

As the ladies of the church watched from the pews, sandwiches and cups of coffee in hand, the team gave the windows a final polish before slotting them into position.

Set in their proper place, the panes cast a completely different light than they had back on the workbench, and even Meredith was surprised at the living color of her windows.

“You never really know what it’s going to look like until you see it in its home,” Meredith said, standing back to admire her work. “Even then, it changes through the day, and it changes season to season as the light changes.”

“I like it because you can see right through the windows,” Dunbar said, looking up at the dappled light dancing in the central window her family financed. “You can see the bushes and the trees and the light and everything.”

“Even at night, when it’s dark, because of that textured pattern in it, there’s even a little reflection,” Ball said, remarking that part of what makes the design so special is that the whole chapel has been done as one piece instead of as individual windows.

The work also has a different feel to it because Meredith Glass is a young studio, Meredith said, and has not done as much church work as the more established workshops.

Because of that, “they’re getting something they won’t see anywhere else, almost certainly,” she said. “But it requires a bit more faith on the part of the church.”

Faith is one thing the congregation of St. Mary’s Chapel has in ample supply. Descendents of Maryland’s boat yard workers, lighthouse keepers and fishermen, they have kept the chapel lights shining through hard times and stormy weather.

With their gift of windows, their legacy will live on in the light that will shine down on their children, grandchildren and those who come after.

“This really is a dream come true for a lot of people,” Ball said.

Contact Lucy Chumbley at lchumbley@edow.org