23 October

We forget I think that stained glass windows pre-date most people having books, paintings, photographs, films - any sort of imagery. So we forget what they must have seemed to worshippers, a glowing radiance of colour, almost miraculous. They’re not just pictures, these images are stories. You read them. Worshippers spent lifetimes staring at and deciphering the story from the images, often instead of listening to sermons, particularly kids. Religion wasn’t about a God ‘up there’, an afterlife. It was about constantly re-creating the presence of religious messages in everyday life, right now. You left the church feeling and knowing more about how to live your life in good ways. These windows produced awe. A church was a hugely powerful theatre of God, where they went every week to feel directly the power of God. Now we have to put mesh on these windows to stop dipshits throwing beer bottles through them.