![[Andy_Martin]](../by/Andy_Martin.jpg)
![[Air Museum]](January/Air_Museum.jpeg)
``Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough,'' John Betjeman once wrote, so violently did he object to the architecture of the town. Slough has never fully recovered from this insult, as an Italian woman who lives in Slough remarked to me the other day, and waits on a new poet laureate to rectify the injustice.
Closer to home, no one has yet explicitly recommended a similar fate for Cambridge. And yet, in a piecemeal fashion, Cambridge is being significantly deconstructed and put back together again, in a way that, to use the old theological phrase, saves the appearances. St John's College took the admirable step a few years ago of owning up publicly to its mistakes. Since everyone loathed the Cripps Bar, a monstrously paranoid concrete bunker put up at the height of the Cold War, the College in its wisdom simply blew the whole thing up and replaced it by a rather zennish pagoda. It will be said that St John's can afford to recant its errors in such an expensive way, but it nevertheless set a good example for others to follow.
As a rule, colleges have started well (with King's College Chapel, for example), but found it hard to keep up the standard with their more modern accretions (such as the Keynes Building). Of course there are always exceptions, but rather on the inglorious side of starting badly and trying desperately to recover.
Christ's is another college to have repented, in this case of inflicting a spectacularly rebarbative multi-storey car park on King Street at the rear of its premises. The facade has now been given a more human face with the addition of student accommodation and adorned by the silky clothes emporium belonging to Giulio, who deserves a medal for almost single-handedly redeeming a wasteland. Raffaelle Sauchella, who runs Clowns Cafe nearby, regrets that the college didn't go a little further and remove the giant grey chimneys that are still perched on top like brooding vultures. ``It used to look like a cement factory,'' he says. ``Now it looks like a cosmetics factory. But it's still a factory.'' Perhaps similarly one day Darwin will get around to removing the wooden facsimile of the Tardis (or is it a portaloo?) that appears to have materialised on top of the ski-slope that doubles as the roof of its library.
The Old Addenbrookes building, a nineteenth-century high empire classic which would have been to the taste of Betjeman, has been a triumph of transformation. It was only narrowly saved from being flattened and replaced by a Christ's-like car park, a course favoured by university accountants. Its Victorian origins have now been complemented and nuanced by Egyptian references and dashes of technicolour. The more nautical rear of the site on Tennis Court Road boasts sinuous waves on one roof-top and portholes peering out of an adjacent building.
The revamped Arts Theatre has opened to mixed reviews. It is tasteful thoughout. But timid. Several million pounds later and you can still walk by it without even knowing it's there. An unostentatious, self-effacing theatre, devoid of brashness, seems like a contradiction in terms.
![[Trinity Hall new library]](January/Trinity_Hall_new_library.jpeg)
![[CCDC_detail]](January/CCDC_detail.jpeg)
More positively, the recent riverside extension to Trinity Hall has a strong feel-good factor. Its elegantly skewed lines and harmonious mix of materials make some think of Elizabethan England. To my eye this new-millennium medieval style, even without gargoyles and hunchbacks, wouldn't look out of place in the vicinity of Victor Hugo's Notre Dame.
The most gem-like new construction in all Cambridge, however, is the little known Crystallographic Data Centre, blushing unseen behind Lensfield Road, amid car parks and chemistry. The highlight of this building is not the luminous interior nor the wall encrusted with rocks and crystals, but the glass door with four silvery knobs in a vertical line, which has convinced my children that some four-armed alien, with an interest in gemology, inhabits the place. They live in hope, as we cycle by, of one day seeing him go in or out.
Perhaps it was with Betjeman's spirited if apocalyptic injunction in mind that Sir Norman Foster undertook to find accommodation for a B-52 bomber and assorted other planes in Duxford. The new American Air Museum, garlanded with two 'Building of the Year' awards, carved into a grassy knoll, does for jet engines what the Sydney Opera House did for sails. Foster had already produced at Stansted the first airport terminal to give an effect of lightness and airiness. Now he has evoked, in rounded iconic lines, on a grand scale, the characteristic domed housing of an engine on the wing. Some 450,000 visitors have been sucked in during the last year. An architect friend of mine complained rather haughtily that it was ``the architectural equivalent of Grace Kelly''. But better, I think, more born-again Grace Kellys than the grim, bull-necked, Schwarzenegger-shouldered fortresses of the recent past.
![[Cambridge_old_aeriel_view]](January/Cambridge_old_aerial_view.jpeg)
![[Robert Avery]](../by/Robert_Avery.jpg)
Buildings have always been important to Christians, and the power of architecture to inspire and give symbolic expression to the mysteries of the Christian faith has never been forgotten. If a Christian community represents the horizontal aspect of faith, engaging with the world around and seeking to include others, perhaps our buildings point primarily to the vertical aspect, speaking of God's presence to the world, equally and through all ages.
They speak to us of time. Whilst people come and go, our buildings remain and in their permanence they point us to God's eternalness. We know how many things are changing around us and how quickly, and also how skilled we can be at adjusting. But what we do need is a sense of God's being above the vicissitudes of our respective histories. His eternalness is reflected very powerfully by a building running through our generations, like Great St Mary's. Time itself is, or should be, a very spiritual thing. Church buildings help us understand that.
Secondly, architecture can point us to God through the aesthetic. As artwork that contains us, their power to evoke a feeling of the divine through the senses is still manifest. For our eyes there are many stimulations ? stonework, decoration and detail, stained glass and light, furniture and furnishings In relating to God we most readily use the imagery of seeing and light. But churches work on us through sound and hearing too ? ambience and reverberation, silence, music. In the right frame of mind all these things come together to give us an intimation of the beauty of God's presence with us.
And thirdly churches provide a holy space within which God's presence can dwell. In Israelite history the pre-eminent instance was the Ark of the Covenant, then shrines like Shiloh and Shechem, and then the Temple in Jerusalem, as it was in Christ's own time. ``Lord, I love the house of your habitation, and the place where your glory lies,'' writes the Psalmist. We know very well how hard it is to make genuine space for God in a busy life. There is an enormous pressure upon us to be unceasingly active and with the media, even in times of freedom, there is much to distract us from being contemplative. Having a holy space in our midst helps us discover and develop that space within our lives where God can dwell in us.
Of course, much of what has been said here relates to other buildings besides churches. This issue of Majestas takes a broader perspective on architecture: an architect considers the inspiration of a modern master; an engineer looks into the future to see what new materials might be available; a conservationist expresses his concerns about the introduction of new styles into familiar contexts; a journalist gives a personal impression of the state of affaris in Cambridge and the locality. We hope this gives you food for thought.
With a large congregation and people coming to Great St Mary's from all over Cambridge and further, it is important for the church to keep in touch with its members and to know when they are in need. To this end the Neighbourhood Links Scheme has been running for many years. The Links try to act as a local focus of the Great St Mary's 'community' and to be a means of contact between members and the clergy. Each Link covers an area of Cambridge and has a Link Leader who keeps in touch with members, organises occasional events, and passes on important information. The scheme is overseen by the Pastoral and Social Committee. The Links are a communication and care network for all at Great St Mary's. If you are not in a Link and would like to join, or simply want to know more, please call the Church Office (Tel. 01223 350914).
The Revd Robert Avery, Curate of Great St Mary's since 1996, has been appointed Vicar of Tamerton Foliot in the Diocese of Exeter. His and Jacqui's last Sunday at GSM will be 31st January, and there will be drinks after Choral Evensong on that day, to which all are invited. He will be licensed by the Bishop of Plymouth on Monday 22nd February 1999.
The party for older members of GSM is being held on Sunday 10th January 1999, 3-5pm, at Girton College. Food will be provided, and there will be a variety of entertainments. Lifts to Girton should be available via the Neighbourhood Links. Offers of food will be welcome. For further information please contact Betty Orange (01223) 353385 or the Church Office (01223) 350914.
![[Book Appeal]](January/Book_Appeal.jpeg)
During the Christmas season, Great St Mary's Wider Concerns Committee has been organising a collection of books on behalf of Book Aid International. The charity works in partnership with people in developing countries to provide books and to support literacy, education and training. There is still time to contribute. Particularly valuable are children's books, adult fiction, dictionaries and encyclopaedias. The books should be reasonably up to date and in fair condition. They can be left in the collecting box at the back of the church, or handed in at the Church Office. For more details about Book Aid International contact Joye Rosenstiel or their offices direct: Book Aid International, 39/41 Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell, London SE5 9NR. Tel. 0171 733 3577.
![[Choir]](January/Choir.jpeg)
Saturdays during January will see the return of the Market Music series at Great St Mary's. These free concerts start at 12 noon and last for half an hour. The schedule is as follows: 9th January, the Parish Choir; 16th, young instrumentalists; 23rd, the Girls' Chamber Choir; 30th, the Fireside Wind Quintet. All are welcome. For further details see our music pages.
![[Fen Blow]](January/Fen_Blow.jpeg)
Fen Blow (formerly The Toll House Band) are once again playing at the Family Ceilidh on Saturday 6th February, 6.30?9.30pm, in St Michael's. Tickets, priced 3.50 (adults), 2.50 (children) and 10 (family), including food and a glass of wine or a soft drink, will be available from the Church Office after Christmas. Numbers are strictly limited, so please get tickets in good time.
![[Robin Steinke]](January/Robin_Steinke.jpeg)
In December Great St Mary's said farewell to Robin Steinke, a member of the congregation since 1994. Having completed her thesis, Confessing and Status Confessionis (an examination of the way confession of faith is constitutive of church, with special reference to Dietrich Bonhoeffer), Robin is taking a part time post as lecturer in ethics at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysberg, Pensylvania. She will also serve as a parish pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in Washington D.C. We wish her every blessing for her new work.
This month sees the introduction of two changes to the schedule of weekday Holy Communion services. The Wednesday service at 8am will take place in the Hervey De Stanton Chapel in St Michael's. The Saturday service will take place at 9am, instead of 1.05pm. All other Holy Communion services remain as before.
The deadline for the February edition is 5th January. Please submit copy to the Church Office.
We welcome to the Majestas team Andy Martin, who wrote this month's cover story and will be involved in editorial aspects of the newsletter.
Philip Cooper considers how buildings might 'feel' in the 21st century.
The rich variety of buildings in a medieval city like Cambridge owes much to the artistry and craftsmanship of generations of master builders. All this diversity came from a small palette of materials -- stone and wood. Converting the raw materials of the quarry and the forest into finished buildings required great skill, learnt through traditional means of apprenticeship, practice and perhaps membership of a guild. Construction was slow, so opportunities to innovate were few. Great St Mary's, for example, took 36 years to build, or a whole working lifetime; so once the foundations were dug in 1478 there was little scope for variation until 1514 when the carpenters finished the roof.
But as mechanisation began to quicken the output of the builder, so applied science widened the horizons of designers. Civil engineers began to push back the boundaries of traditional building practice, and new theories emerged in the 19th century to predict the strength of ever larger structures. Brick took the place of stone because it was cheaper to produce, yet equally strong. At first, brickwork walls were always reinforced with wooden beams buried within their thickness; and to cover up their unacceptably raw face, white stucco, imitating stone, was applied for at least a century. Then iron began to replace timber for floors and roofs, increasing their fire-resistance and their clear span. The Crystal Palace in 1851 and the great railway stations demonstrated the confidence and achievement of the Victorian engineers.
If structural materials are born once a century, then the 20th century has given birth to reinforced concrete -- a truly composite material in which the cage of steel bars provides tensile strength to an otherwise brittle, inert artificial stone. The mouldable concrete becomes so versatile, strong and reliable that it has become the favourite economic choice for today's structural engineers. Glass fibre has done the same for resins in the transformation of the yacht hull.
![[Bone joint]](January/Bone_Joint.jpeg)
The intelligent building of the 21st century will not only control heat, light, sound, data and communications, it may be built using 'smart' materials which monitor themselves, self-adjust to changing loads and self-repair when broken. 'Smart' materials are pseudo-biological materials, like bone for carrying load, nerves for sensing, brains for computing, and muscle for movement. Designing for the worst case of loading would no longer be necessary because smart materials learn and adjust for excessive load, repair any detected weakness and inform the users of danger if failure is imminent. Fatigue (the kind of failure which happens after thousands of cycles of reversible loading) could be monitored by a 'smart' material and, when the number of cycles nears the fatigue limit, a warning could be given. Clearly our building structures, bridges and infrastructure would be much more efficient because the factors of safety currently in use (about 2 to 5 for most civil engineering materials) could be reduced dramatically.
Strain actuators could counteract weak points and these could be made from shape-memory alloys like nickel titanium, which responds to heat. Piezo-electric materials change shape in response to voltage; bone is just such a material and bones grow stronger precisely in response to applied load, but the man-made ones are based on lead-zirconate titanate. Magneto-strictive materials change shape in response to magnetic field; and there are fluids whose viscosity can be changed by electric fields. The latter are useful for damping down unwanted vibration. Sensing techniques may use optical fibres embedded in the material. Polyvinylidene fluoride can be made into paint which senses pressure. Automatic Braille readers use this principle, but the same material could be embedded to monitor internal stress in a structure.
'Intelligent' materials may be simple or sophisticated. The simple ones rely on cause of failure to trigger an internal repair (just the thing for a puncture in your bike's inner tube!), but there are complex systems with multiple sensors which learn about changing stress, temperature or shape, and which respond to put deformed material back to a previous historical state.
One day, perhaps, we will be able to ask our structure how it is feeling. This will change the method of design we currently adopt, whereby we try to anticipate the worst scenario and design accordingly. Eventually we might be able to use the organic principle of 'growth' and get our man-made structures made of smart materials to change in response to varying conditions. The energy needed could be stored in elastic or chemical form, and this would provide the 'fuel' for building structures to look after themselves -- but then there would be no more quinquennial inspections!
Philip Cooper is a structural engineer with Harris and Sutherland, Cambridge
![[Gatehouse stonework]](January/Gatehouse_stonework.jpeg)
At King's College Gatehouse stones were cut precisely to fit the contours of a dome. Computer-controlled cutting helps, but hand-finishing on site is always needed
![[Lancaster Library Roof]](January/Lancaster_Library.jpeg)
Lancaster University Library: reinforcement cages before concreting form a clear span roof 50m wide
![[John Hohner]](../by/John_Hohner.jpg)
John Honer reflects on a pilgrim chapel designed by Le Corbusier.
Le Corbusier (born Charles-douard Jeanneret on 6 October 1887, died 27 August 1965) is arguably the most influential, but also the most misunderstood architect of those that constituted the 'pioneers of the modern movement'. He is blamed for many of the excesses of post-war urban redevelopment, although it must be recognised that to some extent he was his own worst enemy, being unwilling and unable to compromise or to gain acceptance as a well-integrated member of polite society.
After he had completed the Unit d'Habitation at Marseille in 1952, Le Corbusier embarked on a series of projects of such plastic inventiveness and heroic grandeur that there is nothing to equal them. Through the impetus of the priest Pre Couturier, editor of the journal L'Art Sacr, the French Government commissioned an extensive programme of religious art and church building. The pilgrim chapel of Ntre-Dame du Haut at Ronchamp, near Belfort on the Swiss-French border, formed part of this programme. Le Corbusier at first refused the commission, not wanting, he said, to be associated with a 'dead institution'. However, he eventually accepted the brief in view of the living tradition of the pilgrims, the nature of the site, and an undertaking that he would not be subject to bureaucratic interference. Although Le Corbusier did not adhere to any formal religious practices, when the chapel was opened in 1955 he declared, ``In building this chapel I wanted to create a place of silence, of prayer, of peace and of internal joy. The feeling of the sacred animated us.''
![[Chapel, showing roof]](January/Chapel_showing_roof.jpeg)
Built on a hill-top on which a pilgrim chapel had stood for hundreds of years, the new chapel, replacing one destroyed during the Second World War, is designed to accommodate 200 worshippers. It also includes three small private chapels, a sacristy and an office, an external belfry and a carillon. Towards the bottom of the hill are a house for the priest and lodgings for pilgrims. The determining factors in the brief were simple -- the celebration of the Mass and the landscape. As is often the case, Le Corbusier's original sketches, produced on the hill itself, conform remarkably closely to the building's final design, embracing what Le Corbusier described as ``the four horizons''. There is no question of this constituting a prototype for church architecture. The design is specific to the site, to its topography, history and sacred purpose. It has been described as being like a transmitter and receiver of spiritual messages to and from the surrounding countryside.
![[Chapel, inside]](January/Chapel_inside.jpeg)
Although no larger in plan than the footprint of one of the four columns that support the dome of St Peter's, Rome, the chapel dominates the landscape for miles around. As one approaches it up the hill one is made aware of an external altar and pulpit, and then, when entering the chapel, all is peace and harmony, derived, in large measure, from the quality of light and from the application of a system of proportions based on the golden section. Light trickles in through embrasures within the deep south wall and through horizontal slits beneath the roof, and is reflected off the walls beneath the louvred clerestory windows in the towers. The whole experience is enriched by the appearance of the hand-carved wooden pews, the altar, candelabra, coloured glass windows, and the coloured, enamel-faced, centrally pivoted entrance door, all designed by the architect.
![[Chapel, showing tower]](January/Chapel_showing_tower.jpeg)
Le Corbusier once wrote, ``Today I am accused of being a revolutionary. Yet I confess to having had only one master -- the past; and only one discipline -- the study of the past.'' No one can accuse him of producing a pastiche in the design of this chapel, but the hill towns of the Aegean Islands are possibly evoked in the design of the towers, and hints of medieval fortifications are also apparent.
In 1959 Le Corbusier was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Cambridge at the same time as that granted to Henry Moore. Although he was never commissioned to design a building in this country, his influence here has been considerable. This influence can be detected locally in some of the forms which comprise buildings like New Hall and the School of Architecture building on Scroope Terrace (designed as a tribute to the master!). However, his significance is generally acknowledged to be that of a man of ideas, a speculative thinker with an unusual ability to express these ideas in built form.
John Hohner was formerly a director of Colin St John Wilson, architects of the new British Library
![[Roger France]](../by/Roger_France.jpg)
Roger France relates architectural conservatism to Christian belief.
As I write these words on historic buildings, I see from my newspaper that the Councillors of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea have granted permission for Daniel Libeskind's extension to the Victoria and Albert Museum against their officers' advice. Set between two distinguished Victorian buildings, some say it looks like a vertical scrap yard! For here is a building which takes no account of tradition or context: these are two characteristics that are sought by those who -- like myself -- have come to promote conservatism in architectural design.
The seeds of architectural conservatism were sown by William Morris in the 19th century. He put his faith in the hand-craftsman in opposition to mass design and industrialism. He believed, like Ruskin, in 'honesty' in design, opposing those architects who were 'reproducing' styles of earlier years. (The gothic was fashionable at that time.) He and Ruskin argued that we cannot reproduce the past, but that all new design should be identifiable as of its own time. They also, interestingly, put forward the unfashionable idea that we should take care of our buildings to 'stave off decay' so that they may be an inheritance for future generations. Morris went on to found the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. This continues today and is one of the statutory consultees when changes to the character of listed buildings are proposed. So his influence is still felt, being realised in the procedures that are involved in obtaining listed building consent.
![[Holy Sepulchre, with old tower]](January/Holy_Sepulchre_old_tower.jpeg)
![[Holy Sepulchre, with new tower]](January/Holy_Sepulchre_new_tower.jpeg)
In
the mid-19th century this battle of styles was prolonged and
vitriolic. Two interesting examples can be seen in Cambridge. The
Church of the Holy Sepulchre originally had a lantern with windows in
the perpendicular style. In 1831, the architect Anthony Salvin made
them smaller and in the Norman style to fit in with the building as a
whole. This gave rise to accusations of stylistic dishonesty by
critics. Across the road at St John's College, Sir George Gilbert
Scott designed a new chapel in 1863. Although his scholarly essays in
the pointed early gothic style were the derision of Morris and company
in terms of style, their criticisms overlooked Scott's interesting
attention to archaeology. He tried to incorporate fragments of genuine
antiquity within his schemes.
![[St Johns old Chapel foundations]](January/St_Johns_old_Chapel_foundations.jpeg)
At St John's he incorporated one arch of
Bishop Fisher's chantry chapel (1525), but more noticeably he left the
profile of the original chapel in the lawn outside. Here he provides
us with a tangible dimension to history by way of reliquary.
There are three aspects to architectural conservation as it is perceived today. The first two, style and inheritance, we can trace to their 19th-century roots. The third is that of context, and this derives from the influence of post-war town planning, which protects the architectural character of particular areas of urban settlement from undue change. In fact, context applies to buildings as entities and also to the components of buildings: any part bears some relationship with a whole. The more recent notion of sustainability provides a more overtly rational view of inheritance, giving strength to the argument that the inherited environment is a calculable asset and finite resource. Certainly all these principles can play a part in guiding property owners when considering development. Unfortunately, in mainstream architectural education and practice, they rarely feature: the emphasis is still that of architect as artist-technocrat and as creator of novel buildings on green-field sites.
Do these issues relate to our religious beliefs? I believe they can and, indeed, I see them as territory already visited. Good design in the public urban place ought to be about good neighbourliness: does not Christ tell us to love our neighbour as ourselves? Moreover, the Bible exhorts us to be good stewards of what we inherit: modern conservationists are the curators of their inheritance in terms not only of physical resources but also of the symbolic remembrance of our forebears' values. At one level, active awareness of the past can highlight the transience and rootlessness of the postmodernist and the materialist as realised in much modern design. At another level, egocentrism has to be subsumed in a general public good where neighbours are concerned. Altogether, it looks as though the Church might indeed have something to say to architects.
Roger France lectures in urban conservation and is a consultant architect and town planner
Right: Traces of the original chapel of St John's College, left in the lawn of the First Court by Sir George Gilbert Scott when he built the new chapel in 1863
Below: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1805 (showing gothic upper windows) and today (showing windows in the Norman style, inserted by the architect Anthony Salvin in 1831)
![[Millenium Stamps]](January/Millenium_Stamps.jpeg)
As we approach the year 2000 most of the news has been about the Millennium Dome at Greenwich and the Millennium bug affecting computers. But churches have been busy with preparations: ?The task of the Churches in the Millennium is to forge a link in people's minds between the year 2000, the name of Jesus Christ and the possibility of personal meaning and public hope.?
A well-produced and helpful booklet was issued by the Ely Diocese Millennium Advisory Group last autumn which encourages the use of 1999 as a period of preparation for the Millennium. For example, a five-session Lent course has been planned with the title 'Making All Things New'. A booklet is available (1.50) and it will form part of Radio Cambridgeshire's 'Something to Think About' programme between 8 and 9am on Sunday mornings (on 96 FM) from 21st February to 21st March. Other suggestions for preparation include prayer groups and there is a Diocesan prayer.
Under the heading 'Journeying towards the Third Millennium' Diocesan pilgrimages are offered: to Santiago de Compostela from 15 to 22 June 1999 (details on 01353 669420), Ely Cathedral to Zanzibar Cathedral from 9 to 19 July 1999 (information on 01353 667735) and a Youth Pilgrimage to the Holy Land from 2 to 7 September 1999 (information on 01354 652894). Parishes are being invited to make a Millennium pilgrimage to Ely Cathedral between April and October 1999. The East of England Show on 18 to 20 June will also have a Millennium Outreach, and in Cambridge a mission to mark the Millennium will focus on 12 to 21 November 1999.
Nationally, the Churches Together in England publish Millennium News regularly from their Millennium Office and have produced resources for worship in the lead-up to the Millennium and for community involvement as part of local Millennium programmes. They are asking people to light a candle for the Millennium Moment just before midnight on 31 December 1999 -- not in church but at events, at home or at parties. The candles (30 pence each, with a protective base) come with a Millennium Resolution. At noon on 1 January 2000 bellringers throughout the country will 'ring in 2000' as part of special services, and our bellringers will be taking part in this.
The Bishop of Ely encourages us to make use of the time before 2000: ?I urge you to use it as a bridge between the prevailing secular understanding of the Millennium and the Christian joy that, after two thousand years, we are again celebrating the nativity of our Lord.?
David Hollier
The Millennium Prayer Lord of time, and of eternity, beneath whose guiding hand the years of our lives pass, be near us now as we turn our faces towards your new millennium. All that is past we trust to your mercy. All that lies ahead we trust to your love. Deepen our faith, and show us how to share it with others, so that this season of celebration may be a source of blessing for us and for all those whose lives we touch. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
![[Lynne Broughton]](../by/Lynne_Broughton.jpg)
Dr Lynne Broughton looks up to the top of the nave.
![[a Te Deum window]](January/Te_Deum_window.jpeg)
The upper, clerestory, windows in the nave were inserted in 1902-4. They were produced by James Powell & Sons of Whitefriars in London to a design by Dr, later Archdeacon, William Cunningham. Based on verses from the Te Deum, the windows portray a selection of patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs. Members of the university and parishioners were invited to donate individual windows and required to fall in with the overall plan ``so as to avoid an incongruous assortment of miscellaneous subjects''.
In all there are sixty figures, placed in a roughly chronological sequence from west to east along the north side, then from east to west along the south.
On the north side the movement is from Old Testament to New, showing: Abraham, Jacob, Moses; Miriam, Deborah, Hannah; Samuel, David, Solomon; Elijah, Elisha, Amos; Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah; Jonah, Ezekiel, Daniel; Haggai, Malachi, Jesus son of Sirach; Zacharias, Simeon, St John the Baptist; St Matthias, St Simon, St Jude; St Matthew, St Thomas, St James. The heads of the last six of these were adapted from contemporary portraits. Reading again from west to east there are: Thomas Arnold, J. F. D. Maurice, E. H. Stanley; J. B. Lightfoot, B. F. Westcott, F. J. A. Hort.
On the south side the movement is from the apostles at the east end, through the martyrs of the early Church to later, local saints: St Peter, St Andrew, St James; St John, St Philip, St Bartholomew; St Stephen, St Paul, St Barnabas; St Mark, St Clement, St Timothy; St Ignatius, St Polycarp, St Justin; St Blandina, St Perpetua, St Cecilia; St George, St Crispin, St Alban; St Margaret, St Catherine, St Agnes; St Vincent, St Lambert, St Boniface; St Edward, St Edmund, St Alphege.
It is a fine programme, showing as it does the history of Salvation from the beginning of God's Covenant with Abraham to the Christianisation of this place. A pity, though, that the glass is so dark. The clerestory windows were meant to be just that: clear, meaning bright. Through them the light of Christ's revelation was meant to stream down upon the worshippers in the nave. The saints portrayed in the glass would then be seen as vessels of the grace of God and ``lights of the world in their several generations''.
This article forms part of a series describing our Church building.
All events take place in Great St Mary's unless otherwise advertised.
Unfortunately, this has not made it to the HTML version yet.
Since this is the same from issue to issue, we have included a single copy of it on the site, as our Who's who at GSM page.
Majestas is edited by Robert Avery, John Parkin, Sheila Cameron, David Hollier, Andy Martin, Philip Oswald (proofs) and John Sturdy (HTML) and published by: Great St Mary's The University Church, Cambridge CB2 3PQ, Tel (01223) 350914, Fax (01223) 426555.
Please contact the editors at the above address.
For further details of the parish, including the regular service times, please see the GSM home page.