The chapel interior has wonderful Tudor elements--dark wood, exposed beams, an A-frame ceiling, and stained glass at the front.
The center pane is a stylized reproduction of The Light of the World, by Holman Hunt. (This same image was reproduced in stained glass for the Wilshire Ward in California.)
The panels on the left and right have several symbols--the largest being the Bible (depicted as Stick of Judah) and the Book of Mormon (Stick of Joseph). Beneath them are four smaller symbols--a dove (representing peace, Noah's covenant, and the Holy Ghost), keys (likely referring to the two Priesthoods), two gripping hands (a symbol of marriage, since in this depiction one hand is clearly female) and the all-seeing eye (representing God's omniscience and presence).
Stained glass is, of course, a rarity in LDS chapels, and the heavy use of symbols is even rarer. It's a lovely window, although we don't have any documentation on who designed it.
I was wondering if you knew about this chapel, it was Timothy Ballard's (a famous modern anti-slavery activist)--it's in The Washington Hypothesis, published by Deseret Book. He said it was named as a historic property by the church's history department, he writes, "My great-grandfather Nephi Anderson had donated the multiacre plot of land for the project". He then told a story about how he was throwing a tennis ball at the English Tudor style beam behind the basketball hoop to see if he could get it in (so apparently these beams are in the cultural hall as well). "The cultural hall sits exactly perpendicular to the chapel. A large green partition/curtain separates the two large rooms." He then explains how easy it would be for balls to end up in the chapel because it's just a curtain and how people struggle to find the light switch. He explains that people would "ask aloud why these images are presented in an LDS chapel. I have even heard adult critics balk at it." (I can relate--I'm in a different chapel myself with a stained glass window with mismatched replaced panes--some days I think I'm lucky, but other days I wonder if it should be retired because it was so badly "restored"--people joke that the "fixed" window represents us. Little tangent while I'm in these parenthesis, personally I would love some mega-churches in the church inspired by old tabernacles that they recreate because some people love the energy in these enviroments, want to be led by proven leaders, and don't like all the attention they get in little wards--plus some investigators want to just come in, observe, and hide without being peppered with questions, it's hard to do this in our churches--and that's why megachurches grow so fast. We don't have a stake center so going to the Alpine tabernacle at stake conference is a treat. There is a sort of mega-church ward, a supplemental ward for black american members up in Salt Lake--called the Genesis Group, not sure where they meet--but it's really lively from what I hear)
ReplyDeleteOkay back to the background story: Ballard however appreciated the window because his great grandfather played a role in having this put up. "Nephi Anderson was...a lover of American history. My mother told me of the framed picture he had hung over his fireplace mantle...it depicted Betsy Ross...Nephi had even found the same type of tile from Betsy Ross's home depicted in the image and used it to build the mantle." Ballard's theory is that the stained glass window has a lot to say about America and he gives the hypothesis he and and another boy he grew up with in that ward had in the book. It's kind of lengthy and takes up a chapter or two of the book as well as being mentioned throughout so I won't put it here, also it's just a hypothesis and sometimes the author comes up with things I think are a stretch. But it seems the main idea was that he felt America was unable or unwilling to "open the door" to Christ. He also notes that the lantern Christ holds has the stars and stripes on it so to him Christ has the answers for America with him. And since Nephi's painting he owned of Betsy Ross had her presenting the flag to George Washington--he's convinced there is a connection in using the flag as a symbol and passing it on since it was such a prominent painting in his home. He also believes the other symbols are sequential, telling a story, he even finds meaning in the green border colors, but it's kind of a hobby of his to find connections. For example he also talks about the very decorative stone the church carved and donated to the Washington monument that says "Holiness to the Lord" and then how lightning hit the monument recently and then delves into the meaning he sees with that and the two shades of stone on the monument, etc...
I had read some of his thoughts on the window--personally I think he is pulling a lot of personal interpretations out of the stained glass that probably weren't intended, which is fine. A lot of the general hypotheses he has in his books seem like a stretch.
DeleteYeah, I agree with you, I think that's why Deseret didn't publish his last book, the Pilgrim Hypothesis, he's not a professional historian/gospel expert (granted neither am I) but still amateur to amateur there's many times where I'm like whoa whoa whoa, that's not what happened, nice try. However he was inspired by the stain glass window, and I think that's important. You get a lot out of stained glass windows when you are compelled to stare at them every Sunday. I also wonder if he's absolutely sure that Nephi Anderson designed it or not, I couldn't imagine the whole chapel was up to him--but I can see how he got the Americana out of it with the stars/stripes and colors--it wouldn't surprise me if there's a little in there. It's a little weird staring at a beehive every Sunday where I'm at, people didn't believe in separating their homeland pride from their faith--they saw them going hand in hand. I don't want to bash any windows/paintings, I think they are special. But I can imagine why his congregation is squirming over some of the symbols, especially with all of the freemason-bashing some visitors from other faiths engage in. For me it's the awkward mountain behind our beehive that wasn't assembled properly--it defies gravity--I just want to fix it, and maybe color some tiles in that don't match. Personally I was fine if one of Minerva's paintings (I cannot spell her last name and I'm too lazy to look it up) from the Manti temple was relocated and displayed elsewhere because I was seriously confused over the swarms of people coming to a native american chief, it looked like misplaced worship and I don't want people in the open house to be confused. On the other hand it's Utah, probably no one's going to get confused, and as a woman I am glad that her work and unique perspective is being respected.
ReplyDeleteI sent a couple emails to the publisher of this blog during the past 6 weeks or so. I don't know if she or he got them or not. Should I just type them out here in a few condensed sentences?
You can email me at bridger (dot) talbot (at) gmail (dot) com. I'm sorry, the messaging app on this blog doesn't always work super well.
DeleteDo you attend Church in Lehi? I'm trying to remember which ones in the area have a beehive in their stained glass.