Immanuel Chapel

In 2018, Brian Clarke produced three round windows for the Immanuel Chapel at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, USA. The designs feature central symbols in the Episcopal faith: a dove, oak leaves, and an abstract image inspired by the Sower parable stained glass window from Canterbury Cathedral.

Speaking on Clarke’s window, the dean and president of Virginia Theological Seminary, the Very Reverend Ian S. Markham, said:

'The dove, almost moving at high speed, hovers over the baptismal font on the west wing; the oak leaves, representing the Father, the genesis of all that is, sits dignified in the north transept; and the Parable of the Sower from Canterbury Cathedral as it is refracted by the light onto the ground of the Cathedral represents the power of the Incarnation mediated to us through Canterbury to the Episcopal Church in the United States.'

In the Virginia Theological Seminary’s spring 2018 magazine, The Rev. J. Barney Hawkins writes:

'The Clarke windows are set like jewels within the classic interior with its cruciform shape...[Immanuel Chapel] is now a place painted with the prayers of the faithful and bathed in a natural light filtered through the colours, patterns, and textures of three modern stained glass windows, which will be telling for all time the ancient truths of the Christian Tradition. These modern masterpieces in Immanuel Chapel are metaphors as well as works of art. The sun’s light enters the sacred space and banishes the darkness. Heavenly light gives life to the work of human hands. May those who see these windows be moved to say, "This is good."'