Faith, Form and Light: A Guide to the Stained Glass Windows at Christ Anglican Church

Window 6: Easter Lily and Palm Branches – the Resurrection of
Christ
Here, shown as three white lilies, a symbol of rebirth, Christ is resurrected. This
window again repeats the trinity motif seen most clearly in the Nativity and Crown of
Thorns windows. More still, this window reprises the appearance of white in the
trinity. It is as if the three bright nails piercing the Crown of Thorns from window ve
have transformed to this trinity of lilies. This repetition evokes Christ’s transformation;
His emergence from death in a jubilant manifestation of new life, gloried life.
Beyond appearing as a trinity, that they are three blossoms of the same ower,
suggests the divine unity of Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit. As in the Alpha
and Omega and the Chi Rho windows, the lilies here are an embodiment of Christ. We
are clued to this by the color of their stems, which echoes the golden hue in these two
other windows.
The owers also appear against an oval violet backdrop—the color of the robe placed
on Jesus before his crucixion. The lilies thus can be understood as relating to the
surrounding eld of violet as Christ’s body did to the violet robe. Similarly, below the
lilies are two crossed palm fronds. Appearing in this orientation to the owers, they
evoke the placement of palms throughout the streets of Jerusalem during Jesus’
triumphal entry into the city. The fronds are, in a sense, at the lilies’ feet in much the
same way they were when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Yet notably, the palms appear
fecund as they extend upwards, toward heaven. They are a victorious visualization of
the meaning of resurrection—to rise up and to be revived.
In its combination of violet, palm fronds, and lilies, this image encapsulates the day of
resurrection as well as the processes, events, and rituals leading up to Easter. Just as in
this window the palms and the violet background provide richness and visual support
for the lilies, it is the period of Lent, Palm Sunday, and the commemoration of Good
Friday that give meaning to Easter.